Dunno if anyone has had similar experience. This week some festivity at WITS university. OK, main festivity is the protest for the fees thing. Other festivity has seen some people perforrming; bands and solo acts , etc.. I am not there but my pups telling me about it. Today a fella called Arlyn Culwic pitches and plays, apparently plenty acoustic stuff. I'm told it was pretty good and mellow and so forth. Apparently not to the taste of the majority of the people there. Plenty booing and jeering and all. Now I wonder what the F!#$ these people get out of doing that. Hell, I get so f'n acid I could spit. And I have seen this sort of thing before. So I am sorry for this little outburst, but if the message can get to Arlyn Culwic then he should know that he was appreciated by a certain group who would have bought his CD but broke. Makes you wish you could change species, ne?

Hey, it may not be to many people's taste, but you've got to have respect for someone trying to make a living doing the thing they love and putting themselves out on the line like that. There are a lot of bands/performers that I cannot stand, but I respect them for what they are doing.

Eish. I do know Arlyn, and I'll be sure to let him know...

Booing and bad comments are nothing but really, really bad manners. I say just leave if you don't like the music/artist you're watching. If an artist is really bad, people will soon stop coming to their gigs, forcing them to quit. But that sort of behaviour not only discourages the artist on stage, but also spoils it for those who are actually enjoying it. I've actually seen gigs where people in the crowd starting klapping each other because of that, which obviously turns the whole thing sour.

Sadly I've found that people have no manners in general, especially when there's alcohol involved, which is usually the case at gigs.

Hi Ray

Arlyn says: "... The protesters came along and interrupted my gig. I told them what I thought about that, and asked the crowd what I should do. They said, 'Turn up the music,' so I did, sang an incriminating song against the protesters and initiated a shouting/singing match between us and them. We won; they went away. Wallies."

Hahaha, I don't think he's too fussed... But ja, an irritating show of disrespect, for sure.

giggsy wrote: Hey, it may not be to many people's taste, but you've got to have respect for someone trying to make a living doing the thing they love and putting themselves out on the line like that. There are a lot of bands/performers that I cannot stand, but I respect them for what they are doing.

I was in Sandton last week and came across a street performer guitarist and thought to myself 'I don't have the guts to do what he does' plus he may be a way more accomplished guitarist than me even if I didn't like what he was playing, I still stopped and listened and gave him a few bucks. I try to appreciate all styles even though it sometimes makes my skin crawl. The other main thing about people boo-ing is that 90% of them can't do close to what the perfomer does. Like Casper says, ' you come does it' ?

I don't see why performers shouldn't be booed. Not that I encourage it, but you know, people pay good money to go to gigs. So what do you do if the person that you paid good money to see is clearly drunk to the point of not being able to perform properly, or gives a lackadaisical performance?

Or what do you do if they decide to use the stage for political grandstanding, or start making poorly though out soci0-political observations in the heat of the moment (as Clapton once did).

I think performers have a right to go down those routes if they want, and I think the audience has a right to react to that. I imagine that Dylan must have got a few booings in his time - and not just because he decided to play an electric guitar. Michelle Shocked must have copped a few too. The Beatles were not only booed in the USA in the 60s after Lennon made his infamous "bigger than Jesus" remark, but there were public burnings of Beatles records in town squares.

Personally I think the Stones should have been given a good booing 20 or so years ago. Then they'd either retire to count their money, or make a serious stab at trying to once again be the world's greatest rock 'n roll band.

yeah, I saw that. It was fun. Good show for Arlyn. Bunch of retards... Where is Chairman Mau then you need him?

My favourite was when Sinaed O Connor decided to rail on about the pope at the "Bobfest" (Dylan's birthday) held a while back. Audience were booing her and Kris Kristofferson walked on, literally picked her up and carried her off. Having political convictions and standing by them is fine, but if you start mouthing off every time you get on stage (especially on someone else's stage, celebrating someone else's birthday).

I used to have issues with one of the local folk clubs - the MC would often berate the audience for talking while someone is playing. I've always believed it's up to the performer - a good one can capture a room and enrapture the audience without anyone having to force the audience to "behave". I had a different approach - I played there with a rock band and we simply played too loud for people to hear each other talk. ?

I've got this DVD set of SRV, when he just started out. The crowd also booed and carried on. So a few years later (once he became famous), he did the same show at the same place and everybody couldn't stop cheering. Strange ..

I've developed my own system of categorising audience members. Very close minded of me, but most of the time it works. Those particular audience members that boo or try to hijack the concert by talking loudly and making derogatory comments are in fact jealous and want to be on the stage themselves. They also have a sense of grandeur in thinking that people actualy want to listen to them bad mouthing the performer instead of the generaly good music that is on offer.

Just recently I saw one those incidents up close and it confirmed my generalising statement. It was in fact someone that performed at that venue semi-regularly and could not keep her trap shut, even though the performers were better than her. I swear she was thinking, "hell I'm better than these guys, I'll just out talk them". I vowed to go to her next gig and talk loudly non-stop, but did not actualy want to put myself through one of her shows again.

Other symptoms of this personality are: - Asking you to play "smoke on the water" or any other song that is not consistent with your repetoir or mind numbingly overplayed.
- Critting you on the historic nature of your piece, or arguing about the composer WHILE YOU ARE PLAYING

I was at an Ensiferum gig a few days ago. They were supported by a local band called Tracedawn. The band's singer said before their last song, "Okay, we've got one last song for you," and there was a loud "F*** YOU" from the audience. At the moment I thought it was pretty hilarious, as I dislike Tracedawn. But then I saw that the majority still seemed to enjoy the band, so... I really don't know what was the point in that.

A booing incident almost happened at the Underoath concert last year. Most of the bands that were playing were either Christian bands or if they weren't, they performed in a way that wasn't disrespectful towards the majority of the crowd's beliefs. One of the earlier acts to play was this band called 'Unlisted'. A few days prior to the Underoath concert they had appeared on One Gospel on DSTV, and while they didn't proclaim to be a Christian band, the general vibe was that they were. Anyway, they get up on stage at the Underoath concert (they were one of the earlier acts so the crowd wasn't that big) and played a few songs. But then the singer started swearing a bit (which I suppose he could of got away with) but then he started passing comments like 'Oh, I can't say that hey?? This is a CHRISTIAN show'. It may sound silly but he was quite clearly having a jab at the crowd for no reason.

The band didn't get any loud booing, but needless to say after a song called 'fat wank' (and the singer spitting on my shoe from the stage >) the already sparse crowd had thinned out quite substantially. I thought they deserved that; but booing at times when the crowd just doesn't like the genre or style of music is not cool. ?

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: I had a different approach - I played there with a rock band and we simply played too loud for people to hear each other talk. ?

That's the way ya do it . . . . ! :woohoo:
Money 4 nuthin' . . . Coool. I Know ........

the already sparse crowd had thinned out quite substantially

I would say that this should be the practice if you don't enjoy the show.

100% behind you on that one, sure we are all not blessed with talent or good looks , but any one that get up on a stage to play for an audience gets kudos from me, we have a music café at our school and we did a blues number, I tell you my stomach was in a ball, even though a knew the piece. So I take my hat off to those who get up on stage and give it a go. ?