I've not been to many rock gigs, fearing the excessive volume as someone who plays music for a living. I went to Pink Floyd at Earls Court a few years ago. The light-show, projections and pyrotechnics were spectactular, and I had expected really high quality in the sound. But as usual it was just too loud and distorted as a result, and I had to resort to cotton-wool to preserve my hearing, which has the unwanted effect of muffling the treble. Perhaps I need some higher quality ear-plugs, but why should I need them at all? It also didn't help that there was so much smoking (not all ordinary tobacco either, I suspect) inside the venue, which was clearly marked "no smoking", and the staff were not prepared to do anything about it. When I hear live recordings of pop concerts or see them on TV, the audience noise, singing-along or cheering and waving of hands in the air are enough to put me off going again - I last noticed these when Kraftwerk were shown on TV, a fairly cerebral group who are hardly appropriate for that kind of thing. The concert was broadcast on BBC4 with subtitles in German, which was rather impressive! When I took a group of my school pupils to hear this group 20 years ago, the concert started an hour late and the whole audience stood up for the entire gig, which was in the Mayflower Theatre where we go for opera in Southampton. I spent the time perched on the back of my seat. Pointless!