Picture from Facebook
After a week away from live music I was really looking forward to a whole day of it today. Filthy Fest 15 was my destination after cooking myself breakfast. Downstairs was the acoustic stage managed by Alexa Hawksworth and later in the day bands played upstairs. The whole thing was operated smoothly so there was no overlap and the whole thing (from what I as a punter could make out at least) ran to time. There was only one issue with one of the daytime artists ringing in sick leaving a gap that couldn't be filled, but that didn't put a dampener on things.
What did spoil things for me slightly was the thing I have written about and tweeted about many times before, talking. It wasn't much of a problem straight away as it wasn't very busy to begin withI seem to have developed a way of zoning out and focusing on the music to the point where the fire alarm could go off or someone could get shot and I wouldn't notice. Again a lot of this stems from the fact that this was being held in a public house and a section of people in there weren't bothered by the fact that a gig was taking place and acted as they would during any Sunday afternoon drinking session. On the other hand I have seen this happen with gigs you have to pay to watch so I really don't know what the ultimate solution is.
Believe it or not I am not the only person with this disdain for people who ruin live music in this selfish fashion, so maybe this could be sorted if enough people complain and make a fuss. I personally would be in favour of dragging them out and sticking a knitting needle through their windpipe but then I would be seen as the bad guy, it's political correctness gone mad. A quick fix to the problem was staring me in the face this afternoon, Filthy's rather unnecessarily had a bouncer on the door. He could have made himself useful by wandering through to keep an eye on things, just a tap on the shoulder and a fingers to lips gesture would have sufficed to start with.
As this is getting to be a bigger and bigger problem perhaps the time has come for positive action, if I and others have to go outside to smoke thanks to a ridiculous law then I don't see why people with something obviously important to say can't leave the building too.
My idea might be deemed as a touch extreme but here goes. The music venues write a joint letter to the council asking for the re-introduction of the stocks. In the evening they are placed in rows in (to use Nottingham as my example) in the Market Square and surrounding areas such as Trinity Square and Lace Market Square, the big space in Hockley outside Hartley's and the goth shop and Sneinton Market. We then give those pretend police officers in fancy dress some power at last, and employ them to patrol live music venues removing persistent offenders (I am aware that there is a difference between exchanging greetings/expressing approval and rudely yabbering away oblivious to how much of a pain in the arse you are being) and placing them in the stocks for the night to think about their actions while passers by throw rotting fruit at them. They would be freed at sunrise and after helping to clear up the mess would be allowed home. As bad as my idea seems, it would ensure that those people would never talk at a gig again.
To return to Filthy Fest, the talking pissed me off enough to make me go home early but not before I had seen some fantastic performances from Alexa Hawksworth, Nanuk, Brett Sinclair, 94 Gunships, Anwyn Williams, Breakfast Club, and Beth Frisby.
No podcast this week.
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May housekeeping
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