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Lighting up a cigarette is a right of passage at concerts — and especially at a Rolling Stones show. If you’re too busy coughing...

National Post readers were treated to a picture of my music idol Keith Richards – and some other guy named Ron Wood — simultaneously picking at their guitars and smoking a butt. The Post story (read here) was about the new O2 area in London, where the Stone, during a recent concert, violated Britain’s newly instituted anti-smoking laws that ban anyone from lighting up at any indoor facility.

Apparently, ushers were forced to scramble through the crowd to keep concert-goers from emulating the Stones and lighting up themselves. Band members were also told to put their ciggies out.

Not cool.

See, I’m all for banning smoking in most public spaces — parks, movie theatres, coffee shops and malls — where the vast majority of patrons dismiss smoking as a disgusting habit and would rather not have the smell of burning nicotine and tar latching on to their clothes. Those are sensible venues at which to ban smoking.

But there are some places where smoking is part of the culture — it goes with the turf. Seedy pool halls grungy bars and, yes, concert venues. Smoking is part of the culture there. If you’re not smoking, you’re out of place.

Lighting up a cigarette (and some other substances) is a right of passage at concerts — and especially at a Rolling Stones show. If you’re too busy coughing up second-hand smoke while the band’s playing "Brown Sugar," you probably shouldn’t be there in the first place.

I didn’t hear any complains from concert-goers about Richards’ ungodly behavior . The only ones upset were the British government and O2 area owners (who faced a potential fine for allowing smoking at their facility).

Lighten up a little. A Rolling Stones concert isn’t a stroll in the park or an afternoon with a Starbucks Super Chai Latte. It’s a sacred event — chances to hear the once-greatest band in the world plays their hits, let loose and remember the glory days. And that, for many, if not most, means lighting up a cigarette, inhaling deeply and smiling as the sounds of "Satisfaction" mix with that unmistakable nicotine head rush.