From The Raconteurs to Tom Morello, to A Perfect Circle, more and more musicians are taking umbrage with mobile phones at gigs. Though it all seems a bit redundant in a post-live music society, King Crimson vocalist Jakko Jakszyk has discussed the band’s strict no-phone policy.
In an interview with Ultimate Guitar, Jakko was asked whether the band’s hardline no phone/camera policy was to “protect the sanctity of the new material you guys have been working on.”
Jakko went on to reveal that the presence of a camera or phone affects the psyche of his fellow King Crimson bandmates, leaving them feeling compromised in their ability to play.
“Here’s the thing: any Crimson fan coming to the shows, know this… During soundcheck, we run through a piece called ‘Fracture’ – to Crimson fans, it’s one of the holy grails and we don’t play it very often,” Jakko explained.
“Sometimes it appears in the set and we still don’t play it and the reason we don’t play it is because someone has taken a photograph. It’s a difficult enough piece to play as it is, but playing it in the new tuning is a real challenge.”
“He’s [Robert Fripp] kind of out on his own and it’s a real leap of faith. If we do a show where cameras are going off, it will just screw his concentration and he won’t do it.
“I think sometimes people have a sense of entitlement that, ‘I’ve paid for a ticket to come to watch the show so I’ll take pictures if I want to.’
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“Well, OK, but if you’re labouring under the apprehension that your behaviour is not going to affect how the show is, then you’re very wrong. There’s a case in point.
“If a camera goes off and ‘Fracture’ is on the setlist, Robert won’t play it because he feels it compromises his ability to play it.”
Jakko went on to reveal that if King Crimson drummer Gavin Harrison will refrain from experimenting during their set if he feels as though he’s being filmed.
“The filming thing… there are a couple things about the filming thing. One is Gavin, our drummer, he says it affects him because if he in the middle of a solo and he’s thinking about trying something unusual or trying a new thing that’s just come into his head, and he sees somebody filming, he won’t do it.
“Because in his head, he’s thinking, ‘Oh shit, if I do this and I cock it up, it’s going to be up on YouTube before I get back to the hotel,’ so it affects you on that level too.
He concluded, “You’re in the middle of this experience and you want to look at it through this horrible blurry little thing where the sound is completely shit. To do what? Does that then become an authentic memento of where you were at the time? I don’t get it.”
Check out ‘Starless’ by King Crimson:
