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short

• 20th May 2010

My girlfriend is short

Now, I'm not talking so short that she is unable to go on the best rides at theme parks, but compared to most people, she is definetely and quite clearly shorter than average.

But why am I telling you this on a music website?

Because being short has an impact on her gig-going experience.

It's never going to be much fun spending a whole evening looking at the back of other people's heads, but for my girlfriend, and countless other vertically challenged individuals there really isn't much of a choice, short of (no pun intended) dragging a step-ladder along with them everytime they go to a gig.

Sometime's there isn't much to see anyway, sometimes it is all abouth the music and the atmosphere and being down the front and jumping around getting sweaty with everyone else, but when my girlfriend wanted to see Florence and The Machine at Hammersmith Apollo on her Cosmic Love tour it was a bit more of a sombre affair, everyone was just stood around down the front with very little movement, no moshing, no pogo-ing, no nothing.

After the first few songs she got a bit bored of standing around just listening to the music with no visual stimulation and for her sake I actually allowed myself to move away from the young crowd gathered down the front of the stage in order to try and find a better vantage point slightly further back in the stalls standing where the thirty-somethings drank bottles of smirnoff ice and cider and danced badly.

We had hung back earlier in the evening and got a decent view of The Drums support set, but the venue had filled up considerably since and even with the compensating tiered flooring she still only managed to catch glipses of Florence Welch when every head ahead of her alligned just right at exactly the same time to be out of her way.

But it isn't just the shorter people that we should sympathise with though, I do also feel for the taller gig goers, no matter how passionate about music they may be and no matter how close to the action they may want to stand they will always be the bad guys that are stood in someone else's way, and almost every time it will actually be the shortest person in the venue that will be stuck standing behind them.

I can't honestly think of a solution to this problem over than venues arranging for everyone attending a gig to stand, school photo style, with the shortest people stood closest to the stage and the freakishly tall six foot plus music fans at the very back of the venue, but I can't see that catching on anytime soon.

And what did I actually think of the gig?

Florence is an amazing artist, with an amazing voice and a great album under her belt.

But it wasn't very exciting to be honest.