I was lucky enough to bag tickets for the iTunes festival at the
Roundhouse back in September. Sitting in the
balcony, I was slightly gutted to find my view obscured by a long
vertical banner. I berated myself
internally when the banner magically retracted as the band appeared…of course
apple would not do something as stupid as to obstruct the view of the stage -
duh! This was not amateurville.
The most gorgeous
thing about the gig though, was that you could feel Stevie Jobs everywhere. This
was his way of doing things. Every show was illuminated by the constant twinkling light of
iphones (and even ipads) capturing the moment on his creations, and most
probably sharing it instantly.
Not so long ago our
parents were lighting gigs with the ambient flame of their lighters (note to
self - ask mum whether thumb burns were a hazard of this trend). The light of
the generation y’ers is artificial, but no less spectacular. We belong to the
ipod generation. And I love it.
This festival was about celebrating music, bringing amazing live acts to an awesome venue and most importantly making it accessible to all. And yeah the ballot was tough, because of course everyone wanted a ticket to this FREE event - over 20 million people applied for crying out loud!! But the coolest thing was, if you didn't get in, you could stream it live! The likes of GAGA, ELTON JOHN, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, KINGS OF LEON, KATY PERRY, ARTIC MONKEYS…to name but a few, delivered straight to your sofa.
And yeah, I saw The Lumineers
- they were awesome! Two songs in, I was on iTunes buying their album. Easy peasy. Thanks Steve!
