No more babes on the stage: The changing modes of spectatorship in Athenian live-music nightclubs

This chapter explores the ways in which recent trends in nightlife entertainment have designated a shift from the established participatory mode of engagement (audience dancing on stage next to the performer) towards a spectator-mentality (audience consuming alcohol from their designated seats). Based on extended ethnographic research within the professional music circuit, and specifically my one-year-long employment as a keyboardist in the band of Greek pop-star Sakis Rouvas, I will examine practices of ‘stage-policing’ as a strategic conceptual tool that transforms the performer from a facilitator of kéfi (as summarised by the old motto óla ta morá stin písta) into an idolised and unreachable ‘celebrity’.