In a new interview with Brocarde, former MOTÖRHEAD and current PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS guitarist Phil Campbell spoke about concertgoers using cell phones to take photos and videos of performances and sometimes filming entire shows instead of enjoying the moment. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): ”As soon as we get on stage, you see all the phones coming up. And I don’t mind somebody filming a little bit — you know, half a song. You get people, and I see them and they’ve been there, they’re expressionless and they’ve been there the entire show. They haven’t moved a limb. And stuff like that really pisses me off. You should live in the moment. And it’s off-putting as well. I much preferred it when people couldn’t be just filming. And the quality’s crap anyway. I’d rather see them tapping their feet or anything… You walk on stage and automatically everyone — the cameras come up, phones. You gotta be in the moment. You gotta be there. It’s important.”
Back in May 2018, GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna spoke out against cell-phone use at concerts, saying that there’s “something really magical that happens when” you are not experiencing live performances through a “little four-inch screen.”
A number of other musicians have come out in recent years to say that mobile technology is ruining the concert experience, including SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR singer Corey Taylor. He told “Loudwire Nights” that “it’s fine” if people want to take pictures of his bands’ shows, but not so much if they are videotaping entire performances. “It’s one thing to film it, it’s another thing to just be staring at your screen while you’re filming it,” he said. “It’s right there. Are you so terrified of real life that you can’t do anything unless it’s on that little four-by-four screen? Ugggh. It’s very weird.”
Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach in 2015 urged fans to keep their cell phones at the bottom of their pockets and just watch his performances. “Be in the moment,” he said. “You’re distracted and it’s distracting to the performer as well. Like, put your fuckin’ cell phone away, dammit! You’re never even going to watch that footage.”
The overuse of cellphones to capture grainy, blurry photos and videos at concerts has for years vexed and enraged artists like Bach, who lamented the fact that every one of his performances could be recorded and shared on YouTube almost immediately.
“If I go to a wedding and sing a song, it’s on Blabbermouth the next day and everybody analyzes it,” said Bach. “It’s a really backwards way to watch a band. It’s a drag sometimes when I go up there and the first thing I see is everybody getting their phones out and holding them toward my face. It makes you feel intimidated.”
Back in 2012, Bruce Dickinson chastised a fan for texting during an IRON MAIDEN concert, calling him a “wanker.”
When Axl Rose reunited with his former GUNS N’ ROSES bandmates, Duff McKagan and Slash, for the first time in 23 years at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in April 2016, the concert was phone-free.
