Ghost Phone Ban Is Reason Tobias Forge Didn’t Quit Touring

Tobias Forge said fans using phones at concerts had led to him consider ending Ghost’s touring career.

But the phone ban instituted on their current road trip has been such a resounding success that the singer described it as a life-changing experience.

Speaking at a recent fan Q&A session (via Blabbermouth), bandleader Forge said he’d been asked not to go ahead with the idea after telling his management and agent that he wanted to try it.

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“Because it adds a lot of baggage to the administration part and the practical bit of the concert, and anything that makes things harder is always frowned upon,” he explained. “We had to really vet that idea. What does it mean? Who has done this before? Oh, not many.”

Attendees are allowed to retain their phones, but they’re put in sealed pouches. If someone needs to use theirs, they can do so by leaving the auditorium and having the pouch opened. While it’s doubtlessly a nuisance to some, Forge said it was a necessary evil after seeing audience interaction decline over 13 years.

“It really hit me when we came to certain countries where they have generally been much more enthusiastic,” he explained. “And you come out, there’s like 18,000 people there, and there’s like, 10,000 phones. And [the crowd] not even bouncing anymore. And you’re just like, ‘What is this – what has happened?’”

He argued that no one in the audience meant any disrespect, and were probably thinking that using their phone would make no difference – but explained that the cumulative effect of thousands of people doing the same  actually had a drastic effect.

Ghost Shows Became Worthless Because of Fans on Phones

“You come out on a stage and you’re expecting like, ‘Fucking people are gonna rage!’ … [but] the crowd … has just got less and less and less engaged in exchange for these phones,” he said.

“I came to a point where I’m like, ‘I don’t think I wanna do this. … If this is how it’s gonna be, I’d rather not do it.’ That that’s how worthless it became.”

He explained that Ghost couldn’t stage their style of shows without audience interaction. “If you came into a dress rehearsal and saw us do the same thing, but without a crowd, it’s dramatically worse. But when you have an engaged crowd… it’s an exchange. And if someone in the act of doing it just takes a phone out?”

Forge called the phone ban “a fucking life-changer for the existence of the band,” noting: “I think that there are a lot of bands that are looking at this and [thinking,] ‘Okay, so how do we do that too?’”