Audience contracts with the Musicians performing

I attend a lot of live music in small venues – I’m lucky to be in the best city in the world for live music in small venues – you can find something to meet the most people’s taste, most night of the week, somewhere in London – and much of it is free – in the smaller venues it is rarely more than £10.

What never fails to amaze me is the lack of respect some audience members pay to the performers and those around them trying to immerse themselves in the live music – the music may not be to their taste – but others are there to enjoy the music – not raised voices trying converse above the inconvenience of the live music.

There are a number of implied contracts between the audience and the musicians performing:

Contract for Free Events

If you are attending a free event – respect the fact that those performing are unlikely to be being paid to perform – or if they are it will be minimal. Your only payment is your attention to the performance, and keeping quiet to allow everyone to enjoy the live music. All the sets might not be to your tastes – but others wish to enjoy them – and they all deserve respect. If possible take you socializing away from the live music.

The worst I’ve see are musician that have performed or who are yet to perform not respecting their fellow performers. Just think how you enjoy being able to play to an attentive audience, and treat your fellow musicians as you’d like to be treated.

It would be great if those putting people on guest lists could include the the below in the message to their guest gifting them the chance to attend live music:

Contract for Guest List attendees

You’ve been granted free access to the evening by a member of the band, promoter or someone else – please appreciate that while you have not paid to be there – at least some of those around you have. They have paid to support and listen to live music, which they want to enjoy without over hearing the voice you’ve had to raise to make yourself heard above the live music. If you’ve come to socialise, please do so as far from the live music as the venue allows – maybe the outside smoking area!

Venues can also be at fault. There is one, very famous venue, in Soho where I regularly attend, where their cocktails should be stirred not shaken during the live performances. At other venues I regularly hear the crashing of glasses as bar staff are either careless, or have started clearing up before the night has ended. I know the main source of revenue is the

Contract for Venues

• Provide an area away from the live music where those that wish to socialise rather than listen can take their conversations
• Make sure you staff respect the music – waiting to clear glasses and clean up to between sets or after the sets. Don’t make excessive noise with a performance is taking place 

At the end of the day – respect those on the stage, however small, they’ve put a lot of time preparing for their performance. Show some respect for that by giving them your attention – if you can’t manage that , don’t stop others from doing so by raising your voice in conversation.

In larger venues, close to the performers the volume is usually sufficient that you’ll find it hard to socialize without straining your voice – so it is less of an issue – but please still keep those around you in mind before being anti-social to them.

The gig photographer’s collective noun for microphone stands…

…is an obstruction.

All gig photographers know microphones are a fact of life – without them there really isn’t any performance, especially in these days of loop and effects pedals. But if as a musician you want good images of your performance, unobstructed by mic stands, then it would be a step forward to move the microphone stand out from in front of you if you aren’t using it.

It takes effort and adds one more thing to remember to do – but some of the best images of singers are when they’ve got the microphone in hand, making shapes on stage, freed from the restrictions of a mic stand. That is off course if you’ve not mastered the art of wielding the mic stand still attached to the microphone like a sword.

Numbers at the end of my Instagram Postings

No, I’m not marking the performance out of an increasing number of points…

…the last number is the number of days of the year so far, the first number is the number of those I’ve been to a gig on that day, the number after the plus is a count of the number of gigs beyond one that I’ve attended on a day.

So at the time of writing this post, I’ve attended gigs on 110 of the 111 days of the year – on two occasions I attended 2 gigs on a day, and on 3 I attended 3 gigs on a day.

I would have made it 111 days – but understandably, even in a city like London with an incredible number of options for live music on most days of the year – on New Year’s day there weren't an musician or probably venues really ready to be putting on a live music event.

I don’t know how long I’m going to keep the current run up – but there is not sign of it ending.