I’m a freelance photo-journalist so I have a vested interest here; but judging by the comments attached to this article in the Guardian newspaper even ‘normal’ music fans are getting annoyed by the amount of camera-phones at gigs these days.
It has taken me a lot of years to get to the stage where I get a Press pass to the majority of gigs that I apply for; only to find that at the bigger; more popular concerts, on the other side of the pit I see cameras of all shapes and sizes clicking merrily away.
As a music fan; I see the desire to have a photographic ‘memory’ of the concert but trying to take an image more that 12 feet away from the stage isn’t going to be Award winning on your i-phone; now is it?
In my town; (Newcastle, England) two of the toughest venues to get a photo pass for – the Arena and City Hall have started asking for fans to tweet their photos; during and immediately after concerts! The results are 100% terrible but a recent One Direction concert crashed their site as so many kids tried to get their photos on-line.
After the ‘three songs’ rule I stay in the hall to take notes for my review and that’s when I can see 100 or more glowing lights recording something that will be unusable – and I find it annoying. Is it just me?
What do you think? Is it the way forward or should venues take a tougher stance?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/shortcuts/2013/apr/10/yeah-yeah-yeahs-phones-gigs
