Sit down

["Brian Giffen" <bg_giffen@classic.msn.com>]

             "  Those fuckers should just wait for the video tapes. "
 
So ends another articulate post on the sitter versus stander issue.    
 
For those who feel that a ticketholder does not have the right to watch a show 
without another physically blocking their view, I'd be interested in hearing 
how you would handle the following situations:

*   you are over six feet tall.  The people behind you in floor seating have 
brought a four foot child to see the concert.  Would you stand in front of the 
child for the entire show?  Or would you suggest they put the kid on their 
shoulders, thus blocking the people behind them?  Perhaps you would suggest a 
"no kids on the floor" policy ( which sounds like "no dancing" or "no 
standing"),

*  you are a 55 year old Who fan, who has purchased their albums and supported 
the group in every possible way since they first formed.  You have chronic 
arthritis in your left hip which makes standing for a long period of time 
difficult.  Knowing this, you purchase a ticket off the floor, away from the 
terminal standees.  A 14 year old at his first concert, drunk, stands in front 
of you the entire show.   Which of these two is the "true fan"?  Are you an 
"idiot" or a "dead fish" to ask the kid to sit down?  

*  you are a 6 foot, 5 inch former semi pro football player who takes a size 
56 sports coat.  You have been devoted to the Who for almost thirty years. You 
prefer to sit near the front, but will stand up if your view is blocked.  
Behind you is a group of much smaller people and by standing you are now 
blocking their view  -  even if they stand and act like "true Who fans" - of 
everything except the projection screens.  All of you have paid over $90 
Canadian for "prime seats".  Do you sit down?  What would a "true Who fan' who 
embraces the spirit of songs like Pure and Easy do?

*  I am a "true Who Fan" whose means of expressing myself at the concert is 
imitating Pete windmills badly, hitting the people standing in front of me 
over and over.  They tell me to stop but I keep swinging because I don't want 
to be an "idiot" or a "dead fish".  Should I have to stop?

I have encountered each of these situations at recent concerts.  In each case, 
the only solution was for everyone to sit down.

How can you be a "true Who fan" if you know that your behaviour is preventing 
other people from enjoying a Who concert?

"A yob in a caftan is still a yob"

 		(Anonymous quote from the one of the 
		organizers of the 1970  Isle of Wight festival)