Chrissie Hynde has shared her thoughts on concertgoers who record and take pictures on their phones during concerts, and let’s just say she’s not a fan.
“Question: What is it with people and their phones?” the Pretenders frontwoman writes on social media. “But my real question is: why do people have to film or take pictures at concerts or museums? Why???”
She then mentions discussing the topic with singer Emmylou Harris before Harris’ recent concert in London.
“This is a subject that comes up every time I meet any artist. It’s become like an unpleasant fug hanging over the head of all artists,” Hynde writes. “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.”
She notes that Bob Dylan goes so far as to have fans lock up their phones before his shows, writing, “You would think an artist of his stature could make a simple request and the audience would respect it… no chance.”
Hynde says recording and filming at concerts is “like a weird compulsion that people can’t control,” noting, “no one seems to be able to understand why artists don’t like it.” She then compares it to “a mosquito buzzing around your head when you’re trying to go to sleep.”
Hynde shares that at Harris’ London show she encountered a man who was recording the whole concert and when someone told him it was rude and distracting, he told them to “mind their own business.”
“My conclusion is: if Jesus Christ were to walk into a room, the first thing everyone would do would be to pull out their phone,” she writes. “Can someone please explain?”
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