Peter Viney's Blog

20 April 2023

I saw that Natalie Merchant had stopped a show yesterday, called a mother and daughter up on stage and had them delete video footage of her. There was a great deal of comment with the bays and bleats of the entitled who thought they had a right to record anyone anywhere. You don’t. Natalie Merchant was right, most of the audience applauded her. Apparently, she had politely asked the mother to stop filming after the previous song. The daughter then started filming the next one.

I am completely on Natalie Merchant’s side, and think her kind not to have them ejected from the concert. I would have. If you want to see Natalie singing songs from her new album, Keep Your Courage, she has placed them, properly recorded, on YouTube.

It started me thinking about the history of phones and filming concerts. At one time it just happened, but quality was incredibly low. Still photos were frequent, and I recall there was a tacit ‘we’ll all take photos in the encore’ and once everyone stood for the encore hundreds of people would take still shots. I’ve done it. It was ‘bad form’ to take them before the encore. Standing was the cue. Everyone on and off stage seemed to know it. That pre-dated smart phones when people would take 35 mm cameras into concerts.

Things have changed because Smart Phones now are about as good as video cameras 30 years ago. With that, people have changed. They don’t have memories unless they’re recorded (probably all that phone use softening their brains). I am reminded of flying to Japan in the 1980s when the route was via Anchorage, Alaska. Japan Air Lines. I was gazing in wonder through the window at Mount McKinley (Denali). The flight attendant came and closed the shutter. The light was disturbing other passengers who were staring at the screen at the front of the plane showing video footage of Mount McKinley from the plane’s camera. Real experience is not enough. You need the video recording.

Mobile phones in concerts are a distraction for others in the audience, with lit screens.  It is spreading to the theatre. When we saw Benedict Cumberbatch in ‘Hamlet’ a dozen screens lit at the ‘To be or not to be’ speech.  Then the shaky product gets posted online. The artiste has intellectual property rights on the songs / performance, and personal image rights. I review concerts, and I am careful not to repeat banter and anecdotes. I’ve toured speaking to audiences, and once someone puts your joke online, you’ve lost it. That’s why stand-up comedians are most reluctant to repeat their stage act jokes on TV

Being filmed is also a constraint. When we did teacher training talks, we were often met with video camera and microphone set ups.  Often no one had asked. My co-author Bernie Hartley was a blanket ‘no filming’ because he said that was his job, you behave and perform differently when being recorded, you’re instantly less relaxed with the audience. Also one day he might want to put his talks on video himself. I tended to give permission on strict condition that it was only used in the institution where it was filmed. I never gave permission in the UK, but I would in Japan or Mexico (both places where people always asked).

How have artistes coped with the fact that everyone now has a high definition video camera? (I did lights in the theatre in the 60s, and the stage manager would have sacked you on the spot for saying ARTISTS rather than ARTISTES. The distinction continued in my mid-80s video filming days). I think they all know that if you play Hyde Park to 100,000 people (or any open air venue) you can’t stop it and there’s no point trying.

The first to make a stand at indoor venues was Van Morrison. I remember tables and a stack of cubby holes and you checked your phone and got a ticket. I saw that a few times with different artistes. As phones got more expensive with more data, audiences really were reluctant to do that. We thought that while we were in the show, the checking staff could be phoning auntie in Australia on our account.

Art Garfunkel had one that failed. Handwritten notes taped on all the doors asking people not to uses phones, signed ‘love Art.’ By the interval they’d all been nicked.

Last time I saw Van Morrison, signs and an announcement said that if Sir Van Morrison saw a phone, he would leave the stage and not return. We all believed him.

Bob Dylan last year had the most elaborate system. Jack White uses it. The Lumineers use it. There were electronic phone pouches, and you placed your phone in the bag, it locked electronically,  and you took it in with you. On the way out the bag was scanned and it opened, you took out your phone and dropped the bag in a large container. It was very quick. I reckon they had around twenty people sorting that in a 3000 seat hall. It is a very expensive solution, but then tickets were incredibly expensive. They had announced the system in advance, and I simply left my phone in the glove compartment in my car.

A few days ago at The Zombies concert signs said that if phones were used, they would be taken and the footage deleted and the phone owner would be ejected without compensation. In practice, the two regular door security guys stood at the back watching, and simply walked down and tapped people on the shoulder and shook a finger. It happened about six times. No one was ejected. It worked, but that was in a small hall with short rows. I’ve also seen the same at a classical concert.

Robert Fripp has the best solution (well, like me, he’s from Dorset). They announce that King Crimson will stop if they see phones, but that at the end they will do a line up on stage and take photos of the audience. When they start taking photos of us, we can take photos of them.

It is very difficult for artistes to deal with the rude and entitled  personally. You need someone to do it for you. In our teacher training days, Bernie would cue the OUP rep to ban filming for him. I remember seeing Emmylou Harris in Brighton on the ‘Wrecking Ball’ tour. I’ll quote my own review:

The whole album concept caused a bit of a fuss in this one. A Judas!  / Manchester Free Trade Hall moment, if you like. After Where Will I Be (for which Emmylou didn’t play guitar) she announced the concept. I thought everyone knew the concept given that it was on the poster and ticket, but I was wrong. After the fourth song, Neil Young’s Wrecking Ball, a man stood up and started shouting in the third or fourth row. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but Emmylou could, and politely (calling him ‘sir’) said that this was billed as the Wrecking Ball Tour so yes, she would be going through the album in sequence, so the content should not come as a surprise to him, and if he would care to be patient, there would be some other songs later. She’s a total professional, and handled it with aplomb, but anyone is rattled by that kind of audience attack.  … But when she started Deeper Well we were reminded that an arsehole is indeed an arsehole, because the protester and his companion, got up and pushed their way to the aisle and marched out. Yes, they didn’t choose the gap between songs, they waited till the middle of the song to cause maximum hissy fit disturbance to audience and performers. Worse, they repeated it in reverse as she started the ‘other songs’ after she’d finished Wrecking Ball. They made a huge fuss about getting back in their seats. The hall should not have allowed them back in.