Time to put down your phones and watch concerts with your eyes

And with one sentence, the ever present glow of thousands of camera lights suddenly vanished from the landscape.

I glanced around the vast Summer Sessions crowd at Ingliston and saw one solitary bloke with his hand in the air filming what everyone else was taking in thanks to the clear direction of Florence Welch.

I have to say the gig by Florence + The Machine was something special. The bond she has with her audience is remarkable, so much so her foray down to the front row left some shaking with emotion as if they’d just had a religious blessing.

When she spoke, they listened and immersed themselves in Dog Days Are Over, an anthem of liberation so big that no phone footage can hope to capture its essence.

And what a joy it was to watch her perform it live, the only light coming from the stage rather than the dark night skies polluted by countless wee light bulbs.

We live in a world where we film everything, but the footage we capture has so little value we barely even watch it.

There is a world of difference between snapping a pic or two as a memory which then pops up years later on Facebook, and filming entire songs or even shows.

At the Adam Smith Theatre recently, the woman in front of me had her phone out umpteen times to capture snippets of songs and take pics. She then lit up the auditorium as she scrolled through the screen and sent them on, utterly oblivious to the intrusion of those around them. We moved seats.

Last year, I watched one woman view the Edinburgh Military Tattoo entirely through the camera on her smart phone. She had a perfect view of one of the greatest spectacles staged in Scotland and, despite paying top dollar for a seat - and they ain’t cheap - opted to view it all second hand.

I often wonder what folk do with all this footage on their phones.

Do they settle back with a cuppa and watch it on repeat, or, as I suspect, is it just more fodder to scroll through when waiting on a bus or train? I’m pretty sure most of it just sits taking up storage space, and is then lost when the phone is upgraded for a new model.

They spend all that money on tickets, travel and food, and the gig itself becomes little more than digital wallpaper.

Press photographers attending live shows are well aware of the “three songs and you are out” rule which most bands implement.

They get the first three numbers to get the shots they want before they are removed from the pit at the front of the stage. In some cases, bands will limit them to just one.

Imagine if a similar rule was introduced for audiences? Bliss!

I’ll freely admit to grabbing a couple of pics at a gig, but what is on my phone is secondary to actually being there, present, immersed in the moment, and savouring every second of every song I’ve waited years to hear performed live.

I’ve yet to see any online footage filmed from deep within any crowd that remotely captures the full spectacle of any concert.

As Florence said, if you are filming this song, you’re not experiencing this song…