Musician dumps instruments for iPhone
Apple addict to perform with handsets only
The days when musicians rocked up to gigs with trucks full of guitars, keyboards and drums are dead. Because one musician plans to entertain London’s Wembley crowd with just one instrument... his iPhone.
Gary Go – the stage name of 24-year-old Gary Baker – will support Take That later this year in a series of warm-up gigs where the usual musical paraphernalia will be set aside while Baker instead uses a selection of iPhone-based instruments.
Exactly how the performance will be run isn’t quite clear yet, but hopefully fans won’t have to wait too long while he switches back to the iPhone’s main menu to select another instrument app.
Hopefully, the apps won’t crash halfway though his performance, either. We hope he’s also told his mum not to call him while he's on stage.
Gary Go will support Take That at Wembley on 1, 4 and 5 July. ®
COMMENTS
Musician?
So this is what it's come to? Am I in the minority in actually wanting to see a person play the music I'm hearing?
A musician is someone who PLAYS music. A composer is someone who CREATES music. An arranger or producer is someone who takes pre-recorded music and pieces it together. If you're going to a concert expecting to hear exactly the same thing you hear at home, they why are you going at all? Then again, look at the popularity of all the past and present girl- and boy-bands whose performances don't include musicians of any kind, instead opting to use pre-recorded music with the performers simply jumping around on the stage. Performers are not nearly the same as musicians.
"I just can't believe my ears, some music out these days / The human factor has diminished, in oh so many ways / Fancy footwork gets top bill and I'll put on such a show / One more Midi cable and my band is ready to go... / Changing programs faster than I dare to say / Musicians all make mistakes who needs them anyway?"
iCouldn'tCareLess
So he's got all his tedious 4/4 banging noises and his hamfisted collage of harmonically-challenged pre-digested guff programmed in beforehand, and the only 'skill' he needs to display on the night is pressing the right onscreen button on his bloody iPhone, and that's considered a 'live' musical performance?
And no I've not listened to any of his 'music' on his website. I've never been run over by a bus, and I know I wouldn't enjoy that either.
I hope he's taking requests...
"Jailbreak" by Thin Lizzy, please.
Bah
So, not so much "playing" as "selecting pre-recorded loops of digitized crap".
Old stuff. At least when Mick Fleetwood played his jacket (he had a Linn Drum connected to sensors in his clothing) he was actually playing the stuff as in live extemporization.
Even I can do the old Valerie Singleton "I've got one here I made before the show started" type music.
And that bloody iFlute thing sounds more like an occarina. I think the real thing costs about four quid if it's handmade. Or you could run one off yourself out of sculpey for around a pound.
ah I've been beaten to it
as mentioned above both Jonathan Coulton (check him out!) and The Mentalists have used iPhones in stage shows.
Don't know about the mentalists but JoCo was good, but there it was a gimmick for one song not the backbone of his act.. I hope this guy's the same cos the gimmick appeal probably won't last for a whole set. I don't know though, I wouldn't be going to a Take That gig anyway, they might love it!
