“It reminds me of monkeys w**king in full view of the people standing around their enclosure”: Chrissie Hynde slams “entitled” fans who film during concerts
If you’re heading to a Pretenders concert anytime soon, you may want to keep your phone firmly in your pocket. Or better still, just forget it exists for a couple of hours – because Chrissie Hynde has made it very clear she’d rather not see it at all.
In a lengthy note shared to social media, the Pretenders frontwoman says there is an “unpleasant fog hanging over the heads of all artists” caused by concertgoers who insist on filming and photographing live shows instead of simply experiencing them in real time.
“Question: What is it with people and their phones?” Hynde writes. “But my real question is: why do people have to film or take pictures at concerts or museums? Why???”
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The singer-guitarist argues that even when artists explicitly ask audiences to put their phones away, those requests are routinely ignored.
“You can plaster a venue with signs requesting ‘No cameras,’ but people don’t respect it. It’s as if people feel entitled, even though the artist clearly has asked them not to do it.”
Hynde also points to Bob Dylan’s well-known phone-free concerts as an example of how difficult such rules are to enforce in practice.
“Bob Dylan ensures that phones are sealed in a bag before a show,” she writes. “You would think an artist of his stature could make a simple request, and the audience would respect it. No chance. People will still sneak in a camera or a phone. It’s like a weird compulsion that people can’t control.”
“It reminds me of monkeys wanking in full view of the people standing around their enclosure, and frankly, in that case, people deserved to be wanked at because monkeys should not be in an enclosure in the first place… However, an artist on a stage?”
“No one seems to understand why artists don’t like it,” Hynde continues. “If you’ve ever had a mosquito buzzing around your head when you’re trying to go to sleep, you will get a vague idea of what it’s like to have people filming your show or taking photos while you’re on stage.”
“If Jesus Christ were to walk into a room, the first thing everyone would do would be to pull out their phone,” she concludes. “Can someone please explain?”
The sentiment isn’t abstract for Hynde either. She recounts a recent moment at the Royal Albert Hall, where she attended Emmylou Harris’ London show after having dinner with the singer – only to find herself seated beside a fan filming the entire performance. When another concertgoer asked him to stop, he simply told them to “Mind your own business.”
Hynde’s latest comments tap into a long-running divide in the music world over phones at gigs.
While some artists, such as Steve Vai, have no issues with fans filming gigs (even describing it as “great”), plenty others – including Jack White and Tool – have scorned the practice and implemented strict no-phone policies in an attempt to preserve the live experience. Kate Bush and Ghost have also both discouraged or restricted device use at shows.
The post “It reminds me of monkeys w**king in full view of the people standing around their enclosure”: Chrissie Hynde slams “entitled” fans who film during concerts appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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