The Who frontman Roger Daltrey feels "sorry" for music fans who record concerts on their phones rather than enjoying the moment.
The ‘Substitute’ singer finds it "weird" that people prefer to film shows on their handsets rather than lose themselves in the music but accepts it’s a modern phenomenon.
When asked what he thought of gig-goers recording shows, Roger said: "I feel sorry for them. Looking at life through a screen and not being in the moment totally – if you’re doing that, you’re 50 percent there, right? I find it weird. But people seem to like it, they’re all mad, but maybe I’m mad."
However, Roger’s bandmate Pete Townsend disagrees with him and insists people’s penchant to make their own concert films does have benefits but only if their motivation is right.
Speaking at a press conference at Ronnie Scott’s in London on Monday (30.06.14) to announce The Who Hits 50 tour, the guitarist said: "I’m a real technofile, I really love new technology. I jumped on the iPhone when it first came out, I jumped on the internet and was one of the first individuals in the music business to have my own website so I love it. I’m for it really because all of those people you could say are doing a job, what they’re doing presumably is taking that footage and sharing it so as long as we look alright and are playing OK then they’re sharing something that we used to have to pay people to produce. It’s low quality and can be a bit naff but if it’s shared widely it’s good.
"There’s an amazing video of me breaking a guitar in Yokohama and I play this amazing bit of guitar just before I smash the guitar. It was never filmed by anyone except one guy with a camera phone and he put it up. I’m proud of it, it’s a great bit of guitar playing before I sadly smash the guitar. On the other hand I do agree with Roger, if you’ve been to Glastonbury this weekend I hope you enjoyed the music rather than feeling you have to build a Facebook story about it."
Tickets for The Who’s nine-date UK tour – which begins in Glasgow on November 30 and ends at The O2 in London on December 17 – go on sale at 9am on July 4 from Aeglive.co.uk.
Roger Daltrey feels ‘sorry’ for phone obsessed fans
