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Underground > Radio & Music >

No smoking at gigs and in pubs in the UK.

14:25 / 29.08.07

Good idea? Bad idea?

This seems to have popped up in a few topics as a side issue but i couldn't see a discussion about it.

The Koko in Camden now doesn't allow re admittance during the week so once you leave there you are not allowed back in. Crazy in my opinion.
At the weekends they let 20 smokers out at a time but you are fingerprinted and kept in a pen. Really, I'm serious.

The smell of smoke has been replaced by a warm smell of stale farts and teenage body odour.

It is now impossible to keep more than a few friends in the same place as you have to be constantly unnaturally divided into smokers and non-smokers. I've now seen arguments breaking out about seats as people leave them to have a fag and they look empty.

The whole atmosphere is different; Is this anything to do with the smoking ban or just the decline in venues and live music. By this i mean that more and more people seem to go to gigs to be seen and to say they went rather than because they want to. Ebay is a serious problem in my opinion as well. There seems to be a fever about gigs that does not have to do with people wanting to go but more to do with that way a child wants what another child has.

How come everyone rolled over so easily and excepted the ban?

Anyone have any experience of this in other countries where it has been in place for a long time?
Are we the country with the worst, most changeable weather to get the ban so far?

By the way i don't smoke.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:36 / 29.08.07

As far as the smoking ban goes, How come everyone rolled over so easily and excepted the ban? seems an odd question. Those of us who smoke like getting thrown out of venues just as much as people who don't, which might explain why you've not seen anyone who wasn't a massively wealthy, famous and protected rock star lighting up to show that rock and roll will never die, man.

As for changeable weather, I believe the State of Illinois goes smoke-free on 1st January 2008, right smack in the middle of winters that are a lot harsher than anything in the UK.

I don't really know what you mean by the following:

By this i mean that more and more people seem to go to gigs to be seen and to say they went rather than because they want to. Ebay is a serious problem in my opinion as well. There seems to be a fever about gigs that does not have to do with people wanting to go but more to do with that way a child wants what another child has.

Could you explain this a little more, maybe with examples? Because from here it just sounds like the standard assumption that things aren't as good as they used to be, and that people aren't doing things for the "right" reaons anymore.

Closed for Business Time

15:09 / 29.08.07

Illinois, you say; Norway, I hasten to add. As far as I can tell from my experience of being *a(n ex-)smoker **Norwegian and ***a former live musician it hasn't made much difference. A bit of hassle in seated venues and places with cack policies like Koko is to be expected. Else the only problem I can seriously think of is the exchange of one type of miasma for another. And the anger felt at faux rebel rawk millionaires that light up on stage.

15:59 / 29.08.07

well, in new york, someone got stabbed over the smoking ban a few years ago.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

16:05 / 29.08.07

The Koko in Camden now doesn't allow re admittance during the week so once you leave there you are not allowed back in. Crazy in my opinion.
At the weekends they let 20 smokers out at a time but you are fingerprinted and kept in a pen. Really, I'm serious.

As a smoker I find the ban somewhat irritating, but to be honest this sounds more like just a reason to avoid Koko and similar venues, than anything else. And frankly regardless of whether one smokes avoiding places that treat their customers so stupidly seems like a good move anyway.

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:11 / 29.08.07

Well, there's also the issue that people manage to watch films and plays without smoking. I know, people manage to watch films and plays largely without talking loudly or buying drinks as well..

16:17 / 29.08.07

I'm only an occasional smoker nowadays so the ban hasn't affected me much. However, has anyone else noticed just how damn bad people smell when they go out drinking after a full days work? Not the mention when they start dancing.

I went out to a few bars after a Tool gig last week and ended up standing outside with the smokers because the smell and fresh Brixton air was preferable.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:18 / 29.08.07

I've been using that weird Scandinavian gum-tobacco shit for gigs...

What really irks me is (and this is hearsay, I haven't been to a place that does this but then I haven't been to many gigs recently) that I'm told some places are charging people for the privilege of going outside and coming back in... EACH TIME THEY DO IT. This just seems cheeky, if true.

18:06 / 29.08.07

The smell of smoke has been replaced by a warm smell of stale farts and teenage body odour.

Indeed. It's a source of grim personal amusement that anyone thought the situation on this score might improve post the ban (see also: pubs now smelling of dead and dying lager) but, on the plus side, shares in companies that make scented dry ice seem like a good buy. You heard it here first.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

18:11 / 29.08.07

I've been using that weird Scandinavian gum-tobacco shit for gigs...

Slightly off topic, but where would one score such a substance? And is it superior to pharmaceutical style nicotine gum? I'm not honestly concerned about gigs so much, as I can cope for a couple of hours, but I'm thinking next time I'm going to a club I'd like to stay at till dawn, and quite frankly be in a condition in which even if allowed I don't really think it would be the best move to go and stand outside near the bouncers to smoke being in possesion of such a thing might not be a terrible idea.

Closed for Business Time

19:14 / 29.08.07

Mono. You'll have to PM Mono. That's where you'll get what's in Scando called snus (eng. snuff). And yes, I do believe it beats the nicotine gum for sheer nico strength. Might just be that I have very permeable gums. So be warned.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:49 / 29.08.07

That's certainly where I got mine!

08:36 / 30.08.07

*Threadrot*
They used to sell snus in Garlic & shots- the scandi goth bar in soho.
*rot ends*

I've really enjoyed the smoking ban- to be perfectly honest as an ex smoker that has often given in to tobacco temptation i really like not being able to smoke. I also enjoy spending a night out without coming home stinking like an ashtray. I hate some fucker blowing smoke in my face when i have chosen not to smoke.

10:04 / 30.08.07

The Koko in Camden now doesn't allow re admittance during the week so once you leave there you are not allowed back in. Crazy in my opinion.
At the weekends they let 20 smokers out at a time but you are fingerprinted and kept in a pen. Really, I'm serious.

That's awful and ridiculous. "Koko" is a beautiful building, but from the crap new name downward, it's current owners seem to be doing everything in their power to render it a really shitty place to go to watch live music. Or indeed to drink, or talk, or merely exist within I should imagine.

The smell of smoke has been replaced by a warm smell of stale farts and teenage body odour.

Yes - as a non-smoker this is the main difference I've noticed to concert/club attendence. A constant, low-level smoking smell is certainly FAR preferable, and more in the general spirit of enjoying one's self within a crowd of fellow humans, than an occasional strong whiff of passing armpit or bad breath - urgh.

10:52 / 30.08.07

I'm not proud of the pleasure I take that smokers are now having to put up with a smell they find distasteful that emanates from other people in a crowded room.

But it's there nontheless.

That said, as has been mentioned upthread, there are less carcinogenic ways to cover the stench of ale and Humanity than a bunch of people puffing away.

Mild bonus with the ban is the reduced liklihood that some idiot dancing with a lit cig will inadvertantly put it out on my forehead during their flailings.

08:52 / 31.08.07

i go to lots of gigs, and a few of the venues i go to have been non-smoking for a long time (the barbican for example, or maybe people just never smoked in them as they were so boojwah), and i don't really mind, tho i do miss having a crafty spliff for the right kind of band and appreciate that cig smoke can ad atmosphere (tho i'd prefer the band and audience to do that)

so on the whole, fine with it and would be happy to see evil death dealing tobacco companies out of business forever, which is what the ban is about, though am aware of the contradiction in liking the odd puff and taking that stance.

on the whole think live music in the UK is in a better state than it has been in years.

14:02 / 13.09.07

As a musician who plays alot of gigs in pubs, I think it has affected gigs in the sense that now you have to work at it to stop the audience drifting away, cos if you suck then the smokers will automatically go out for a cigarette and their non smoking friends will follow, whereas before the ban, if people didn't like you they'd generally ignore you (not that I'm saying my band sucks, of course).
As a smoker, it just gives me more reason to check out bands at squat parties, festivals and the like which I enjoy more anyway.