No pit last night at biffy, three rows from the front and couldn’t believe it! Never seen so many women at a gig, and wondered if that was the reason?

Jack White took a professional photographer on tour with him who published the photos on a website and we could download for free. Still didn’t stop everyone but it was an improvement.

At a Bjork concert the audience were asked not to take photos and enjoy the show. As far as I could tell everyone respected it. Mind you, it was quite a small, intimate venue so they would have stood out quite a bit.

Slugwash – you realise (even without the other screen in the shot) that that is a REALLY CRAP PHOTO??

to be fair to Slugwash, I was at that gig, The Upsetter is so old that he could have died at any given moment, so taking photo’s was kind of relevant on the night IMO.. the photo’s were bound to come out a bit squiffy cos he was so ferlipping stoned he was bending reality.. (Lee that is, not Slugwash)

As it was, the ageing singer shimmied and cavorted and leapt about like a madman all evening 😀

This is a crap photo btw

I was at that gig, The Upsetter is so old that he could have died at any given moment

He was so late joining the rest of his band onstage that I thought he’d popped his clogs whilst the support act was still on.

he was so ferlipping stoned he was bending reality.. (Lee that is, not Slugwash)

This must of been the first gig I was unstoned cold sober at since Black Sabbath at the Brighton Centre when I was fourteen.

Last time I went to a gig that wasn’t a couple of folk singers in the corner of a pub, the air was full of cigarette smoke and I was the same age as most of the audience. So in my defence (waving a smart phone around, not taking bad pictures) I was just trying to get down and blend in with the rest of the audience. 8)

(Yunki, working in Exmouth first Thursday in April. An afternoon Woodbury ride if not too wet?)

Back in’t day bands were so much louder that it was pointless trying to have a conversation.

Having seen 100s of bands in the last 33years one thing has become apparent – POP celebrity worship is on the up and bands being able to entertain a crowd is very much on the wane.

I’m looking at you Stereophonics

I generally ‘bump’ into people who hold up phones in the hope they’ll drop them…

wrightyson – Member
No pit last night at biffy, three rows from the front and couldn’t believe it! Never seen so many women at a gig, and wondered if that was the reason?

😆

I went to see Scroobius Pip recently and he complained about this too. He basically said that he wanted to get all the photography out of the way before he started and so he did a series of poses for us all so we could take our pictures, imagining that he was full flight into his set.. Very funny 😀

Theres the 3 song rule for official photographers – perhaps thats the way to go?

This is a crap photo btw

You’re dead right. But at least we all know you went to the gig eh?

wrightyson – Member

No pit last night at biffy, three rows from the front and couldn’t believe it! Never seen so many women at a gig, and wondered if that was the reason?

Ah! The 3 things that annoy me far more than cameraphone zombies…

1) People who go down the front before the start, then get brutally wedged and spend the next 5 songs running away.
2) People who go near the front, with no intention of ever having their feet so much as tap never mind leave the ground, but then form a shield wall and won’t let anyone who wants to actually have fun through
and number 3) The boyfriend/girlfriend team down the front, where the girlfriend spends the entire time falling over, and the boyfriend spends the entire time “defending” her while getting pissed off at anyone who bumps into them.

Phone zombies might be annoying but at least they’re not physically preventing other people from doing their thing. Rock bands in big venues always struggle with this I reckon.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the kind of people who do this are those who only do things or go to places so that they can tell others. Probably the same morons that post Facebook updates of where they’re at whenever they get the chance. 🙄

Ha ha scrobius does that at all his gigs lol

Too busy getting busy down the front to get involved with cameras. Mind you the downside, I normally end up being puked on or get beer spilt on me 🙄

This seems to be the main problem. There now seems to be a generation that thinks that unless you take some shite camera-phone footage and post it immediately to Facebook, then it never actually happened.

Its like nobody possesses a memory or an imagination any more. They’re just passively observing their own lives through a screen. In lo resolution. With bad sound. Sad 🙁

You’re dead right. But at least we all know you went to the gig eh?

it’s **** lee scratch perry.. a living legend.. that photo, however shit, my only ever gig photo, will be printed off for the sitting room wall..

I don’t really get the mither though, some people get self-esteem from letting folk know they attended a gig, others get self-esteem from letting everyone know that they are too cool to take photo’s..

I get mine from actually being cooler than everyone else.. 8)

If anyone would like to challenge this I will happily partake in a drunken dance off

It’s bad enough at gigs, but (as a wedding photographer) what really gets my goat is the number of wedding guests who spend all day taking bad photos at weddings with their phones. This is especially galling when the officiant bans any photography in the church but turns a blind eye to the forest of arms waving their tablets about. I’ve had guests blocking the aisle to video the bride’s entrance too. Gah!

I tried in vain last night to get it going. It just wasn’t happening! Two yrs ago at biffy I got royally smacked in the face trying to mix it up with the young uns, loved it!

Some of us have been going to gigs for donkeys years, and like to have a permanent record of the gig. After 42 years of gig-going, there are many that I have virtually no memory of anymore.
And my photos are generally not shonky.

Jacob Valenzuala, Calexico.

J Mascis

Guy Garvey

Cerys Matthews

Martha Wainwright

Thea Gilmore

Katzenjammer

Shawn Colvin

A few of my more recent photos.
I always try not to inconvenience others, I’m nearly always right at the front, and if there is a specific no photography request, like Goldfrapp at the O2 Academy, Bristol, or at St George’s, Bristol, I obey it.

To be fair there’s a massive difference between someone who knows what they’re doing and knows how to use their (probably decent) kit and somebody waving an iPhone from 50m away.

It was obvious at that pope thing the other day as well, it seemed like the people without a camera or phone were outnumbered when the pope was out and about kissing babies.

BUMP!
Cos it’s in the news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22113326

Saw Steve Mason last night and was able to stand right at the front, so the only screens I saw were the official photographers in the pit. Maybe that’s the answer – always go to the front!

“It’s always good when people film it, you can go on YouTube and see it, and relive it, and see all the people in the comments talking about it – you can make more friends with that as well.”

So… people who film gigs on there phones basically have no friends. It figures, I suppose! 😆

This is just the ‘radio with pictures’ generation’s equivalent of bootlegging, isn’t it?
Crap sound and crap video.
Nobody else old enough to have smuggled a recording Walkman into a gig then?

Was at walking with dinosaurs yesterday, even though folks were warned I didn’t see anyone being chucked out.

Nobody else old enough to have smuggled a recording Walkman into a gig then?

Yeah, but funnily enough I didn’t hold it up in front of anyones face!