What constitutes a great gig? The band can play a blinding set but if the audience is propping up the bar cross-armed and stony-faced then we all have a bit of a problem. But if a band connects with an audience then generally they at least start to nod their heads and begin to dance. But there’s always somebody at a good gig that goes that little bit further and jumps around without any inhibitions.
Now the reason I have decided to name this the Bez Bloke Theory is because funnily enough, male or more rarely female, they all tend to look like Bez waving his maracas at the side of the Happy Mondays’ stage.
A good example of the Bez Bloke Theory could be observed at the DiS launch party at which two grey-haired middle aged blokes head-banged and flailed their arms about to Twist and fame on the DiS staff list as we all wondered who they were. They are the people who dance the funky chicken in the front row, who nearly poke people's eyes out with their fingers. They turn heads and occupy some of the after gig talk.
What is interesting though is that most Bez Blokes are exactly that…blokes. For every Bez Girl I’ve seen 20 Bez Blokes, and they are generally a lot more amusing as they aren’t that bothered about making a good impression on the dance floor. Bez Blokes are the people so ingrossed with the band that everybody else becomes oblivious. They very probably have all their back catalogue and they have probably been transported back to their living room.
To me no good gig is complete without one, but at the same time no good gig is ever going to not have one.