Singalongabadly with Chris

I was reviewing a truly excellent Chris Rea concert at Symphony Hall over the Easter weekend and had to suffer a pet hate - those people who see any performance as some sort of background music to their own conversations, increasing the volume accordingly of course, so they can, sadly, still be heard.

The group behind me started for the last half hour or so when presumably a goldfish like attention span had waned and interval drinks had drowned their brain cell. They had also apparently confused the word concert with karaoke, an easy mistake as they have the same number of letters and probably both start with a k in their vocabulary, so we also had to suffer singalong with Chris with a few snatches of the mercifully small number of songs they actually knew.

I suppose it takes a certain type of skill to manage to sing in a totally different key and different rhythm to the artist on stage but I suspect it is a bit of a niche market when it comes to performing.

In addition the group were also under the mistaken impression that the row of seats in front of you at Symphony Hall also serve some sort of drum function. Oh for Seasick Steve. He is a brilliant blues singer who happily stops performances and offers to escort people out to refund their money if they don't shut up.