Tuesday
Aug122008
Caged like animals
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 
Designer, photographer, musician ... Dan Donovan writes:
I was at the 2008 punk festival Rebellion, held at The Winter Gardens, Blackpool. The venue had provided a smoking area down the alley that runs next to the venue for the herded smokers to enjoy a beer and a fag hand in hand.
A cage fronted the area so that no one could drift onto the street with their alcohol. The most pertinent moment for me was when the queue had formed inside the bar as the punters restlessly had to wait for the smoking area to clear before they were allowed in, or should I say allowed out.
The designated area must have held up to 300 people and got pretty cosy at times. It’s clear to me that this so called ‘Smoke Free England’ isn’t and however much effort the government makes to curb our freedom and lead us to believe smokers are a thing of the past that they are fooling themselves.
As to be expected there were moments of drama inside. A young shaven haired girl lit up on one of the dance floors. After being pursued by four or five security men she managed to slip away.
The song being played on the jukebox was ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ by The Clash, a fitting song and the iconic smoker, Joe Strummer (Clash front man) would have smiled had he been there. I smiled for him.
Dan's band King Kool is playing the Peterborough Beer Festival on Saturday August 23. Details HERE.
Reader Comments (21)
How utterly barbaric that looks!
It makes me think of a prison exercise yard (not that I have been in one, but from the portrayals shown on 60's and 70's TV!)
Of course, better not let the Health & Safety lot in or that area will be closed too and no-one will be able to go outside for a smoke, or anything else; well not if they want to get back in again!
Ahhh... so THAT's where all the anarchists are!
I wondered where they'd got to in all this.
Bloody sad to see that isn't it? I'd been banking on them to lead the battle cry.
Yup, redolant of that continental cafe culture that HMG assured 24 hour drinking would promote....
What a disgusting way to treat people.
Simon is right when he says the smoking ban isn't working. There are two simple tests for ascertain this:
1) One check the profits of the tobacco companies (particularly BAT and Imperial)as they publish these from time to time in the press. You can also send to Companies House, and for a small fee, obtain their accounts per year. Whichever method you use, you will discover their profits are up.
2) For those of you that buy shares, keep an eye on the share price index and you will see that the stock for the tobacco companies is steady or up.
Lastly, and I know this is anecdotal evidence, but it is, nevertheless, pretty common experience, and you will be unable to avoid the the vast amounts of duty free tobacco available for sale and, in addition, and perhaps worryingly, the real black market gear that's now coming around in the form of loose cigarettes with no markings.
Blad
After being treated like a common criminal by customs the last time I went over to Europe, I complained to my MP.
I got a reply from UK Border Agency which included:
'We know, for example, that gang organisers pay passengers to pose as legitimate cross channel shoppers and purchase excise goods, which will later be sold for commercial gain. This is a multi-million pound fraud, which the UK Border agency is determined to tackle robustly through enhanced intelligence-led operations.'
This is no surprise!
As a Music-Lover myself, as well as an afficionado of the English Pub (surely one of our GREATEST contributions to World Culture ?) and Real Ale (ditto), I must say that the Ban has done little to sweeten MY life !
One of the high points of my year was the annual Blues Festival at the wonderful Farnham Maltings - where you used to be able to wander happily from one stage to another (four in all), with a pint and a fag among a cheerful, highly varied throng of fellow music-lovers.
Why, perfect strangers even offered EACH OTHER cigarettes (remember when that was the courteous norm ?).
A four-bar version of Merrie Englande.
Now, I'll happily sit through an hour of classical or early music without even THINKING of lighting up, but there are certain musical forms IMHO - such as Blues and Jazz - where La Diva Nicotina (and I DON'T mean chemical patches) is an almost INTEGRAL part of the enjoyment. Rather like having a pint, in fact.
A Smoke-Free Blues Festival seems as incongruous to me as a Smoke-Free 'Casablanca'.
Naturally, I raised this small matter of Another Freedom Gone with the 'management' of the Maltings, only to receive the all-too-predictable response from the lady concerned:
"The smokers go outside now, if they wish - and THEY don't seem to mind".
Now, where have I heard THAT before ?
Well, I wasn't quite expecting the promise of a Bloody Revolution from this outpost of the Hospitality Sector, but SOME token words-of-sympathy wouldn't have come amiss. Surely, over a decade's worth of patronage was worth SOMETHING more than what seemed like a mild rebuke (as well as a statement of The Bleedin' Obvious) ?
Some hope !
I think the sub-text was: "If you don't like it, SOD OFF, you ghastly little leper !" -
Which, of course, is PRECISELY what I've done.
Cui bono (as we used to say in Rome) ?
Perhaps those of you who still attend such events should begin carrying placards with you when you 'go outside', bearing some suitable sentiment - such as:
"YES - WE DO BLOODY WELL MIND, ACTUALLY !!"
It's gonna be a Long War, Folks !
I am a blackpool resident and was in town during the punk celebration weekend, this picture does not tell the whole story. As I was out an about the town centre many of the punks were trying to enjoy the weekend despite the heavy rain, the picture was taken during a brief sunny moment. Most of the pubs in town have no outside smoking area and it saddened me to see groups of punks with brightly coloured big hairstyles huddled in doorways trying to enjoy a smoke and save there huge spikey mohican hairstyles from wilting. It actually made my blood boil, its outrageous that people should be treated like this, and it depressed me to see that a large group of people known for their anti-establishment ideals just went along with it. I wonder what the punks of the seventies would have said had they known what the future held.
Martin,
Are you an early music fan, as well? I thought that I was the only one in the world (apart from my fellow listeners at York Early Music Festival - to which I go on my own because friends always decline a repeat invitation!)
Joyce -
Yes, ABSOLUTELY !!!
Sorry to hear about your friends (more into Will Young than Adam de la Halle, perhaps ?).
Still - it's kind of 'appropriate' for us LEPERS, don't you think ?
PS: and I do wish people would stop referring to Baroque as 'Early Music'............THAT was only Yesterday, for God's sake ! I dunno - some people...............
Quite so, Martin! I have to confess, though, that most of the people who I see at early music concerts strike me as, probably. uber anti (although most haven't the nous or good manners NOT to applaud at the wrong time!!)
How nice to have my shameful little prejudice proved wrong!
Joyce and Martin V, you're even less rare now. I'm also a lover of early music. And like you I find many people who go to these concerts somewhat... emmmm.... prissy - to say the least. But here's a funny story: many years ago I took classes in music history. I soon became good friends with the lecturer, a great expert on early music. At that time, he was a heavy smoker and an even heavier drinker. Some years later he quit both smoking and drinking. But when I come to visit, he gets out an ashtray and opens a bottle of wine for me. He dislikes puritan antis as much as I do and is intent upon not becoming one himself.
From this I conclude: many of the prissy people are perhaps just posers who think listening to early music makes them look artistic or intellectual or classy. The *real* afficionados like my friend the lecturer don't give a flying f.ck.
(BTW: you should see the looks on their faces when I tell them I'm also quite fond of hard rock and even some heavy metal... heheh!)
OT news from Holland (as promised): in the wake of the smoking ban, hundreds of small pub owners have decided to leave the main publican's union and are starting their own organisation. They claim the main union did not do enough to protect the interest of the small businesses who don't have the possibility to build a separate smoking room. Once the new organisation is established, they'll start lobbying the government for amendment of the ban.
Anna -
Welcome aboard (and welcome back) !!
And 'prissy' is EXACTLY the word...........
And, of course, one mustn't forget the Corporate Opera-Goers - many of whom couldn't tell a Rossini from a Rissole.
Once again, our Dutch friends put us to shame - but that IS good news you bring. Do keep us posted on that one, please.
Re your lecturer: he was - quite correctly - merely displaying Good Manners: Old World Style.
The First Rule Of Hospitality, surely, is to put one's guests at ease - even if that involves some slight inconvenience to oneself ?
Of course, such obligations are reciprocal, but (I would argue) the greater obligation sits with the Host.
These days, alas, the tendency is for people to show greater sensitivity to Fashion than to Feeling (ie where others are concened).
And I cannot think of a more graphic example of the latter than the decision on the part of some hospice managers to deny their patients - many of them weary, alone, and afraid - the comforting solace of cigarette (even in the grounds) !
There are times when Bad Manners are indistinguishable from Sheer Cruelty.
Welcome to the New World Order !
PS: Yep - I'm a Rock fan, too......(but - PROPER Rock)
Anna, how interesting. There are only two kinds of music, good and bad, the good and bad are not personal opinion however, there is good music which I do not listen to, and bad music which I enjoy, but as a musician, I at least know whether what I like or don't like is good or bad.
Paul Flynn is at it again.
This time vending machines and playing the 'its for the children card'.
http://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/08/vending-machine-menace.html?cid=126523110#comments
Hi Anna - good to hear from you and very good news about the publicans' fight-back!
I heard a musicologist say some years ago that he would never listen to early music because why eat cod when you could eat caviar (or words to that effect!). Perhaps we should tell that to the prissy poseurs!
It was following an early music concert that I had my most recent run-in with an anti-smoker who objected when I asked if anyone minded if I smoked when our group went for a drink afterwards. This was pre-ban and we were in a huge room in which only one other person was smoking. In my rule book of good manners, he ought to have said that he didn't mind and I, realising that he, in fact, did, would have limited my smoking to one, rather than three, cigarettes. Both he and I would have shown consideration to one another and our differences wouldn't have marred the situation. In fact, we would both perhaps have felt rather virtuous and liked each other for providing the opportunity! Instead, I got on my high horse and explained why I was about to insist on smoking and it was rather awkward. Had we not all been so polite it could have developed into A Scene! I think that in losing good manners we have lost grace and charm.
Why does Paul Flynn keep blogging about smoking? Is it the only subject that attracts more than one comment? Are there brownie points in increasing hits to the site? Does it offer the opportunity to insult the smokers who comment?
There is a very odd comment from the 'Youth Health Specialist' of ASH Wales who demands that posters recognise the difference between ASH and ASH Wales!?
“So please call us ASH Wales…” Ha!
I get all sorts of exciting visions of internal turmoil, infighting, secession…! Will ASH go the way of every lunatic fringe movement the world has seen so far? Nah… cheering too soon I guess.
Joyce, your musicologist must be an awful snob. I wonder, does he *really* understand music? Like timbone says, there’s only good music and bad music.
One of my friends is a chef. We’re having dinner at his home next Sunday. He promised to cook a meal I’ve been asking him to do for ages: *yucky food*! Kidneys, liver, tripe, and… sweetbread! Honestly, I prefer this stuff to filet mignon. But it goes to say: the only thing that matters is what you like and what you don’t like. Not what you’re SUPPOSED to like.
One more thing about my chef friend, and this will interest Martin V. This guy’s an asthmatic. But he forbids me to step out into the garden to smoke after dinner. I’m to stay seated at the table while I smoke, and he takes a ridiculously expensive cigar out of a humidor and lights it… The only thing that really triggers his asthma is cats. Still, his wife keeps two of them in the home. He doesn’t think her life should revolve around his asthma. Now *there’s* an old-fashioned Good Mannered Person for you!
Reading this again, and remembering my story about my other friend, the music lecturer… I wonder, do you choose your friends more carefully as you get older? :)
Anna, my last post looks rather vague. What I was saying was this. I was delighted to see your eclectic musical taste. As a professional musician, I have in my time suffered the slings and arrows of musical bigotry. It is very much like the indoctrinated anti smoker who cannot see anything worthwhile in a person who enjoys tobacco. Here are just two of many examples in my own musical experience. As a classically trained trombonist, it was interesting to see the look of horror when in 1976 I spent several months as a full time bass guitarist with a country rock band! (By the way, this included a short tour in the Netherlands). Another example is how as a writer and publisher, I have certainly noticed some questionable looks when certain musicians have discovered that I wrote and published a medley of Elvis Presley songs for brass band - despite the fact that it is one of my best selling publications!
Actually, I have just remembered that I did a spoof video on youtube making fun of the English smoking ban, and I used the first part of my medley, Presley in Mind, from a CD as the background music. Here is the link if you are interested
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQKukYG55Jc
@timbone, sorry for the late reply – I’ve been awfully busy. Please don’t worry about your post being vague; I think I get your drift. In my opinion, if you appreciate music your taste is bound to be eclectic. Because good music comes in all styles and shapes. I enjoy Gregorian chanting monks as much as I enjoy Jimi Hendrix or Led Zeppelin. I’m a fan of Frank Zappa as well as Monteverdi.
I absolutely loved your video! It’s wonderfully tongue-in-cheek… very subtle and understated, getting a message across without taking yourself too seriously. British humour, as we call it on the continent.
And what on Earth is wrong with writing Elvis medleys for brass bands? I’ve experienced the same kind of snobbishness in my own profession as a writer. I started out in journalism, but ended up as a copywriter (as in advertising). I still meet a lot of ‘serious’ journalists who frown on my commercial writing.
BTW: Which towns did you tour in the Netherlands?
One more BTW: I have played the flute for years, but stopped when I moved into a modern apartment building with concrete walls and floors… didn’t want to upset the neighbours. But we’re thinking about moving to a houseboat, so perhaps I’ll take it up again.
Anna, thank you for your kind remarks about my video.
Which towns did I tour in the Netherlands? Thirty two years is a long time, and unfortunately I can only remember one place by name, which was the University of Amsterdam. I also remember staying in a lovely place out in the country, which was of course very flat with long roads and no traffic.
I lived in an apartment for several years. Fortunately, I was able to play trombone with a practice mute, an advantage which the flute does not have.
Incidentally, there are several British style brass bands in the Netherlands, and I know that some of my own music has been purchased by them, which I am sure has included "Presley in Mind". So if you are ever strolling through a park one day, and hear a brass band playing "Are you lonesome tonight" or "Can't help falling in love" or "Wonder of You", you will know that it was written by the guy who has lost his ashtray hehe