However, who’s to say the ick can’t occur between bandmates? I keep asking. But Meg and Emily are not partners, only bandmates. “Did I give you the ick?” Emily shakes her head lightly, then whispers, “No.” Oops, maybe I’ve rocked the boat. Because I have one and wear one… Emily came over at half-eight yesterday morning and I was literally in my dressing gown,” she says eventually. She is dressed in a pink and red vest, large tortoiseshell glasses, with a faux leather love heart pinned to her ear. On the subject of dressing gowns, they are so far divided. We’re playing ‘Ick or No Ick’, a game I’ve invented to see just what makes the band tick, and what gives them the ick. I discovered this when I interviewed two members of Panic Shack, Meg and Emily, earlier this year, on the first rainy day in a Summer of drought. As it turns out, what gives one person the ick might not gross out another. Was it possible? Could I be that guy? Did I shush my crush in the cinema!? If I did, it didn’t give Maisie the ick. Just that week, I’d been to see ‘The Godfather’ on a date. I’m walking down the street with my Airpods in when I hear the lyrics: you basically handed me the hammer / practically placed the nail on to the wood / smashed that nail firmly into the coffin when you / let out a shush / you shushed me in the cinema! / he shushed me in the cinema / you DO NOT SHUSH ME IN THE CINEMA! I didn’t want to give my girlfriend “the ick” – a phenomenon made famous by TikTok, described by The Urban Dictionary as: “Something someone does that is an instant turn-off for you, making you instantly hate the idea of being with them romantically.”Ĭue Steve Lamacq playing ‘The Ick’, Panic Shack’s hit 2022 single riffing on the phenomena, on his BBC 6Music show. Most of all, I was avoiding embarrassing myself. I held open doors and offered to pay for drinks, I quadruple-checked my outfits before leaving the house for dates and posted strategically on Instagram stories which suggested I was *available*. At that time, I was doing everything typical of anyone trying to impress a crush. At the beginning of this year, I started dating my now-girlfriend.

Don t shush me