Paul McCartney chided an audience at Liverpool's famous Cavern Club on Thursday for using their smartphones during his intimate performance at the venue where The Beatles got their start in the early-'60s.
Fans lucky enough to get tickets to the concert were apparently asked to keep their devices in their pockets while the show was going on. It seems like a reasonable bargain; the audience gets to enjoy a rare McCartney show up close and personal and, in exchange, McCartney and his band watch the audience smile and dance instead of looking at a bunch of phones in the air.
But the arrangement was untenable for some, who couldn't help themselves but to personally document the entire show.
The usual jovial and warm McCartney wasn't having any of it, however. NME reports the former Beatle stopped his band midway through Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" — the song he played to impress John Lennon when they first met — and told the rule-breakers to cut it out.
"You've all been told not to take photos," McCartney said, after abruptly halting his performance. "You're taking them, and you're taking them, and it' putting me off! So, you know, play by the rules, man!"
Can you imagine being scolded by Paul McCartney? How bad that must feel? Well, apparently Sir Paul felt the mood in the room change immediately. So he attempted to lighten the mood.
"The phone thing," he continued. "I went to a Prince concert and he really was serious about that. He wouldn't start, you know? Put 'em down! You know what I'm saying?"
McCartney's Cavern Club gig is part of his plan to ramp up to the September 7 release of his new album, Egypt Station, with a set on intimate shows.
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