Live in the living room

If, like me, you're a live music addict despairing at the sight/thought of not knowing when you'll next see the inside of a gig venue, then there are some consolations.

Take, for example, this list of ten great concerts to watch on YouTube, compiled by Jeff Terich of Treble and featuring Nick Cave, The Cure, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Miles Davis and Judas Priest. As it's all free, for each concert you watch, why not bung one of your favourite local venues a bit of cash to help them through the shutdown? The Moon and Clwb are getting my money.

That said, concerts haven't stopped completely - they've just gone online. As the Quietus' JR Moores quipped in a superb recent round-up review of virtual performances by the likes of Blanck Mass and Neil Young, "even gig reviewers now have to work from home". Moores suggests that - personally speaking, at least - the current situation is a case of being careful what you wish for, citing a particularly disagreeable experience at a Damned gig. But there are certainly upsides: "You don't have to squeeze through a sea of bloated hoodies to nip to the toilet and back. No one is standing in front of you filming the entire set for their YouTube channel because it basically already is one. The drinks are cheaper. It's much easier than it would usually be to watch a band while eating a plateful of sloppy lamb ragout off your lap. You know exactly who's to blame for the garlicky fart smell that's working its way through the room. Before you attend, you don't have to worry about what you're going to wear to the gig anymore. A novelty onesie in the shape of your favourite root vegetable? A tatty pair of Red Dwarf pyjamas? Just your underwear? A T-shirt bearing the name of the band that you are watching at that particular moment? Be as uncool as you like, people, nobody's judging you anymore." Well, when you put it like that, suddenly it doesn't seem quite so bad.

If it's the communal experience rather than the live performance element that you're missing, though, then The Charlatans' Tim Burgess is organising album listening parties on Twitter. Tune in using the hashtag #TimsListeningParty, press play in sync and look out for behind-the-songs stories and gossip from those involved in the particular record's making. Don't be put off by the NME's suggestion that the parties feature "some of Britpop's finest" - sure, Parklife and Definitely Maybe have been and gone, but so has Ride's Going Blank Again, and Mogwai's Come On Die Young is lined up for April.