The people who were idiots at gigs in early March are still idiots

Is the world ready for the return of live rock music? On the evidence of the first gig in London since lockdown, no. The people who were arseholes at gigs in early March are still arseholes at gigs, but there’s rather more than an obstructed sightline at stake now. Miles Kane was the guinea pig for the experiment, playing to 150 people who’d applied for tickets and who stood in a summer downpour watching him play acoustically. More on Kane later, but his presence was the least important thing here.

The gig was the first in a series of small shows in Camden Market, and the organisers had taken care: masks were compulsory and the ground was marked with green dots to ensure everyone stood where they were supposed to. It’s not the promoters’ fault that a noticeable number of people decided that masks were just as effective worn under their chins, or that there were those who saw the gaps between people and thought they looked like ideal places to stand, then decided they could get their mates into the same space, too.

The result was that I felt just as close to my neighbours as I would have done four months ago, and when I pointed this out to one of them, he reacted as if I’d told him I’d just spent the afternoon with his wife.

I’m no lockdown zealot. I kept taking my daily walk; I went to the shops; in the week before the Kane show, I went to a pub, a restaurant and a cinema. But in all of those places, all the people seemed to be taking care around each other. Here, most people did, but there were just enough who didn’t that I felt unsafe.