NORTHERN PLANNER

As I’ve been thinking about the behaviour or the pack recently, it’s no coincidence that I like the new Carling ad tapping into the tribal feeling of going out on the town- or safety in numbers.

I remember New years Eve in Hamburg, at the mercy of the sheer number of people in the town centre, and the amazing excitement at the countdown to midnight. I’m old enough to have watched Leeds United matches standing up, being buffeted by the ripple from one person three rows down gesticulating at a missed penalty, the tribal power of the endless chants. It’s raw, primal, primitive and instinctive. The couples in the corners of a nightclub all over each other, the queer silence of the masses doing a marathon, or the hot breath of a queue at the bar ten deep – the need to watch sport in a bar with mates instead of on your own at home.

We may think we’re individuals, but we’re all part some group somehow, it’s in our nature, it’s what’s kept Homo Sapiens alive and allowed them to evolve- it’s the inescapable march of humanity.