Wigmore Hall’s new photography policy offers a sensible way forward in today’s visual culture and more venues should follow suit There are few things as likely to light my fuse as the blue glow of a phone screen during a concert. Recently at the Royal Opera House a lady in front of me took out her phone to photograph Rigoletto mid-aria and I nearly choked on my own outrage. Yet, if you look at my social media feeds, you’ll see they’re full of slightly fuzzy photographs of sol

The current Southbank Centre slogan offers a lesson in how not to talk to about classical music There are a few obvious rules in marketing copywriting. One is that if you’re trying to sell a product that has negative associations, you don’t mention those associations. If you’re advertising cigarettes, you don’t use the word ‘cancer’. If you’re selling cheap clothes you don’t bring in ‘child labour’. Even if you put ‘not’ in front of the bad word, the reader doesn’t take it in