At last! Mobile phones banned at gigs.

[lojo]

I'm happy not to use my phone to film or take pics at events , but I do want to be able to use it to text my kids should they need me , so I don't want it locked away 

[bartelby]

6 hours ago, mcnach said:

 

charming... 

This is the person who, in another thread, proudly listed all the bands he's spat on. 

[BigRedX]

4 hours ago, lojo said:

I'm happy not to use my phone to film or take pics at events , but I do want to be able to use it to text my kids should they need me , so I don't want it locked away 

I'm sorry but if your kids can't manage for a few hours without needing you to text them back, then you probably shouldn't be leaving them on their own while you go to a gig.

[stingrayPete1977]

24 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I'm sorry but if your kids can't manage for a few hours without needing you to text them back, then you probably shouldn't be leaving them on their own while you go to a gig.

Lots of people have lots of things going on in their lives, it doesn't matter if people want to text all night as long as they're not holding their phone aloft all night does it? 

[mcnach]

3 hours ago, bartelby said:

This is the person who, in another thread, proudly listed all the bands he's spat on. 

 

He'd better not come to see my band, then. We're peaceful but not pacifists

[mcnach]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I'm sorry but if your kids can't manage for a few hours without needing you to text them back, then you probably shouldn't be leaving them on their own while you go to a gig.

 

Just because you don't need/want your phone it doesn't mean others should do without.

As long as they're not holding it up obstructing your view, what do you care?

[Fozza]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/features/i-go-to-gigs-to-hear-myself-talk-not-to-listen-to-the-band-20180126143247

[Switch625]

I went to the Chris Rock show at the SSE Arena Wembley on Friday night and it was an absolute shambles.

The timings were supposed to be roughly a 7.55pm start with an hour of warm up acts before Chris was due to come on at 9. I arrived at 7.30pm thinking half an hour should be enough to get through security - wrong! When I arrived there were massive queues at each of the entrances. Moving very, very slowly.

It got to 8.30 and I was still outside having not moved very far, thinking would I even get in by 9pm when Chris was due to start. Some people ahead of me at this point just gave up and left. It was around 8.45 that the security started to shift people to other entrances to ease the congestion and then just started whizzing people through, obviously in an attempt to get everybody in by 9.

The little pouches that hold your phone are designed so a strong magnet holds it together. It probably wouldn't take much force to open it. Also there's no window - my thoughts were what if somebody needed to get hold of me in an emergency? I wouldn't even be able to see if a family member was trying to get in touch.

And of course at the end after the gig finished, there wasn't enough people outside to open the pouches up to retrieve the phone, so was waiting for about 15 mins to get that done.

This will do nothing to stop people recording if they want to. I saw people in the arena with phones that hadn't been locked away. Anybody could simply take 2 phones and have one locked and use the other or a camera to record. In fact there was a guy in the front row who got kicked out after about 15 mins when Chris noticed he was recording with a camera.

Whilst the idea is good that people should enjoy the show without a sea of phones in their faces, the execution needs to be vastly improved.

[LewisK1975]

Hmmm, a good 'idea'.  But like the article states, it'll divide opinion.

I was at a Mr.Big gig and was recording one song I really liked.  It was the only time I'd got my phone out during the show.  I got a 'sharp' tap on the shoulder from someone behind me and he wanted me to stop filming.  I told him No.  Finished the song and put my phone away.

Heard the same guy having a go at others during the show who we dancing too near him too.

If there had been a notice saying no filming / photographs at the Mr Big show I went to then I wouldn't have got my phone out.  But as there was no indication from the venue / band / promoter that phones were not to be used for pics / recordings then I didn't do anything wrong, I'd paid for my ticket the same as the guy who didn't want me to film one song..  He had his opinion about what I was doing, and I'm perfectly entitled to disagree with him. 

[charic]

I think the only way you'll start to reduce this stuff is setting up a basic filming rig at every venue (a mounted gopro somewhere will hands down thrash any phone, although it depends on budget) and make the footage available to download to anyone with the link for 2 days following the gig.  In that case I don't know why you would bother filming it yourself.

[la bam]

I cant stand how mobile phones are almost completely attached to people now. People have a genuine problem / addiction with them. How did we ever survive before them? 

As much as i can understand the emergency call issue (and i can) by the same worry how do people gig? Go swimming? Go to the cinema? Go for a job interview? Get married? All those things take approx the same amount of time as a concert.

Its just a sad fact of life now.

The people arent doing anything wrong, and younger concert go ers wont know any different. But i remember when you went to a gig to encapsulate all what was good about it - the atmosphere, the music, the performance, the dancing. Everyone had the same intention.

Go online and look at Queen at wembley 86. 100,000 all getting involved together and truly loving it. Then look at a modern day concert. Lifeless, cameras everywhere, half the crowd not interested in living in the moment because theyre too busy standing still to get a good video.....

 

Such a shame.

Edited January 29, 2018 by la bam

[charic]

I tend to have a song that I want to capture for my own "memories" and that's it.  Maybe the odd photo

[mcnach]

16 minutes ago, la bam said:

I cant stand how mobile phones are almost completely attached to people now. People have a genuine problem / addiction with them. How did we ever survive before them? 

As much as i can understand the emergency call issue (and i can) by the same worry how do people gig? Go swimming? Go to the cinema? Go for a job interview? Get married? All those things take approx the same amount of time as a concert.

Its just a sad fact of life now.

The people arent doing anything wrong, and younger concert go ers wont know any different. But i remember when you went to a gig to encapsulate all what was good about it - the atmosphere, the music, the performance, the dancing. Everyone had the same intention.

Go online and look at Queen at wembley 86. 100,000 all getting involved together and truly loving it. Then look at a modern day concert. Lifeless, cameras everywhere, half the crowd not interested in living in the moment because theyre too busy standing still to get a good video.....

 

Such a shame.

 

A little melodramatic?

I see lots of phones... but I do not see any sign of any life being taken away from gigs because of that. I don't like having my view obstructed, but let's not make up stories

[LewisK1975]

14 minutes ago, charic said:

I tend to have a song that I want to capture for my own "memories" and that's it.  Maybe the odd photo

Same here, but see my post up a few, I still got asked not to film by another chap there.  It was one song out of a 2 hour show.  I don't think that's unreasonable.

As I also stated I wouldn't have got my phone out if there had been ANY indication that it was banned at the show.

[BigRedX]

14 minutes ago, LewisK1975 said:

Same here, but see my post up a few, I still got asked not to film by another chap there.  It was one song out of a 2 hour show.  I don't think that's unreasonable.

As I also stated I wouldn't have got my phone out if there had been ANY indication that it was banned at the show.

And have you ever looked at or listened to the clip since?

[la bam]

8 minutes ago, mcnach said:

 

A little melodramatic?

I see lots of phones... but I do not see any sign of any life being taken away from gigs because of that. I don't like having my view obstructed, but let's not make up stories

Maybe

But when youre really really looking forward to a gig and youre surrounded by some bloke shouting down the phone looking for his mates to wave at across the venue, another twiddling away on facebook, someone talking to a baby sitter for 10 minutes, plenty others holding a phone up as high as they can to film meaning you cant see past them, with no consideration for others and the constant barage of clowns making everyone stand so they can squeeze past everyone and go and get a pint, then again when they come back, and again when they then need the toilet, and youve paid £100+ for the privilege to sit/stand amongst a crowd for who the band comes 3rd or 4th in their priorities for the next hour after phone, facebook and beer, i think its fair to whinge a bit!

All the above stopped me going to concerts years ago. Feom what i hear from friends or family who do still go, they get just as annoyed.

[LewisK1975]

Just now, BigRedX said:

And have you ever looked at or listened to the clip since?

Yes I have thanks, many times.  I really enjoyed the show too, unlike the moaning bugger behind me who just spent the entire show waiting for someone to offend him.

[BigRedX]

4 minutes ago, LewisK1975 said:

Yes I have thanks, many times.  I really enjoyed the show too, unlike the moaning bugger behind me who just spent the entire show waiting for someone to offend him.

Fair enough.

I went through a phase bout 15 years ago, when I got my first decent digital compact camera, of taking lots of gig photos.

I stopped doing it when I realised that even after deleting the ones that were crap I rarely looked at any of the others not matter how good they were. Also I found gigs were far more enjoyable when I didn't take my camera or phone and consequently didn't  have to worry about what I was going to do with them when they weren't being used.

[stingrayPete1977]

56 minutes ago, LewisK1975 said:

I was at a Mr.Big gig and was recording one song I really liked.  It was the only time I'd got my phone out during the show.  I got a 'sharp' tap on the shoulder from someone behind me and he wanted me to stop filming.  I told him No.  Finished the song and put my phone away.

Most of us can manage to understand things without the need for signs everywhere, I like the grumpy guy and would have been thinking the same as him but wouldn't have been brave enough to ask you to stop

[PaulWarning]

8 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Fair enough.

I went through a phase bout 15 years ago, when I got my first decent digital compact camera, of taking lots of gig photos.

I stopped doing it when I realised that even after deleting the ones that were crap I rarely looked at any of the others not matter how good they were. Also I found gigs were far more enjoyable when I didn't take my camera or phone and consequently didn't  have to worry about what I was going to do with them when they weren't being used.

what you now is take about 100 photos then dump them on FB, without looking at them, for everybody else to 'enjoy' them and be envious of what a fantastic night you've had

[BigRedX]

1 minute ago, PaulWarning said:

what you now is take about 100 photos then dump them on FB, without looking at them, for everybody else to 'enjoy' them and be envious of what a fantastic night you've had

Where no-one else looks at them either.

[stingrayPete1977]

33 minutes ago, LewisK1975 said:

Same here, but see my post up a few, I still got asked not to film by another chap there.  It was one song out of a 2 hour show.  I don't think that's unreasonable.

As I also stated I wouldn't have got my phone out if there had been ANY indication that it was banned at the show.

Let's do some simple maths; 

Decent sized gig with 15000 people in the audience like the Genting Arena in Birmingham.

Main act play 20 songs and let's pretend they are divided equally as "my favourite song and the only one I recorded" between the audience. 

That's 750 phones being held up obscuring the view of probably four times as many people directly behind them and at least a few hundred people with a stinky armpit shoved in their face!

Maybe nerf gun snipers is the answer?

 

[la bam]

Divide the venue:

Left hand side phones, text, facebook, whatsapp, ipads, videoing allowed.

Right hand side no phones allowed.

See who has the better time. And watch the left hand side want to come over and join the fun......and then film it to show their mates!

[BigRedX]

10 minutes ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

Decent sized gig with 15000 people in the audience like the Genting Arena in Birmingham.

15000 people with me in the audience at a gig? My worst nightmare. It's bad enough with 2500 at Rock City.

I'm thankful that none of the bands I really like are popular enough to attract that size of audience.

[mcnach]

1 hour ago, la bam said:

Maybe

But when youre really really looking forward to a gig and youre surrounded by some bloke shouting down the phone looking for his mates to wave at across the venue, another twiddling away on facebook, someone talking to a baby sitter for 10 minutes, plenty others holding a phone up as high as they can to film meaning you cant see past them, with no consideration for others and the constant barage of clowns making everyone stand so they can squeeze past everyone and go and get a pint, then again when they come back, and again when they then need the toilet, and youve paid £100+ for the privilege to sit/stand amongst a crowd for who the band comes 3rd or 4th in their priorities for the next hour after phone, facebook and beer, i think its fair to whinge a bit!

All the above stopped me going to concerts years ago. Feom what i hear from friends or family who do still go, they get just as annoyed.

 

True, gigs are getting more and more annoying... but I'm not sure if it's the people or me getting old