Shhh...

[Old Grumpy]

This may be of interest to forumites.

I have attended a number of jazz and folk gigs where this strategy could have been usefully employed!

OG

[Serial_Apologist]

This may be of interest to forumites.

I have attended a number of jazz and folk gigs where this strategy could have been usefully employed!

OG

Back in the 1980s, Ian Storrer, host of packed weekly jazz at the Albert Inn in Bedminster, the ex-City player and built as he was, as the Bristolians would say, "like a gurt big sh*thouse", only had to give a certain look during quiet passages, such as bass solos, for miscreants to shut up.

At another venue, audience members started shushing a group of people making continuous conversational noise near the bar - which in my experience tends normally to be whence said problem proceeds. This proving ineffective, after a while the whole audience shouted "SHUT UP", as if on a pre-arranged signal - which did the trick.

At yet another gig - also in Essex - I was myself taken to task for eating crisps: this from a large fellow sat four tables away. Although I had carefully noted the demeanour of customers in my immediate vicinity for any signs of disturbance, I nevertheless apologised profusely for ruining his first half, offering to buy him a drink, which he declined. To my horror, at the end of the second set, the singer of the band, whom I knew as a friend, went over to my complainant, and proceeded warmly to embrace him and the rest of his group! After they left the premisers I told her what had happened. "Oh, I shouldn't worry about him: he always complains at the slightest thing!" she told me!

[french frank]

How strange that seems to be going in the opposite direction from the 'modernisers' at classical concerts, who want us to be tweeting, swigging beer and whispering to each other during the music:

"It is not a social event,” says Alex Carson of Wooden Arms, a classically-influenced band who played at Shhh this year. “You are there to actually just enjoy the music and it does require people to be quiet."