I heard something I had never heard before at a gig last night. Just before Richard Thompson took to the stage at the Ipswich Corn Exchange an announcement was made over the PA that anyone who wanted to take photos during the gig should do so during the first three songs only, and that anyone taking videos as well was requested not to share them on social media.
I like to take photos at gigs (in as considerate as possible a way for those around me of course) and that seemed fair enough to me. It endorsed those who wished to take pictures while asking them to stop after a reasonable time. It was one man, one guitar with simple lighting – if you hadn’t captured any of the spectacle on offer after a few songs nothing was going to change after that.
I guess this was the venue’s stipulation rather than Richard’s. He was a recent guest on Chris Difford’s podcast and was asked about phones at gigs. In a reply taking in David Byrne (everyone told to film a particular song the put their phones away) and Chrisssie Hynde (so pissed off she threatened to stop playing if people didn’t stop taking pictures) he said that he thought phones could be an obstacle between performer and audience, and that he didn’t like to see people pushing others out of the way to get a good shot, but he appreciated gigs which wouldn’t otherwise be available to him being recorded by the audience.
Thoughts?
I’m a fan of this. It seems like a sensible way of dealing with the issue of pictures & should keep everyone happy I reckon.
Most people are pretty respectful (of both the artist & other patrons) but I can imagine it can be off putting when performing.
I remember seeing Cold Specks at the Lexington years ago & some guy was really getting in her face with the camera. It made for a really uncomfortable atmosphere & a rule like this would have avoided that issue.
Recording a video on your phone, that should be banned IMHO! It totally stops said person engaging with the gig & I would love to know who even watches them back?!?
First three songs has long been the standard for professional photographers in the pit, hasn’t it?
Indeed so, when we book photographers it is exactly that.
Interesting that. Never knew that. Always thought they were just thirsty bastards, diving in for the requisite few snaps, ahead of rushing off to down some….
They can be both!
It’s why you often see artists throwing a lot of shapes in first few songs. I remember Bowie “playing” guitar early on, he never touched it afterwards.
There were also bands who gave each photographer 5 minutes or so, and then sent in the next one. Imagine if your slot happens during the bass solo… 😉
I read somewhere that it’s because the eye liner and hair dye can’t be relied upon much after the 3rd song, and the bands didn’t want the sweaty pics out there.
Yes that’s right. Doesn’t matter who you are – if you have a show that involves a bit of movement you’re going to sweat like a pig after about 15 minutes.
Metal bands and people like Meat Loaf are OK about the grunt grunt grunt pics but other acts, not so much.
Goodness, what a delightful image.
I think Meat stopped being OK with stuff about 18 months back
I’ve conducted a serious analysis of this phenomenon, interviewed dozens of
matespeople and looked at the technical possibilities. In summary, I offer four possible options:1) Do nothing. Put up with them. Risk fisticuffs breaking out when someone objects to the jerk in front of them waving their bloody iPhone at face height for the duration, and consequently lamps the idiot.
2) Ban them altogether. Pass the cost of hiring extra security gorillas to hoik any misbehaving types from the crowd, stamp on their phones and eject them into the street on to the punters. Call it the Inconsiderate Twat Levy.
3) Install mobile phone jammers. Risk a visit from plod seeking to enforce the law regarding signal jamming, but pay your fines, if necessary, from the increase in bar revenue gained from having larger, happier crowds when discerning punters discover they can watch and hear gigs without morons spoiling things while filming their stupid ‘social media’ uploads.
4) Sigh, accept that a significant proportion of your audience consists of attention deficient borderline idiots, and tell them to limit their childish, selfish behaviour to the first ten minutes. Optionally employ added muscle (see above) and throw them out if they offend after their time is up.
I saw The Waterboys 7 or 8 years ago at Bexhill and the band lined up at the end in front of the set which was a reproduction of the Fisherman’s Blues cover so that people could take pictures. IIRC, this was after the last song and before house lights.
I’ve seen the two extremes. At an Elton John concert a couple of days ago, there were screens asking people to post their videos and photos on social media with the appropriate hashtags. But at a Bob Dylan concert, security were hassling people and threatening to throw them out if they took photos.
I think it depends on the event. Elton John was in a stadium with a party atmosphere. People were bouncing around and so it didn’t really matter if anyone was taking photos. Dylan was in a theatre, and was a lot more reverential, for want of a better word. Bright screens and flashes would have been distracting for everyone.
When I started taking photographs it was 35mm and only 36 frames per film. So you were limited to what you could take. The memory card on my camera will hold 1500 photographs so you can shoot away, (not that I would)
At least with a camera you don’t hold a screen up in the way of other people’s view.
I’ve taken photographs at gigs and taken a print when I’ve gone to see the act at another time and got it signed.
One of my photographs appeared on Simon Nicol’s first solo album, something I’m very pleased with.
@hubert-rawlinson Good cred! – so do tell, are you ‘self-timer’ or ‘happenchance’?
I am Happenstance (and so is my wife) taken at Leeds Poly.
Self timer was Simon self timing his camera.
Of course! It’s a lovely album – I bought it on the strength of ‘Over The Lancashire Hills’, which I think I’d heard on the crystal set.
The only weak spot on the album, for me, is Simon’s rather tentative take on Julie Gold’s song ‘From A Distance’ – the same song, recorded by Nanci Griffith the same year, knocked his version out of the park. But fair play to him for finding and recording it so early on, when only Nanci was otherwise listening.
Robert Fripp/King Crimson used to stop the show if anyone in the audience took flash photos. Punters were repeatedly warned in advance of this rule but a few still considered it not to apply to them. The music would only resume after the miscreant had handed their camera/phone to security. Generally the other audience members cooperated in the enforcement, for the sake of the show continuing.
I always have the flash turned off when taking snaps at gigs. Phone camera flashes are distracting and annoying to artists and fellow punters and are completely ineffective at more than about 10 feet anyway. If you can’t learn how to turn the flash off, you’re not safe to own a camera phone in my opinion.
And if you can’t learn how to use the phone properly, but instead strut about the place holding it like a small tray of drinks and shouting at it, you’re not safe to own a phone in my opinion. In fact, I’d question your right to continue to consume atmospheric oxygen.
Vulpes I have just spat my coffee out involuntarily. You are so right
That shit started on The Apprentice. Sort of makes sense when it’s three dimwits in a taxi talking to three other dimwits in another taxi, makes fk all sense when it’s one to one. As with the carrying-an-overpriced-coffee around thing, I suppose it’s a way of advertising your tremendous importance.
Back in the early days of Care In The Community, you could spot a nutter on day release because they’d be talking to themselves out loud in public. Nowadays they might have a Bluetooth headset and/or a device for answering back.
Talking of which, as an undergraduate, we had a bloke who came to sit on our front wall who spoke into his sleeve all day, as he was using a special invisible device to communicate with the secret UFO overhead – you know, the one which keeps us safe from alien invasion. We used to give him a cheese sandwich and a cup of tea at lunchtime, and made sure he got back to the home in time for his dinner. Exactly why the alien invasion would begin at Reading’s Cemetery Junction, we didn’t know – perhaps they wanted to check out who was playing at the Granby Tavern.
I expect better from you Steve, as someone who supported people with learning/physical disabilities in their home and in the community I`m dismayed you refer to them as `nutter on day release.` Just sayin` and I know you are definitely better than that.
Words chosen for comic effect, Baron.
I do think people who walk around the streets having a conversation on speakerphone should be rounded up, and, well, put into a room full of other people having a conversation on speakerphone. Just selfish, and deliberately annoying.
Coincidentally at couple of recent shows the band has got really irritated by people using flash (or more probably an elongated version like a floodlight) and have called out the miscreants – The Blues Band, where they explained it was extremely offputting, and Saucerful of Secrets. I suspect the complete banning of photography is partly driven by idiots who do this.
Sorry but the last time I saw The Blues Band, about a year ago, I would have welcomed anything that kept me awake. OOAA….
It was a novelty when it first started to happen, and at first it could occasionally be irritating. Over time it’s become part of the experience and I can’t say I really notice anymore. I’ll take a few pics as reminders of the night (it’s not like you have a ticket to keep anymore) and I might film 2 or 3 minutes of a song or two – I don’t bother with more than that as it does take you “out of the room”. I’d be happy to comply with requests to keep the shots to certain songs, and I’ve been impressed by people like Dweezil Zappa who sit at the edge of the stage at the end of a gig making sure everyone who wants a pic and and a signed card gets one. None of your Hynde diva nonsense from him.
I do avoid holding my phone over my head or in peoples faces. I did have one plumb lean over my shoulder and tell me I was “robbing artists of their money” and try and jostle me – one of the few occasions where I’ve squared up to someone and pointed out that given I’d paid to get in just like he did, and bought all of the CDs ever released, it was hard to see what was being “robbed”.
It’s yet another Afterword bugbear that baffles me. Your lives must be hell. You are driven crazy by so many aspects of modern life that you can’t beat. It’s most amusing really. Like King Cnut you could say.
Yes, it’s very weird. I’ve no idea how people make their way through life with such hatred and intolerance for those around them. I couldn’t give a toss if someone takes photos at a gig – I barely even notice it.
Anyone taking photos/videos at gigs, even if they consider themselves considerate(!) are nothing but selfish bastards who think about themselves and nobody else.
“in as considerate as possible a way for those around me of course” what self indulgent inconsiderate bollocks. Did you you go to those at the side/behind you and ask if they minded before the concert started, no I bet you didn’t. You and people like you have been ruining the enjoyment of fellow concert attendees for years. Shove your feckin’ camera up yer arse!
Love you too Baron. As it happens, there no one to one side of me or behind me, and the guys on my other side were doing the same as me and, like me, put their phones away as requested after the first song or two. Alas, rectal selfies with not be forthcoming.
“I like to take photos at gigs” Just like you I was referring to your habit of inconsideration to fellow gig attendees.
Yes, you made yourself totally clear. I’m sure we all have our bugbears at gigs. Mine is people who can’t leave the bar alone and spend all night in a promenading through the audience in a circuit from auditorium to bogs, often holding loud conversations with their companions about their whereabouts and taking orders for top-ups.. Even if I could I wouldn’t issue strict instructions to stop them. Maybe we should all just accept these annoyances part of the gig-going experience and live and let live.
Concert nuisances bothering concert nuisances.
Best stay at home, if going out annoys you so much.
He can’t because of all the noise the neighbors make when banging on the wall to complain about his non-stop shouting at the telly
You must get terrible nosebleeds being on such a high horse.
On the plus side it means he can see the gig better.
If he was at a Foals gig, he’d probably get invited up on stage
Foals lead singer has a saw throat. Sounded terrible.
In fact he was a little horse.
My favourite song of theirs is ‘I Saw A Mouse’. You know the one – the middle eight goes “clip-clippity-clop” before the coconut shell solo starts.
Whilst still talking a load of old pony, guvnor.
Come on, Gatz, don’t you know that conducting yourself in any way that doesn’t specifically suit Baron H makes you a selfish bastard? Do better.
Hello, more bollocks.
It seems there`s quite a lot of you who condone behaviour by selfish bastards, that`s OK, we all have opinions. Mine* is that those intruding on the enjoyment on others should be escorted out of the venue.
@Gatz says those refilling their pint pots by disturbing others going to the bar during the show is a bugbear of his! Hmm, pot calling the kettle black?
*I`ll tell you what I did when when this last happened to me. Ignorant pigs in the row in front of me at a Waterboys concert decided to hold a bloody iPad up in front of me to film their 17
seconds of shaky footage. I politely ask them to hold it lower so as not to impair my view. They ignored my request, I told them that if they continued I would bring a syeward. They ignored me, so I snatched the iPad from the berk (yes I know a daft thing to do) and gave it to the stewards who were making their way to the former iPad wielder who was escorted out.
It appears some of you condone this behaviour, that says a lot for you.
I was at Rolling Stones show in Boston once. There were a crowd of young ladies behind us drinking and getting so excited about the show. When the Stones came on everybody stood up as is customary at a Stones gig and these girls were going crazy. After about 3 songs they got bored and sat down. We stayed standing like nearly everybody else so we could “dance”.They did not like it and yelled at us to sit down, few minutes later they poured all their remaining beer over us. They were probably in the right, but a dubious way to express it.
If this was in a stadium, I think of seats in those places as somewhere to put your coat so it doesn’t have to go on the floor. If you’re sitting in one it’s probably because you’re too pissed to stand (as may have been the case here^)
Was an arena, probably second level at side of the stage, we were front row. Yes I think they were very pissed. I had had a few too.
Great show though, including a superb version of Some Girls, Route 66 and Moonlight Mile! I never heard those songs live again.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-rolling-stones/1999/fleet-center-boston-ma-23d6943b.html
Blimey, somebody make the poor chap a betablocker smoothie.
I would have put some photos up from a colonoscopy but I’ll leave them to your imagination.
If yours are anything like mine, think “pink broccoli.”
….. “selfish bastards who think about themselves and nobody else” . Ahh the irony.
Yeah, those molluscs and crustaceans eh? Fuckin’ bastards never think of anyone but thems…
oh.
Hang on. Not shellfish. I see. Read it differently. As you were.
Had I known I was taking on the Afterword Forum Camera Club I may have worded my posts more strongly!
Never mind the molluscs.
Bjork at BlueDot asked people to not take videos or pictures but to “live in the moment”.
Problem with that is many people could not see the stage and used phones to “relay” images.
(BTW she was great but quiet. I hoped it would be recorded for later listening, but sadly not)
Oh so quiet, natch.
It’s a total pain. I might take 2 or 3 shots per show. Those holding their phones up and recording the whole show which they will never ever watch again should be removed from the premises if they insist on doing it. Plus all the people checking Facebook during a show
Would gladly subscribe to no phones at all. Was at a Jack White gig where you had to place your phone in a pouch where it became inoperable. Really enjoyed being in the moment. I believe Dylan now has that arrangement
I at a gig where the twat in front of me was watching a completely different act on YouTube mid-performance!
People sit in the cinema watching YouTube, why should gigs be exempt? It’s a shame for the poor mites that their phones aren’t loud enough to drown out the sound of the band, but you can’t have everything.
These people probably watch YouTube during sex for all we know. And imagine one of them going for an MRI.
“You can’t take your phone in there”
“I’ll take it where I want, Fackin snowflakes!”
That’s what annoys me. “I have paid for my ticket I can do what I like” No you can’t, there are other people there too who also bought tickets who don’t need to have their evenings spoiled by selfish morons
Wow
When the Delfeayo Marsalis Big Band played here, the saxophone player talked with people in the first row between songs near the end of the gig. He then took out his (rather expensive looking) smartphone and handed it to someone in the audience, apparently with the instruction to film the next song. This, not surprisingly, turned out to be the song with his big solo. He then took back his phone with a proud smile on his face.
Never seen that before.
Cheaper variation on Beastie Boys’ Fuckin’ Awesome! concept.
A few years back, Mrs J and I were sitting at the far left hand side of the front row at a Kris Kristoferson concert in – I think – Castlebar.
View was not that great to begin with and making it far worse was the couple next to us.
A few songs in, the lady produced a camera phone with an external flash big enough to power a floodlight at a German POW camp and started to shoot the Silver Tongued Devilish one in action.
I waited patiently until the song was finished and politely asked her to refrain from doing so again as the light was so bright that the souls of elderly attendees two rows behind us were giving up the ghost and heading into it.
A couple of songs later out came the camera phone and its Marty Feldman-sized enormo light again; at which point I began fanning myself by theatrically waving a concert programme in front of her camera lens.
When I attempted to apologize to the husband at the interval, he called me a series of names which – while undoubtedly accurate – needn’t detain us here.
Heading to the bar during the interval, who should I end up sliding in next to but Mr Angry Husband. Annoyingly, for him, the barman assumed that I was ahead of him in the queue and insisted on serving me first. While I did say, “no this gentleman has been here longer”, Mr AH threw a hissy fit and stormed back to his seat. They didn’t take out the phone during the second half of the show though.
Don’t know why acts who don’t mind photography just don’t advise audiences to wait until the encore/last song of the night by which stage most other attendees won’t really care.
Personally speaking, hate the practice (most egregious example I can think of was during a Cirque de Soleil performance involving acrobats – I mean how stupid is that?)
It’s amazing they had room for cameras in them leotards.
I know it is not the point of the anecdote but wouldt the flash have helped? Loses rhe effect of the stage lighting.
If I ever see them and their klieg light-equipped cameraphone at a gig again I’ll be sure and pass on your advice on the way out at the end of the night
This photo appears in this month’s Mojo.
The happenstance of a punter’s flash at the same time as the official photographer’s produced this.
It is of course much easier to take photos today and you can dispense with using the flash due to a higher ‘film speed”
I recall seeing Tangerine Dream years ago every time a flash went off the images projected on the screen disappeared. Are we actually objecting to the taking of photographs or just the light spill from mobile phones spoiling your view. My annoyance is my digital camera makes the noise of a shutter being used and there is no way of turning it off much as I would like to.
Flash the firmware to lose the sound.
I shall ask my IT manager for help but thanks the vulpine one.
Back in the “good old days” I was always terrified at gigs that someone would lit my hair on fire with their cigarette (or their lighter, during the ballads).
Being a shortarse, I’m used to not seeing much of the stage at all during most gigs, so someone’s phone screen can actually help me to get a rare glimpse of the artist (I don’t own a phone myself – apart from at home – but I do have a Nikon camera that I’ll use during gigs to get a couple of pics. Never use flash however, never any need for it).
True. The flash is pointless unless you are close enough to what your shooting that it would be intrusive.
Then you get idiots doing this at a concert:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/unplanned-fireworks-dua-lipa-scotiabank-arena-1.6534761
Rock ON!
https://youtu.be/zUwEIt9ez7M