Live gig audiences; stop clapping PLEASE!

[yello]

better than constantly talking and heading back and forth to the bar

Tbh, I've enjoyed a number of gigs stood within easy reach of the bar. But I think we're talking about different sorts of concerts. Though I think also there are perhaps fewer pub venues than there used to be.

 

[MontyVeda]

Back in the day when i had no musical taste, I went to see U2 on their Joshua Tree tour in Leeds... the fecking audience slow hand clapped all the way through Running To Stand Still and completely failed to keep time. At the time it was my favourite song and i hated the audience for ruining my live experience of it. These days i look back and wish they'd all hurled grenades at the stage instead.

Buena Vista Social Club... great gig but i got pretty damn tired of having to clap at the end of every little solo section during each tune rather than saving it all up for the end of the tune.

Prince... what's the point of us lot at the very back of the MEN clapping when the purple one is never going to hear us?

 

[RedRider]

[QUOTE 3209067, member: 1314"]I do have other exceptions tbh. I saw Bert Jansch at the Edinburgh Fringe - that had to be watched quietly.[/QUOTE]
When I saw him at the 12-bar there was a bloke directly in front of him clapping loudly out of time and it was really putting him off, making him play out of time. He dropped a couple of gentle hints which didn't sink in until a member of the audience 'gently' led him to the back and out the door.

There's a limit but I do find the listen quietly in awe a bit precious at gigs. Some of the worst is folk music gigs in my experience where you're supposed to sit on your hands straining for every note. Sould be about dancing and having a laugh but no...shhh!

 

[ayceejay]

Jazz concerts are the worst when aficionado's (tossers) insist on clapping after every clever bit AND for ten minutes at the end. I once bought an Oscar Peterson live album, what with him humming the friggin' tune and jazzers clapping it was unbearable. Oh and the jerks who yell "We love you, Van" in the hope of getting on the record puhlease.

 

[Elybazza61]

better than constantly talking and heading back and forth to the bar

This^ It even happened when we were at the world speedway gp in Cardiff;a couple kept going to get drinks/have a piss and a bloke a row back was giving a running commentary to his mate while coming out with other bollocks about Motogp/wsb.
The two worst have been Radiohead at Victoria Park(London gigs are nearly always the worst) a few years ago with peeps barging their way through when they were playing earlier stuff amongst other bods babbling inane crap with their mates and a Laura Marling gig at Cambridge cornex,you could here people talking in the auditorium downstairs when she was doing solo songs from where I was on an upper mezzanine.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I can understand why some people don't like certain behavious when there at a gig (although I'm generally with @User1314 on this one) - but isn't there a particular irony in complaining about how a recording of a live gig is spoiled by the people actually at the gig?

 

[tiswas-steve]

I was at a Paul Young (one of the wife's favs ) gig in the late 90,s at Clapham and my wife was actually asked to sit down as she stood up to strutt her funky stuff. I was unsure how to react because on one side I can see the point of the people sitting down behind her not being able to see the stage but on the other side of the coin she was only enjoying herself.

 

[Over The Hill]

Sometimes it is the band who seem to want to whip the audience up to clap, sing, wave along. But mainly it is just idiots.
Clapping is not too bad live, people singing along is really really bad.

The problem goes to be 10x worse when the gig is recorded or put out live on the radio. If you are not there in the atmosphere then it really intrudes. I have to turn the radio off at the end of George Michael murdering that Queen song. If him singing it is not bad enough the audience are awful! Shut up!!
Wifey had an Eric Clapton live album which had loads of clapping on. Back in the days of tapes I copied it with all the clapping faded out. Then it was the Eric Un-Clapton tape.

Saw Sophie Ellis-Bextor recently and she seemed to have it sorted out. No encouragement to join in with the new slower and more mature stuff. Lots of clapping dancing and going mad when she did a medley of all her disco stuff. Then to top it off her encore was just brilliant...
Normal set finished and all went dark, a bit of scurrying through the audience with some bouncer type blokes. Suddenly, small spotlight on the sound mixing box in the middle of the room and she pop up just her and a bloke with an acoustic guitar and sang a song with no mic or anything. It was just lovely and you heard not a whisper from the audience.

 

[G3CWI]

Sitting on the grass at Womad last weekend listening to Samantha Crain - singing solo with an acoustic guitar - and a woman a few yards behind me takes a call on her mobile. Making no effort to keep her voice down,

I had that at a funeral; woman behind me. Really. Not in this country/continent and so, not knowing the social norms, I kept quiet.

 

[RedRider]

I had that at a funeral; woman behind me. Really. Not in this country/continent and so, not knowing the social norms, I kept quiet.

I was at one recently where someone was taking photographs. 'Here's one of the hearse...here's one of the priest with the coffin...' Bizarre. It was a happy, clappy pentecostal/African affair but the bloke taking the photos was a white Buddhist from Bexley Heath.

 

[tony111]

At a recent Eagles concert at Leeds, the people who ignored the bands request not to film anything were soon pounced on by security and asked to stop. It worked a treat.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

This is why I usually utterly detest live recordings, I want to hear the SONG or the TUNE, not some twat who thinks its ok to act like a 6 year old full of too many E-numbers!!

 

[vernon]

This is why I usually utterly detest live recordings, I want to hear the SONG or the TUNE, not some twat who thinks its ok to act like a 6 year old full of too many E-numbers!!

'Frampton Comes Alive' is an excellent live recording. It's well worth listening to.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Is it just me who finds this really annoying? I'm not talking about a good cheer and clapping at the end of a song, but WHY do people insist on clapping in time all the way through a song?

Just been listening to Texas live on radio 2 with a live audience. You can hear the audience helpfully clapping all the way through the set. All it does is ruin the music being played. It's bad enough when you hear it on the radio, but if you are part of the audience then it is ten times worse because it is more intrusive. GONNAE NO' DAE THAT!!

I heard that as well, and I think you'll find that tuneless singer fae Texas was encouraging them to drown out her píss poor voice.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Isn't the lead Singer of Texas a No supporter??

If so, then 'nuff said!