Before each show on the recent The The tour – reviewed in these pages last week – the pre-recorded voice of singer Matt Johnson politely asked the audience to refrain from using mobile phones when the band was performing. In Edinburgh, while Johnson was speaking, the chap next to me was preoccupied filming an empty stage.
A sea of screens can be priceless in a genuine emergency but that’s about it
As it happens, most of the crowd complied most of the time, but proscribing phone use at concerts is increasingly challenging.

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