9 December

I realised the reason I’ve become so bored with rock gigs is that they’ve lost their theatre. Plenty of acts use big light shows and effects, but they’re not coordinated into a show in the same way. A great rock show is like a great piece of theatre, with constantly shifting mood and an interplay of band, crowd, lights, sound, darkness etc. A sense of surprise, of moments of shock and awe and then suddenly total delicacy. Stadium gigs have some of the most astonishing equipment in all of performing history. But the scale is much too large to work as theatre, it’s more like a huge dance party. It’s an impossible space for nuance, for drama or theatre. It’s more like a Nuremberg rally. This pic is the sort of gig that used to excite me. Not some guys on a huge stage that you could only see on a big screen. A theatrical/musical event.