Doing a pop concert from the Great Pyramids of Giza is nothing new. The Grateful Dead did three concerts in the shadow of the Sphinx in 1978, no doubt inspired by the fact that Pink Floyd had played the ancient amphitheatre in Pompeii in 1971. In 1979, Frank Sinatra recorded a show there, while Jean Michele Jarre played his The Twelve Dreams Of The Sun show in Giza on Millennium Eve to 120,000 people.

None of that stopped shirtless funk-rock rapscallions Red Hot Chili Peppers from playing at the same location on 15th March. The twist here was that, rather than get in a film crew and sell the broadcast or DVD rights to the highest bidder, the band live streamed the whole thing from their own YouTube channel as well as on Twitter and Facebook – and all for free.

“The pyramids, it’s unbelievable, we just jumped at the opportunity […] I have always been fascinated by Egypt and that region of the world and I am so excited to go,” bassist Flea told the LA Times ahead of the show. (Thinking about it, he really should have changed his name to Scarab Beetle as a fitting twist on the entomological theme.)

It wasn’t some half-hearted undertaking, either. They played for close to two hours and the number of views for the on-demand recording of the show on YouTube had passed 2.5m within four days. The only direct monetisation (apart from YouTube advertising) was a link on their YouTube channel to buy commemorative T-shirts with the pyramids or the Sphinx on them. Even their LiveChiliPeppers.com site (which sells recordings of live shows taken straight from the mixing desk) had not, when we checked on 18th March, been updated to sell downloads of the show.

sandbox is, however, extremely disappointed they didn’t just play their fourth album in full and retitle it Mummy’s Milk. Or do a cover of that song off the debut album by The Streets – ‘Gizas Need Excitement’. Or change the title of ‘Higher Ground’ to ‘Hiero Glyphs’. Or get Nile Rodgers on stage with them. Or… OK, we’ll stop now.