An amazing thing has happened. Slashmusic's electronic postbag is digitally bulging with your views on a subject close to our hearts: encores. More specifically the absence of encores during both Glastonbury and Live 8. You're not missing them. In fact, as Suzy Gibbins of Croydon wrote, "Why do bands do encores at all? We've paid our money to hear the hits! Why should we have to beg them to come back on and play them?" Duncan McMinn from Canford Heath was of similar mind when he wrote, "One of the reasons Glastonbury was great was because there were no boring album tracks and no having to clap for ten minutes while the group fanny about in the dressing room..."

Surely the encore is the most hackneyed, most played out showbiz shtick of all time. The very idea that if we clap loudly enough someone will come back on and play another one... Wow! Really? You're so bloody kind and amazing looking and sexy! RUBBISH! We can see the roadie tuning the guitar, if it were all over he'd have packed it away in a box and gone for a curry. You're not fooling anyone!



If Live 8 has taught us anything, other than we're not that keen on Ms Dynamite anymore, it's taught us this: we can make a difference. It's time for music lovers to make our feelings known to the self-indulgent, overlong set-playing, saving-the-hits-till-last rock and pop stars of the world. We say, "Get on, play the songs, get off - don't come back!" We say, "Everyone knows you haven't done your best song yet, why do we have to pretend you might leave without doing so?" We say, "Shut up and shove off!" We say, "My hands hurt!" We say, "Some of us have got buses to catch!" We say, "How much applause does one band need? You know we like you! Get on with it!"

What we want: The hits. Right now. No waiting.

We say, "Encore No More!"

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