“A YouTube search pulls up few videos of Prince singing live, only heightening the anticipation to see it for ourselves”. Natalie Richardson, The Weekend West.
Not taking photographs and recording videos at a concert is a rare event these days. Prince is touring Australia this month and has requested that no recording devices (including mobile phones, tablets and cameras) be used during his concerts. While a lot of artists, musicians and venues request this on their tickets, many don’t follow up. At the beginning of his Australian concert Prince told fans “Turn off your cell phones, you do not need them here.” A journalist with a local Australian newspaper shared her experiences of getting back to the basics of enjoying a music experience without technology.
I certainly understand this journalist’s frustration of paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars travelling to events and to have other people’s use of technology intrude on the quality of their concerts experiences. I too have saved hard and paid hundreds and even thousands of dollars to travel to music and sporting events at home and overseas.
I would be really disappointed too, if a patron’s need to use technology interfered with the quality of my viewing experience. I don’t really understand why a patron would bother to record events like tennis matches and other sporting events that are televised and interfere with the quality of their own experiences and those around them.
I certainly agree with this journalist that a blanket ban on technology at concerts would be a great thing. A number of solutions have been put forward by artists and musicians from bag searches, a blanket ban on the use of technology, to recording the concert and making copies available, to allocating special areas for recording concerts, to requests from other patrons and have fallen on deaf ears.
But how do you enforce something like this? Security removing patrons who break the bans will cause further disruption to others. There are always going to be people who flaunt the rules and show a lack of concern for others quality of experiences around them for their five minutes of fame on YouTube or the chance to show off on social media. People do like to keep and make videos, but I too like the journalist wonder how often they are viewed after the event.
Prince is leading the way in returning to the basics of the concert experience and that is to enjoy the music experience being offered. However, there are always artists and musicians who enjoy the kind of attention and free publicity the use of technology at concerts can bring.
While it is very difficult to control the actions of others all we can do is control our own in what we pay to see and what we watch on the Internet. Hopefully others too will grow tired of the intrusion of technology into every aspect of their lives and leave their devices at home.
Nothing compares to a phone-free experience by Natalie Richards. The Weekend West. February 27-28 2016 (no copyright infringement intended)
Rojer Federer has returned his serve, it’s a cracker shot, so good that not even a tennis great like him can recover. Then – a black pane of glass – the crowd yelps, cheers, screams and applauds enthusiastically.
“How good was that,” the guy next to me cheers.
My blood is boiling. I’d missed one of the tennis star’s famous “trick shots”.
A spectator’s iPad, lifted in front on my face at the crucial moment, made sure I’d missed on on the very reason I’d shelled out for a flight to Melbourne, accommodation and a ticket to the Australian Open.
Mid-row for Prince’s Perth Arena concert, we were no doubt in for the same treatment.
But, the red text accompanying my ticket suggested otherwise.
“Mobile phones will not be permitted during the show,” it read.
The blanket ban on recording devices would include tablets and cameras, too.
Moments before the man himself arrived on stage on Thursday, you’d hardly believe it.
The women in front of me just “checked-in” on Facebook, her friend concocting a grainy video of the empty stage and a woman to the right of me flicks her hair between selfies.
An announcement from arena staff is met by jeers, whistles and groans. But there was no way anyone was going to argue with the man himself.
Amid the cheers, a request to enjoy “digital silence” leads to dozens of smartphone screens turning black. They would not appear again until the show was over.
Instead of live tweeting, the audience was clapping and swaying.
Instead of filming the hits, they sang along.
And the poor sods sitting at home or work, they could escape the saturation of poorly-lit-Prince-from-a-distance pictures.
And, while some might grumble at losing their chance to selfie their way through the singing, I’d happily see a phone ban at every paid event.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as guilty as anyone for a sneaky “bragbook” post at a concert I’ve sold a kidney to attend, but how many of us really watch those videos we made 100m from the stage at Big Day Out? And who really waits in front of a computer screen for a fuzzy video of a stage show?
A YouTube search pulls up few videos of Prince singing live, only heightening the anticipation to see it for ourselves.
And, on Thursday night, Prince couldn’t have nipped it in the bud any better than when he told the crowd, : “Turn off your cell phones, you do not need them here.”
