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Prince asks fans to "Gett Off" their cell phones at New York show

1:32 p.m. · October 14, 2008 · by Nick Neyland

Cell phone and digital camera usage may be among the most annoying aspects of the 21st century concert going experience. Look to the front of any concert hall and you’ll see a sea of digital cameras and phones snapping badly blurred pictures of a guitarist’s nostril hair. Look to the back of the show and you’ll see clusters of people bellowing: “What? I can’t hear you. Can you speak louder?” into their phones.

The simple act of going to a show now requires concertgoers to traipse through a minefield of irritants. But spare a thought for the artists, who also have to deal with these problems. A case in point: Prince, who played an exclusive secret show at the Gansevoort Hotel rooftop in New York at the weekend. The cell phone usage at the show somehow interfered with Prince’s equipment, almost causing the concert to be canceled.

According to the New York Post, an MC announced that people would have to turn off their phones if the show was to go ahead. Dave Chappelle, Howard Stern, and Spike Lee attended the charity concert, which cost around $1,000 per ticket. But did the assorted hordes turn off their phones as requested? Not according to one fan, who told the Post: “It was so obnoxious. To think a bunch of idiots can't exist without their precious cells for an hour." [NY Post]

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