Drowned in Sound is surveying our readership for a future newsletter.
You don’t have to go into extensive detail about your experience if you don’t wish - just ticking some boxes for us is more than enough. Your responses will be anonymous. Drowned in Sound: Gig Security survey
Or you can reply in the thread below:
Don’t think I ever have.
Mad respect to the security guard who lifted me out of the crush during Death Grips (shit) set at Outbreak 2023.
None whatsoever. Not sure if they still hand out water down at the front of shows, but always liked that and never seen anyone who was lifted out be handled with anything other than respect. Perhaps I’m too far to the back of shows nowadays and not at the types of shows where there’s scale and scope for bad experience.
Oh Sees at EOTR a few years ago. Their treatment of people who ended up being pulled out was a disgrace, shoved all over the place (and in one case nearly impaled someone on a pipe).
Always impressed by how good and handsome their crew are.
Not exactly a bad experience but I was a bit irked by Sonar’s insistence on making you throw away empty water bottles/flasks before going into the venue.
Not something that affected me directly but I was at a Therapy? gig at the Glasgow Garage a few years ago. A member of security was dipping into the headlining band’s beer backstage which led to an argument with one of their crew. This led to the band having to come off stage after their first song, as the argument was coming to a head backstage. They then played the rest of the set, all very professional. However it turns out for the rest of the gig security continually shone a laser torch at the singer’s/guitarist’s eyes while he was performing. I wasn’t aware of this until seeing an interview with the band a couple of years later. Shoddy. They used to play the Garage regularly but haven’t been back since, funnily enough.
is there any way for someone to revive that old board post about “why are venues so rotten”?
That’s nuts!
Had a moment where I was stuck at the front of a Pup gig at Kentish Town Forum and a security person said something to me and I couldn’t hear him because there was a loud rock band behind him. I said I couldn’t hear him and he started yelling about how I was giving him “attitude” in a really rude and sarcastic way.
iirc they actually have specially trained security to deal with the moshers
No they’ve always been nice tbh considering.
I saw a very upset Kele Okereke have to be muscled out by security because they wouldn’t let him watch Radiohead from the bit between the barriers and stage at v festival.
That was a good experience.
Yeah, fair play to Andy Cairns as he just played on through it and was his usual affable self engaging with the crowd etc. Very weird vibes when they got word after the opening song and had to apologise and leave the stage though, the band looked thoroughly confused.
That sounds horrible.
2006, was that? Checks out. Because let me tell you something, the dazzled. Ain’t nobody muscling Mr. Okereke out of anywhere these days, his physical transformation has been truly magnificent. He’s absolutely massive. He could snap any one of those stewards like a fucking twig nowadays - not that he would! He seems kind
Yeah he’s beefed up considerably
Worst I’ve seen was in unusual circumstances, at Wakefield’s Long Divison festival 2011 when they used a cowboy-themed city centre nightclub as a venue with the club’s usual security men, who decided that anyone pogoing or pushing forwards to stage headliners The Wedding Present - so, primarily men in their forties and upwards - was a troublemaker and had to be roughly dealt with. They were wading in so much that the band chose to leave the stage and after a five minute delay an organiser came out to tell the crowd that they’d had to intervene and throw the security out before the set could continue.
His commitment to seeing Radiohead speaks for itself
Remember when those middle aged men got called paedos by security for going to see the Last Dinner Party
That’s crazy! Haven’t seen Therapy? at the Garage since about 1998 but I do remember they loved a few beers in Sleazy’s before they went on.