You are getting it really wrong if they are not walking out anyway... Even comfortable shoes need a sole
 

Whoa, steady on, Billy, we can't have a fag inside, and now you're saying we shouldn't pop out for one?!!

The big give away was the "at any venue that does not have designated seating" bit. This says to me "at a venue where people have gone for a night-out and there's a band on," as opposed to "a venue where people have gone for a performance by the fabulous guitarist, who is Mr. Billy Jenkins." And, as we know, there's a big difference. If it’s the latter, then I doubt if even the most hardcore-smoking BJ fans would feel the need to go for a fag before you needed a slash, or to take some drugs or get a massage or whatever you pop-stars do between sets. And most theatres etc. were already “no smoking” before the smoking ban came in. However, if it’s the former, then, if you play challenging music as opposed to “popular” music, it’s not challenging enough if some folks don’t walk out.


And hasn't there been a time when you've been playing a gig and some loud annoyingly-voiced women, out on a hen-night, have talked all the way through your guitar solos. Bet you wished they would fuck-off for a fag. And take that drunken heckler and the bloke who insists on singing along with everything you play although he is tone deaf and doesn't know the song.... The list of distractions goes on, but hey, that’s playing in pubs isn’t it?

Surely more of a worry is the fact that the smoking ban is stopping people from going out to the pub in the first place, who wants to go for a pint and sit in a fucking car park? For fucks sake! Sorry about the swearing, Billy, but you’ve got me started on the smoking ban. Just seeing all the pubs that have closed down this last year is truly depressing. Especially to us musicians lower down the ladder than yourself, who rely on the small pubs for our bread and (if we are really lucky) butter. Well, margarine. And then there’s the pubs that have changed from smoky drinking dens into family eating houses.
Bet they are gonna want to put the good-rockin’ BJ on for their punters, aren’t they? And I bet you’d really like to play for that clientele and their kids, wouldn’t you?

But shall I tell you what really pisses me off? It’s the fact that if we pause, mid-set, at an adults-only late-night watering-hole, to light a cigarette to steady our nerves, or to perchance try to recreate the intimate atmosphere of a smoky French jazz-café…… then we are criminals and liable to a fine of in excess of fifty of our English pounds, and the landlord gets fined in excess of a thousand pounds!!! Where the hell did that law come from?????

Fight for the right to smoke on stage.


Don’t smoke!

Very best wishes and big respect from a long-time fan of your fabulous guitar-playing,

Bob
 

I agree Bob!

I agree!

Calm down, sit down
Have a fag
and DON'T MOVE!!


BTY - the fine for allowing music to be played without the proper licence is far greater than that for smoking illegally......

WE MUST PLAY ON THOUGH......!
 

Well hell Billy, we'll all jus' haffa come roun' an jam ON YOUR PORCH! (Less you gonna change your audience o'course...)