General Interest

Should phones be banned at music gigs? It’s a debate with growing interest, with some arguing phone-free shows make for a better atmosphere, and others viewing such bans as an encroachment on their rights.

And after bans from the likes of Ghost and Jack White – and even global superstars like Sabrina Carpenter mulling over the idea – the conversation is really starting to pick up traction.

• READ MORE: Noel Gallagher debuted a P-90-equipped Gibson Les Paul at first Oasis comeback gig – here’s everything we know

As it stands, phones are not banned at Oasis’s widely anticipated reunion tour – which kicked off last week in Cardiff – but new research suggests maybe they should be.

According to a study conducted by phone company Compare and Recycle, fans are set to collectively miss over 17 million minutes of Oasis performing across the tour as they’ll be watching the shows while recording on their smartphones.

That figure is 17.3 million minutes, to be specific – equivalent to more than 33 years of non-stop Oasis performances.

The study – which saw 1,100 UK smartphone-owning, gig-going adults surveyed between 7-11 June, 2025 – also found that, perhaps unsurprisingly, over one in four (28%) admit they never rewatch videos recorded during concerts.

Elsewhere, 41% say they have missed key parts of shows because they were too busy filming, and over a third (38%) say they find it annoying when other people film during events.

In another staggering statistic, Compare and Recycle estimates the digital documentation of Oasis Live ‘25 will consume nearly 1.7 million gigabytes of storage space – enough to fill 13,266 128GB-capacity smartphones completely.

“While it’s tempting to record moments from live music events on your smartphone, our new research highlights a growing concern amongst concert-goers about doing so,” says Antonia Hristov, Head of Marketing at Compare and Recycle.

“Not only is a huge amount of phone storage wasted on never-to-be-rewatched footage, but many fans are also missing out on the very experiences they came for. Artists like Chris Martin and Bob Dylan have already championed phone-free shows, and we may see more acts follow suit.

“Recording a clip or two of your favourite track is fine. But for the sake of your memories, and your phone’s storage, consider enjoying the rest of the night through your eyes and ears, not your screen.”

When Swedish rock band Ghost announced they’d be banning phones for Skeletour – the tour supporting their latest album Skeletá, fans online were divided. 

“I don’t mind not being able to use your phone,” one fan wrote. “I’ve been to a few concerts, including Ghost, where you had to put them in a locking pouch during the show. What I really don’t care for is the fact that these pouches are rather large and won’t fit in your pocket. So now you have to carry this useless thing around with you during the whole show.

Another highlighted the logistical implications of banning phones entirely. “People rely on their phones,” they wrote. “You may be on call for your job, have childcare concerns or many reasons why you need to be contactable. Plus, don’t forget lots of people in the audience may not be fans. They are just there with their friends or kids etc.”

While Oasis certainly don’t need any extra publicity for their reunion tour – which was likely the most highly anticipated reunion tour of all time, anyway – there’s an argument against phone bans for smaller bands, in that fan-filmed clips act as a sort of UGC (user-generated content), helping promote their tours on social media.

As it stands, the phone ban debate continues. And those attending Oasis Live ‘25 will be able to film to their heart’s content.

The post Should phones be banned at the Oasis reunion tour? Average attendee to watch 12 minutes of each show on their phone, per new research appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

The first Oasis Live ‘25 gig kicked off in Cardiff on 4 July, and Noel Gallagher was spotted with a new Gibson Les Paul in hand.

The reunion tour marks the first time both Noel and Liam Gallagher have played together since Oasis called it quits back in 2009 following a falling out between the two brothers backstage at a gig. The tour continues on throughout the year and wraps in November in Brazil.

• READ MORE: What guitars does Noel Gallagher use? The instruments that will power the Oasis Live ’25 reunion tour

With their return so highly anticipated, all eyes were on Cardiff at the weekend, and some may have spotted Noel’s new Les Paul as it made several appearances across the night. The guitar has a Murphy Lab aged body, aged hardware, and P-90 pickups. It’s complete with Les Paul Custom-style binding, but a non-bound headstock.

The guitar made an appearance for the first song of the night, Hello, and appeared regularly throughout the rest of their set among other axes including a Cherry Sunburst Les Paul Standard, and his beloved ES-335.

Lee Bartram, Head of Marketing & Cultural Influence EMEA at Gibson, has shared a close up of the new model to his Instagram page – you can check it out below:

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Other guitars from the opening night worth spotlighting are also Gem Archer’s Trini Lopez’s. Two of them appeared to be used across the evening (as documented by The Chief’s Guitars), one in black and a second red version. Archer’s black Trini Lopez is a recent Gibson Custom Shop reissue, equipped with a Bigsby B-7.

In other Oasis news, Gene Gallagher, son of Liam and frontman of indie band Villanelle, recently shared his opinions on guitar music, noting that a resurgence could be credited to the Britpop bunch’s comeback: “People have been deprived of guitar music,” he told W Magazine. “But now it’s coming back, and everyone’s getting excited about it.”

To view the full list of Oasis Live ‘25 tour dates, head over to their official website.

The post Noel Gallagher debuted a P-90-equipped Gibson Les Paul at first Oasis comeback gig – here’s everything we know appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

For a 76-year-old Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath’s last show was the culmination of his life’s work and influence, with tens of thousands of fans of the genre he helped create descending upon Birmingham’s Villa Park stadium to see the metal legend and his original bandmates bow out one last time.

For Ozzy, it would have been a highly emotional evening. On more than one occasion, as guitarist and original rifflord Tony Iommi treated the crowd to distortion-soaked classics like War Pigs, Iron Man and Paranoid, Ozzy looked visibly sentimental. Who wouldn’t be?

• READ MORE: You can still get your hands on a Tony Iommi-signed Gibson SG Standard from Back to the Beginning – here’s how

But that sentimentality extended to Ozzy’s personal life, too, when the evening saw Slipknot’s Sid Wilson – partner of his daughter Kelly – finally popping the question.

In hilarious backstage footage shared by Kelly on Instagram – captioned, “Oh, and this happened yesterday!” – Sid can be seen psyching himself to ask that all-important question.

“Kelly, you know I love you more than anything in the world,” he begins. However his speech is quickly interrupted by his father-in-law-to-be, who quips: “Fuck off, you’re not marrying my daughter!”

As you’d expect, the hilarious remark paired with the anticipation of the situation leads to rapturous laughter from those present, including Kelly’s mother and Ozzy’s wife and manager, Sharon.

“Nothing would make me happier than to spend the rest of my life with you,” Wilson continues. “In front of our family and all of our friends, Kelly, will you marry me?”

Kelly doesn’t spend much time deliberating, before putting on the engagement ring and jumping into Wilson’s arms. Watch the adorable moment below:

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Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning final show at Villa Park was a triumph, which saw a pantheon of metal’s elite gather to celebrate the band without whom the genre wouldn’t exist.

The evening saw performances from the likes of Lamb of God – who just released their own official cover of Children of the Grave – Metallica, who wrote on Instagram “Ozzy. Tony. Geezer. Bill. We love you so, so much”, and many, many others.

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In another clip posted to Metallica’s Instagram, a who’s who of heavy metal’s A-list can be seen mingling during the show, with James Hetfield taking a photo with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, and even Billy Corgan showing Sharon Osbourne a funny video on his phone (the pair famously had a feud back in the late ‘90s, so it’s safe to say they’ve now buried the hatchet).

“It’s like a heavy metal summer camp!” remarks Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.

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The post “F**k off you’re not marrying my daughter”: Ozzy Osbourne’s hilarious reaction when Slipknot’s Sid Wilson proposed to his daughter Kelly during Black Sabbath’s final show appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.

$399/€469, chasebliss.eu

In the guitar world you tend to find that there are people who obsess over drive pedals, and those who don’t. For some, one TS-derived pedal sounds much like another, while others will care about every nuance of the EQ curve and devote a huge amount of time and energy into getting their gain sounds just so.

• READ MORE: MXR Duke of Tone – believe the hype? The King has come to the people

Even if you’re in the former camp, however, you’ll have probably heard about the legendary Analog Man King Of Tone. The famous purple box is one of those holy grail circuits that played a huge part in making the boutique pedal scene what it is today.

It’s also one of the hardest to get hold of, because each pedal is made by hand to rigorous and hard-to-find components. To put how hard it is to get one in perspective, the folks who ordered their pedals before the pandemic are still waiting to receive them here in 2025.

But what happens when one of the most famously fastidious analogue purists around decides to work on a project with Chase Bliss – creators of some of the most sonically ambitious pedals on the planet? Well, you get the Chase Bliss Brothers AM.

Chase Bliss Brothers AM – what is it?

Let’s get this out of the way first of all… despite that tell-tale colour scheme, this is not simply a Chase Bliss version of the King Of Tone without the two-year waiting list. The Analog Man himself Mike Piera has already done that with the MXR Duke Of Tone, and it’s a lot cheaper too.

It’s also not not a Chase Bliss version of the King Of Tone either, though. It’s complicated.

“There’s no way to truly replicate Mike’s process, everything is simply too personal and hand-crafted (and made with finite, vintage NOS components),” says Chase Bliss main man Joel Korte. “So we decided to focus on the aspects of the King Of Tone that we could expand and take further. Instead of labouring over a perfect recreation, we decided to make an expanded counterpart.”

What that means in practice is that you get a pedal that has the same basic layout as the original Chase Bliss Brothers pedal from 2018, but with insides designed from the ground up with Analog Man to offer more sounds, more functionality and more control than ever before.

That means you get the legendary overdrive and distortion sounds from the original King Of Tone, plus an all-new addition – a dual-mode treble boost inspired by Analog Man’s Beano Boost.

Like the original Brothers, the AM functions as effectively two identical but separate pedals, each controlled by its own footswitch. Using the three-way toggle for each channel, you can decide which of the three sounds – distortion, overdrive or boost – you want each one to use.

There’s also a switch to determine the flavour of your boost – flipped one way, it gives you added brightness and high-end sparkle; flipped the other, it delivers a classic Rangemaster-style tone with a strong emphasis on the upper mids.

As if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also find the usual Chase Bliss bank of dip switches on the top of the pedal. For the AM, these give you the option to turn on the ‘hi-gain’ mode for each channel (adding about 25% to the gain of everything), allow you to use the footswitches in momentary mode for that quick boost of signal when you need it, and the option to link the presence control (which is selected via a secondary function on the pedal itself) to the overall tone control.

There are also four onboard presets, plus full MIDI control (with 128 presets), and expression pedal control over any of the parameters (again determined via the other bank of dip switches on top) – this is a Chase Bliss pedal after all.

Finally, if this pedal is a team-up worthy of the Avengers, then we also get an end-credits scene. Pop off the back cover and you’ll find, in classic Analog Man style, some internal trim pots to tweak the impedance, output and bias of the boost circuit.

And if you feel like you need to take a break after processing all that information, I don’t blame you – it’s a lot. But all that clever stuff won’t mean a lot if it doesn’t have that sound.

Chase Bliss Brothers AM – in use

The thing that scares a lot of people off Chase Bliss pedals is the complexity that all those knobs, toggles and dip switches imply – but in my experience the genius of them is how easy and user-friendly they are in practice.

I think with the Brothers AM, there’s been even more of an emphasis on making this an intuitive experience. This is a drive pedal after all, and the patience/knowledge floor of those trying it out will be much lower than one of the brand’s usual glitchy, ambient, loopy designs.

In truth, if you never want to look at those dip switches, if you never want to contemplate a preset, or be in the same room as an expression pedal, you can still have an exciting, inspirational and fulfilling experience with the Brothers AM.

It helps that the Chase Bliss Field Notes-style manuals it ships with pedals are so very good – and here it really does walk you through everything you need to dial in your basic sounds in just a minute or two. Even if you’d never played something more involved than a Tube Screamer in the past, you’d be up and running in a heartbeat.

And in truth, even the deeper editing is pretty easy to understand once you’ve flicked through the short and picture-heavy user guide. Want more gain on one of your sounds? Just flip the hi-gain dip switch… there’s not much in the way of hidden functions, complex button press combos here – it’s all right there on the pedal.

Chase Bliss Brothers AM – sounds

For those wondering out of the gate whether it sounds like a King Of Tone… let me just get that out of the way. It really does – it nails the vibe of the original and captures even more of the little nuances than the impressive MXR Duke Of Tone did.

Is it identical to the real thing? Your ears will have to be the judge, but it certainly did everything I wanted it to do in that regard – and more.

Oh yeah, the more – that’s is kinda why we’re here, isn’t it? So with my trusty Jazzmaster and my Matchless Laurel Canyon in hand, I figure the best place to start here is the new thing – the boost.

And instantly, I’m hugely impressed. When you need a bit of extra gusto for leads, the boost settings on both modes cut through like a chainsaw. Each one also has a distinct character you don’t fully appreciate until you set them to each respective footswitch and put them side by side.

On the one side, you get a sound that retains all the nuances of the original signal but adds just a touch more treble. The other is a bassier, darker boost that’s still loud and dynamic, but with more low-end coloration. Both sound great, it’s a case of choosing which one best interacts with the sound you’re using on the other side.

I have pretty specific expectations of how a dirt pedal responds to the dynamics of a Jazzmaster’s single-coil jangle, and the overdrive portion of the AM does not disappoint.

It perfectly nails that edge-of-breakup sound, pushing any clean tube amp to its limits. Especially with the treble booster engaged, it gives you a wonderful ‘Tube Screamer pushing beyond the edge of breakup’ sound. But with a few tweaks you can find a much darker and more brooding sound – it’s soulful, smokey and very distinctive.

Moving into the distortion and again the breadth of what’s on offer here is hugely compelling – you can get subtle, you can get chaotic, and you can get strident, full distortion sounds all at the twist of that gain knob.

And then when you switch the hi-gain mode it’s another level of nastiness altogether, pushing the Brothers AM into almost metal territory. But the real magic is how the two sides of this pedal work together. The push and pull between the hugely varied sounds on offer lets you sculpt almost any drive or distortion tone you could imagine, and then mercifully save it as a preset so you never have to worry about dialling it in just so again.

What’s almost more impressive is the consistency of the pedal – whether it was being run through single-coils or humbuckers, it still retains that King Of Tone DNA… but with a dynamic range that lets you dial things in perfectly every time.

Chase Bliss Brothers AM – should I buy one?

There’s no escaping that 400 bucks is a whole lotta beans for a drive pedal – alongside the dip switches its the criticism you most often hear about Chase Bliss pedals. But then you look at the work, and the craft and the ingenuity that’s gone into it – this isn’t just some lazily rehashed clone circuit.

You also have to take it in some context. For starters, you really are getting two incredibly versatile and great sounding dirt pedals in one compact unit. It also costs half of what a King Of Tone will cost you on Reverb today if you don’t fancy waiting half a decade to own it.

But again, this isn’t a King Of Tone – it’s heavily inspired by it of course, but the Brothers AM is very much its own thing – think of it as the Dolby Atmos version of the original, if you like.

It’s also by some distance the easiest Chase Bliss pedal I’ve ever used – the sort of thing that makes you marvel at how cleverly and intuitively designed a very deep and very tweakable pedal can be in the right hands.

Above all though, it’s inspirational. As with anything that has Chase Bliss or Analog Man attached to it, the online hype around this pedal has been intense, but it more than lives up to it in my experience.

With my hand on my heart I can say it’s one of the most tonally gratifying pedals I’ve ever used. Yes, it’s not cheap – but it could easily be the last drive pedal you ever buy.

Chase Bliss Brothers AM – alternatives

The obvious elephant in the room here is of course the MXR Duke Of Tone ($149/£169.99) – the last collaboration that Mike Piera did with another effects brand. It’s effectively one-half of the KoT’s dual circuits, and punches well above its pricetag sound-wise.

There aren’t many actual King Of Tone imitators, but one such budget option is the Tone City King Of Blues ($79/£69.99) – it’s not gonna get you as close as even the Duke does to the real thing, but it’s a passable ballpark impression for under a hundred bucks. Another take on the dual overdrive format is the Browne Amplification Protein V4 ($349/£349) – like the KoT one half of the Protein is derived from a Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, but the other half is different, being inspired by the Nobels ODR-1.

The post Chase Bliss Brothers AM review: “it could easily be the last drive pedal you ever buy” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.