Bouncers: Who would save us without them?

Blood Red Shoes' Laura-Mary Carter got attacked by a bouncer at her own gig at Manchester's Bar Academy:

"I left the backstage area carrying a bottle of wine to go and watch Pull Tiger Tail.

The next thing I knew a bouncer grabbed my neck from behind and started to drag me out of the venue. When we got to the stairs he tackled me in a Johnny Wilkinson way and I fell and hit my head on the stairs and slashed my arm open.

"Luckily Charlie from the Rumble Strips saw what was going on and jumped to my rescue by pulling the bouncer off me. It was all a bit of a blur, there was blood everywhere from my arm - it was pretty scary. I promised to make Charlie an apple pie for being such a hero. Apparently it was all because the bouncer thought I was underage."

Door staff always bridle when music fans complain about their behaviour - they point out that most of them do an important and difficult job incredibly well. Which is true. Even so, there are still far too many who behave like this. Carter was being asked to leave a venue because the bouncer thought she was underage - so this man (who has, apparently, since been sacked) was attacking someone he believed to be a child. Perhaps it would allow us all a greater degree of confidence in the system if bouncers all wore identifying numbers, so that,like the police, they at least have to cover up with sticky tape any time they want to get themselves out of proportion.