So here's my opinion about the phone ban at Ghost rituals that nobody asked for and I've been sitting on this for awhile now until the latest interview with Loudwire that kinda rubbed me a lil in the wrong way.
I think that professionally filming the shows is great. GTV is fantastic I'm a big fan of Vanessa HOWEVER we are now seeing these clips through their eyes, a homogenized version of what we perceive as a concert goer. There's nothing wrong with that really, I've watched hundreds of great professionally filmed concerts (mostly from the 60s-early 80's) And so many of them I love.
BUT as much as Mr. Forge dislikes social media, if it wasn't for said disliked media in the early days of Ghost, without the fandom a lot would have been lost. And who knows how long it might have taken for people to realize besides the spectacle that the music when you dive in IS AWESOME.
Before the lawsuit the fandom for the most part was very respectful, we knew who the members of the band were, we would post cheeky things like "damn, I really love that band Repugnant" and never mentioned a word about where that came from.
When Tobias Forge wanted anonymity (again, for the most part) the fandom, we gave him that. It's actually surprising how long it took for him to be outed.
And NOW I think if he asked the current fandom to use their phones LESS, wisely (especially the privileged few in the first few rows, if he really wants connection) I believe they would give him that. And all he has to do is ask.
So maybe stop corralling your fandom like idiots on lines for Yonder pouches and making kids feel unsafe (which kids, is a lot of the fandom now) to be without their phones (who grew up in a world of plague and sadly a lot of hate.)
I think the experience without a cell phone is great, I think pre cell phone concert going was great. But in our current reality, I don't know, there's really no looking back. There's only Rite Here Rite Now