Learn some manners.

There I was, having woken up far too early for a Saturday morning, sitting on a Piccadilly line train en route to Hammersmith to watch Nokia’s new T4 music programme the Green Room (as part of my new job over at iGIZMO magazine) being filmed, when it happened.

A boy and his friend got on the train. Since I entered my early 20s I have been abysmal when it comes to guessing peoples ages, so I hazard a guess that he was somewhere in the region of 12-14.

So he got on the train, playing the Hoosiers ‘Worried about Ray’ on his mobile. I know this because it was blasting out of his mobile’s speakers.

As everybody seems to do in London – nay the world generally today – people looked p*ssed off but didn’t dare to say anything. So I did. I tapped him on the back and politely asked him if he was planning on continuing with his impromptu disco for the entire journey. He rudely told me he was.

So, naturally, I asked if he had any headphones. “Nah, they’re broken,” he said. Risking the temptation to suggest that his phone would soon be broken too if he didn’t have some manners, I asked him to either turn it down or turn it off.

After a conversation with the yoof which went on much longer than I had ever intended and is five minutes (perhaps an exaggeration) of my life I will never get back, where he flippantly asked if I’d prefer another song and asked if he could put the now slightly-lower-in-volume-mobile nearer to me again to see if it was now ok.

All the while his friend said nothing. After a while, the kid got bored of listening to the music against his ear and gave up. Clearly his whole purpose was to attract attention – the wrong sort – and irritate people. Once we’d had our dialogue, it seemed pointless.

So my question is. Why, oh why, oh why doe public areas not have signs telling us that it is not ok to listen to music through speakers in those areas. Or, better still, threaten offenders with fines? You can’t smoke in public places because it’s bad for other people’s health. You can’t go to the toilet in public because it’s unhygienic and uncouth. You can’t have sex in public because it’s against the law and not on. So, why is it ok to inflict your loud and often tasteless music on everyone else in a confined space such as a train? And why, does no one ever bloody well tell people to stop doing something that clearly annoys them?

If everybody actually stood up to these irritants, perhaps more people would think twice about doing it in the first place. I completely understand people are worried about the verbal (and often physical) abuse people who speak out often get, but there is strength in numbers and if we all did it, it would most likely have a domino effect and at least reduce the amount of incidents to begin with.

Perhaps, the mobile industry could also take a stand here and create an advertising campaign that highlights the issue and educates people – in a fun way – that it’s just not on.

I am in no way a party pooper. I just don’t like having other peoples parties inflicted on me when I can’t escape.

What do you think? Am I just an old git or do I have a valid point?