[Silly Moustache]

I'm so sorry you had a very special night spoilt, and I'm glad that you had the courage to challenge them, without further "difficulties."

I think that there are people who go to large concerts to listen t the music, but far more who go to "an event".

It is my pet theory that as big as the music business is , there are relatively few people who can actually appreciate music.

September 4th 1974. I went to the Wembley Stadium to see Joni Miytchell, CSNY, and the Band! I was with muso pals and somehow we contrived to get close enough to the stage to see clearly what was happening.
All was fine - me and 70,000 others.

Sometime in, probably the early eighties, good friends of mine got tix to see Fleetwood Mac at the same venue. We were way up in the gods and the stage was so distant that the band loooked like ants, but we could see stuff on rather poor quality giant screens either side of the stage. Sound quality was questionable and suffered from echos.
My lovely (non muso) friends enjoyed the event but talked (shouted) through much of it. I hated it.

I used to go to the Cambridge Folk Festival from the sixties until I realised that it was no longer for me (and my best pal died).

Scenario 1. In the main tent to see Alison Krauss and Union Station.
Every body crowded in, and Nanny Jane and I had been keeping our spot for two or three preceding 40 minute acts.

The band's gear was grought on, mics and stuff set up, then the MC walked on and said :

"Alison and the band are ready, but they won't come on until you all sit down so everyone can see and hear the show!" Everyone snuggled down obediently, and everyone enjoyed a superb set.

A year or so later :

Sitting determinedly to see James Taylor and his (wondrous) band. people crowd around us, standing and drinking (OK everybody consumes vast quantities of Guinness or whatever but it rarely seemed to encourage drunkenness).

We find our selves behind three or four very large (drunken) Dutchmen (I have nothing against the Dutch) but they were big, and noisy.

JT's gear is set up, and the MC walks on and says (James and the band are ready, but they can't start until everybody STANDS" so we can squeeze more into the tent.

So we have been waiting for maybe three hours to get our place, but, we didn't see or hear much of the 40/50 minutes that we'd really travelled, camped and waited for.

It was then that I realised that big gigs were no longer for me. I'd rather buy the CD/DVD or whatever.

People go to music gigs as a party, less so for musical appreciation.