[Image: Her Majesty’s Theatre, London; via Wikipedia].
“British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber warns that the auction of a wireless spectrum in London could doom music theater in the city’s West End,” Marketplace reports.
It’s an unintended musical side-effect of high-priced aerial real estate, or London’s property boom gone electromagnetic.
“Britain’s telecom regulator is to blame,” Webber says. “The regulator is planning to auction off to the highest bidder the airwaves used by theatres and concert venues. A cell phone company with deep pockets is likely to win. The fees could then soar and the theatres could be priced out.”
In the future, perhaps actors can simply schedule a wireless conference call with their intended audience…
oh dear, does this mean we won’t be able to hear mr. webber… sigh…
alas, glancing across to a conveniently located parallel near-future, we find mr. w, penniless and performerless but with top billing, in his latest blockbuster one-man musical, “Cats 2!” showing “every hour every day” (except the 2nd tuesday of each month) in the disused underground public toilets, round the back of the old vic…
between sips of paint thinner, he was recently heard to remark, “Erst kommt das fressen. Dann kommt die mobile.”
or maybe meistro l.w. will simply invest in some electronic jamming equipment and go all starlight guerilla on us…
more seriously though, a potential war between the communications industry and the music biz? Oh semioticians, read Joyce!
mmm, do buildings now come standard with electronic jamming devices?
It’s not about jamming – it’s just that the wireless mics they use in theatres work on the frequency the Government is thinking of selling on. I’m sure the mics could be adjusted to work on a different frequency, but what are they doing on that wavelength anyway if it’s still government-owned?
They who control the Aether control the world. Clearly this is part of the government’s acoustical conspiracy for full spectrum dominance: everybody’s a critic, I guess.
OTOH, the substitution of EMP bombs for rotten tomatoes would be more appropriate for 21st Century audiences.