But increasingly, musicians are asking fans to put away their phones, or even banning them altogether — as Bob Dylan does. Anyone going to his latest tour, which reached the UK this week, will have to put their phone into a Yondr bag, which is only unlocked on the way out, like a clothing security tag. (Dylan’s dislike of gadgets has a long history. When I interviewed the rock photographer Bob Gruen, he said Dylan wanted to beat him up for taking photos at his gigs in the Seventies. He rarely allows them today.)

Former White Stripe Jack White has banned phones from his concerts since 2018, and also used Yondr bags for a set at Hull Venue in October. “We think you’ll enjoy looking up from your gadgets for a little while and experiencing music and our shared love of it in person,” said the organisers, reassuring people who wanted to watch on social media that an official photographer would post videos.

And it’s not just an older generation of musicians who are bothered by phones. In a recent video posted on Instagram, one member of the all-female British DJ group Girls Don’t Sync complained that phones “felt like a block between us and the audience … [they] were too much — I don’t think I could see the crowd.” Meanwhile, before her Royal Albert Hall debut in October, Dua Lipa called for restraint — significant when digital natives Gen Z dominate her fan base. I was there and quite a few phones came out, while all moderation went out the window when Elton John appeared as a special guest. I have to confess I filmed most of their Cold Heart duet.

• Stop chatting and don’t watch through your phone: the new gig etiquette

Chris Martin pleaded for the same when I saw Coldplay in Dublin in September, suggesting particular songs should be heard phone-free. It worked, sort of, though a sneaky few ignored him (not me this time, I swear). It’s something he has asked for before: at Wembley in August 2022, he stopped halfway through A Sky Full of Stars and got down on his knees, begging the audience to put away their phones.

While this is not a new problem — Kate Bush complained about phones at gigs as far back as 2014 — more and more artists are speaking out about it. Sometimes heatedly: two weeks ago in Krakow, Poland, Nick Cave asked his audience to “put your f***ing phones away”, while in July, the rapper Busta Rhymes pleaded, “F*** them camera phones. Let’s get back to interacting like humans. Put them weird-ass devices down.”

I’m not surprised this has become a bone of contention. At 26, I am Gen Z so I get the pull of social media and the need to keep a constant record of my life. But when I went to see Doja Cat at Wireless festival in London this summer — where the audience was younger than me — I was taken aback by how incessantly her fans filmed her. They didn’t move or dance, standing like robots with their arms raised, eyes glazed in concentration on getting the perfect footage. I still bounced along to the blistering raps, but my enjoyment was flattened a bit by their lack of engagement.

At any other cultural event, experiencing the whole thing through a screen would be unacceptable. Try to take your phone out at a play, opera, classical recital or ballet and you will be told off by the usher and sometimes even the actor — as Sarah Jessica Parker did during her West End run of Plaza Suite. Why should music be any different?

Not every artist is in favour of bans. In July Damon Albarn disagreed with Bob Dylan’s position on BBC Breakfast: “If you start banning things where does it end? I think you’ve just got to turn up and do your thing. People won’t want to be on their phone if you’re engaging with them correctly.” Is that true, though? As I saw, a star such as Doja Cat can put on a thrilling show and still be confronted with a sea of screens.

Filming concerts and facetiming your loved ones from a gig (as many people also do) is a way of sharing an experience at a time when tickets are expensive and often hard to come by. Think of all the unlucky Swifties and Oasis lovers: shouldn’t they get to see lots of videos from different angles on social media — not just the official videographer’s footage? Is it really so bad if I record a few seconds to save among my memories?

After all it’s not just the expense or the queues that stop fans from going. After Lipa’s Royal Albert Hall event, I got a message from a woman I didn’t know with multiple sclerosis, asking if I could share footage as she’d been too ill to attend. It wouldn’t be fair to deny her or others in such situations.

So I’m with Albarn. A ban is excessive, as is swearing at your fans. Asking for restraint, as Lipa did, seems about right. My final idea? Schedule your gig in a church.

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