No mobile phones to be allowed at upcoming Bob Dylan gigs. Evidently you put them in an ‘automatic pouch’ … not sure if you have to buy them/rent them. Also not sure if this is to persuade people to enjoy the moment or something about copyrights. Seems a great idea to me.
But is it a British thing? I’ve only been to a couple of indoor US gigs in recent years and I don’t recall seeing anyone filming the gig.
My phone controls my medical devices.
Bob can get fucked.
I’m sure Bob will be heartbroken by your cruel rejection.
Somebody sent me this today – barely relevant, but amusing nonetheless.
If you want to talk to God, surely down ten cans of Tennent’s Extra and call him on the big white telephone?
Well there’s this way.
Talking to Jesus on the Atomic Telephone.
Pouches by Yonder it seems. I’d imagine the queue at the end to get unlocked would be fearsome.
https://www.overyondr.com/phone-locking-pouch
Only happened once for me and it was maybe 5 years ago at a gig by Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby
Bob’s been doing the Vonder pouch thing for a couple of years now.
The end-of-show queues are minimal.
‘The Blowin’ in the Wind singer’…..
Bob for Millennials.
Personally think it is a great idea – sick of people standing or sitting in front of me on their phones or taking pictures of bands. Almost certainly they are never looked at after the gigs so what is the point?
I am sure there would be medical exemptions if explained to the promoters.
Seconded. At the Nick Mason gig recently, at one point the lad in front of us started videoing the band with his phone – extremely irritating when you’re trying to actually be there in the present moment and your eye is taken by the greasy knobhead in the row in front who is holding his bloody mobile up in the air.
I was about to smack him about the head (Oh, so sorry, I was trying to pick up my phone) when his mum, sat directly in front of me and to his left, leant over and told him to put it away. Shame she hadn’t also told the little tyke (about 16 or 17 I’d guess) to wash his hair from time to time – his personal hygience was redolent of Kevin & Perry. Shudders.
I agree except I admit to watching videos on YouTube mainly from gigs I was at, so I am also culpable
You would be surprised how difficult that can be on the day, even when there is legislation protecting you.
Yep, great idea.
One of the last times I went to anything approaching a major event was a football match at the London Olympics featuring Great Britain.
The home team got a corner our side of the pitch and I was suddenly aware that everybody around us was filming Ryan Giggs coming over to take it. I think we were the only two people watching the proceedings – not wildly interesting proceedings, Ryan Giggs coming over to take a corner – with our actual eyes.
As a performer you can tell if you have the audience’s attention or not, that’s fairly obvious. If the whole room is focused on their phones before the music, then that’s going to affect the quality of the music. When you feel that you have the audience ‘with’ you, that’s a powerful feeling and takes hold of the show.
I would go down the route that Robert Fripp took with King Crimson’s final years: make it absolutely clear to the audience that they shouldn’t use phones, and explain why. It worked – it lifted the gig into a level that you don’t often get. I’m probably a bit biased here, but this is what I experienced.
(Edit: I realised that this makes it look like I’m a member of KC, which I absolutely am not!)
Are you sure? I confess that I always wondered…
He does it over here too. I have had this once at a Jack White gig. I thought it was a good thing. Btw you can still use your phone, you just need to leave main part of venue to do so and someone will unlock your pouch for you. Didn’t cost anything
At the recent PSB gig I went to Neil Tennant waved everyone’s phones down during the first song
Seemed to work, the odd photo is fine of course but there’s a special place in hell for the cunts who film gigs all the way through
Bob had this setup at his last Dublin gig
A number of comedians doing this now as well, partly to stop material being made redundant by being shared online, but also to prevent gags being taken out of context and used to get them into trouble.
You had to do this at the Roger Waters shows at the Palladium last year. Don’t see a problem in being separated from my phone for a couple of hours personally although a few managed to sneak them in anyway.
You keep your phones with you the whole time, you just can’t use them.
It’s not really a new thing, though. Prince and, memorably, Kate Bush politely requested that people refrain from using their phones at their respective shows some ten years ago.
I wish every performer did it. They could ban talking at gigs, while they’re at it, too.
While it will never happen, I’m beginning to think they should shut bars when performers are on stage.
IIRC, Van M insisted on booze-free gigs a few years back
That’s my greatest bugbear at standing gigs, blokes (it’s always blokes) who spend much of the night in a triangular route between the venue, the bar and the loos, and the rest of it talking about the next round of drinks and farting.
It’s worst at standing gigs when grunting Cro-Magnon types brusquely shove their way past slopping beer everywhere and only pausing to berate anyone foolish enough to object
I go to quite a few stand-up gigs, but I don’t go to those kind of stand-up gigs any more. If I know that arseholes will be present, I’ll stay at home.
I don’t have an objection to people talking at loud rock gigs. I’m pretty sure I never stayed silent at the rock gigs of my yesteryear, off my tits in the company of my off-their-tits-also mates. Rock gigs are social occasions, whether we like it or not.
People yapping on at quieter gigs is a completely different matter, of course.
The average British punter’s belief that only consuming large quantities of beer makes a good night out, is a bit troubling.
Would Bob’s audience be able to hold up a phone in the air for more than 5 minutes anyway?
@Gardener
Yes, those old rotary-dial Bakelite numbers are murder on aging arms