Melbourne Venue Proposes Ban On People Whipping Out Their Phones During Gigs

It’s unclear what people get out of filming gigs on their phones but it sure is clear that they absolutely love doing it. Punters love nothing more than whipping out their phone halfway through a song and capturing a minute and a half of blurry, muddy-sounding footage of a bass player, presumably to show later to disinterested friends and coworkers. It’s a weird but insanely common practice, one that Melbourne‘s Cherry Bar wants to see gone.

The bar is proposing a ban on amateur gig documentarians spending the length of a set holding their phone up to capture the action, fielding opinions on the idea from punters in a Facebook post yesterday:

Cherry Bar is proposing to ban mobile phones from its live gigs.

Not entirely of course. We will tolerate a quick snap of a band. However, holding up your phone and filming an entire song is just not on.

It blocks the view of those behind you, it distracts the band and it’s just uncool.

Holding up your phone and filming songs at a live music gig is just not rock n roll. And at all times Cherry Bar must stand up for rock n roll.

But before we implement, we listen. So tell us Cherry Massive, what is your opinion?

You could probably just as easily argue that having rules about how an audience should watch a band is also “just not rock n roll“, but they definitely make some solid points.

In an interview with The Age, Cherry Bar owner James Young said that the problem had gotten out of hand and people need to cut that shit out:

The increase in people, not just taking pictures quickly, but holding their arms up like two fucking windmills with their phone seven feet in the air recording song after song after song has become laughable. 

It’s got to the point where someone has to take a stand. It’s selfish, it’s obnoxious and not considerate of other punters.

I don’t think bands like it either, they want to see people living in the moment.

Young told The Age that the response so far had been “99 percent” positive and that they were certain to go through with it.

According to Young, the ban will be policed by “self-regulation” – with signs posted around the venue telling punters not to film the band – and not a case of “security guards slapping phones out of people’s hands“.

So, uh, if you desperately need shaky footage of some bright lights and indecipherable noise, probs go elsewhere.

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