Recommendations of the Editorial team
Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde has posted an open letter on her social media channels attacking people, who can’t put their cell phones down at concerts.
“It’s like a strange compulsion that people can’t control,” she writes. “It reminds me of monkeys masturbating in their enclosure in front of everyone… and to be honest, in this case, people deserve it because monkeys don’t belong in an enclosure… But an artist on a stage?”
In the letter she describes a dinner with Emmylou Harris before her performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. “Our conversation naturally turned to people staring at their phones at concerts,” Hynde writes. “It’s a topic that comes up every time I get together with other artists. It hangs over all of us like an unpleasant haze. You can paper a venue with signs saying ‘NO CAMERAS’ – people still won’t comply. As if they have a right to it, even if the artist specifically asked them not to.”
Praise for Bob Dylan
She makes an exception for pop acts who specifically ask fans to film them “because they want to be on social media,” and praises Bob Dylan for insisting on cell phone cases at his shows. “You would think an artist of his stature could make a simple request and the audience would respect it…no chance,” she writes. “People still smuggle in a camera or cell phone.”
After dinner with Emmylou Harris, Hynde also attended her concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Of course, a fan sitting near her was filming the show on her cell phone, blocking her view. When someone asked him to stop, he replied simply, “Mind your own business.” She experienced the same thing when she saw Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray as a one-woman show. “A woman in the front row pulled out her phone and started filming it,” Hynde writes. “Incredible.”
Things have gotten so bad now that Hynde avoids public art exhibitions because people hold their cell phones in front of the paintings. “If Jesus Christ walked into a room, the first thing everyone would do would be to pull out their cell phones,” she writes. “Can someone explain this to me?”
The Pretenders haven’t toured in almost a year, but Hynde recently let fans know that she just finished a new album with guitarist James Walbourne. She hopes to get back on stage next year. “I miss you regulars,” she wrote, “even though I may have unintentionally offended you by asking you to move back a few rows so I could see the locals. I hope you’ve recovered from this and forgiven me. I didn’t mean any harm. But when we’re on the road for months, it’s important to keep things fresh by seeing new faces in the front row. You know I love you, and I can always find you in the audience – I’m always looking out for you.”
So when you see the Pretenders next year – whether you fight their way to the front or not – please keep your phone in your pocket. Chrissie asked very politely.