Peter Narvaez from Memorial University in St John’s Newfoundland wrote a paper titled “Fandom as Magical Practice: Great Big Sea, Stockwell Day and Spoiled Identity” published in the Newfoundland and Labrador Studies in 2007. Narvaez provides background information on fandom studies (the study of fans of aspects of popular culture) in which he describes how the fans of famous celebrities change their environment and personal circumstances to be similar to and lessen the distance between themselves and the famous person. These people in reality are relatively unknown to their fans and do not acknowledge their existence. He compares this change to the practice of magic. For the most part being a fan of popular culture phenomena is fun and brings people together that share a common interest.
“The central problem for the fan is one of emotion, how to feel socially closer to persons who you believe you know quite well and care a great deal about, but persons who do not even acknowledge your existence as an individual” (Narvaez, 2007).
The first strategy involves decreasing the distance between themselves and a famous celebrity. It can include obtaining memorabilia items that have direct contact with the celebrity and include items that have been personally autographed, photographs, calendars, posters, CDs, and DVDs from a range of sources including other fans and online internet sites. Other strategies include attending live performances, visiting geographical locations connected with the performer, communicating directly with the celebrity in a variety of contexts and participating in online fan communities via social media including Facebook and Twitter. All of these are activities are engaged in by @lyndahere in particular attending ALL of Alan Doyle’s and Great Big Sea’s live concerts and peddling her video recordings on YouTube via social media. She spends a regular amount of time in St John’s where Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea are based. However, her contact with Great Big Sea fans and what information she chooses to share is based around her own needs and exclusiveness of opportunities that arise for her. They may include articles, photographs, information but mostly her own videos. In July during the Newfoundland Folk Festival Alan Doyle joined some musician friends on stage. It was only after the event that she mentioned it on Twitter and peddled videos on her site.
The second strategy suggested by Narvaez for fans aimed at decreasing the distance is “similitude emulation, attempting to master the same knowledge that the admired performer possesses by trying to understand and often to relive the artists most important experiences and influences”. Narvaez states that fans do this by taking on the role of researcher and documenting sources of information and performances in order to copy their lifestyle. As it has been documented by herself Lyndahere (@lyndahere) tries to attend every public event attended by Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea taking thousands of photographs and videos and documenting the experiences. She lives part of the time in St John’s Newfoundland and only briefly to return to Seattle. Klapp as sited in Narvaez (2007) refers to this transformation as “identity voyages” “a mimetic process whereby a fan vicariously lives through a performer, imitating their speech, appearance behaviour and sometimes adopting their attitudes and ideas as well”. This includes watching NHL hockey and of course following Alan Doyle’s beloved Habs ect and attending many of the same events and places he does including charity events, restaurants and pubs. The following Tweets off Twitter over the past three months demonstrate this.
‘There are better choices to make than repeatedly running away from following through on a heart’s desire. Stay put and let it be yours @lyndahere 14 July 2012’
My life is your life
@alanthomasdoyle Love your Half-Naked Scene best. Watching RH now reminds me of seeing it in Rome – English Italian subtitles - & Cannes 2 September 2012
@alanthomasdoyle @bobhallet join @deanbrody on a downtown St. John’s rooftop to film the “Its Friday” music video. 1 Sept 2012
@lyndahere Already have my companion persuaded for The Once – you should Guy Forsythe if you can. Caught him Tonder – awesome.
@lyndahere I’m excited too. I’ve been planning my flights around this show. Can’t wait in response to @corytelford and the Critical List at the Fat Cat.
@lyndahere It will be great. Sean and @obriensearch are a good combo. Be nice if they worked out some more shows together. 1 August 2012
@lyndahere Sweetest sight tonight Jim Cuddy taking a photo of his family members with his phone @ the Duke. Great show tonight by him and his band. 28 July 2012.
@lyndahere Kenny Roger’s the world’s biggest screech-in & now @obriensearch too? A fascinating George St Festival combo. Gotta go watch this unfold. 25 July 2012
@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle I have supper plans there the day I get back. Sounds awesome. 18 July 2012
About living in St John’s…
@lyndahere Yet another gorgeous summer day in St John’s. Awesome. 30August 2012
@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle And yes, it’s been a blissfully lovely summer here. More than makes up for last year. God only knows about next year. 28 August 2012
Your interests are my interests…
@alanthomasdoyle Studied Medieval Icelandic Saga in uni. If you have some free time pick up Njal’s Saga. Great stuff. RC should film him. 15 August 2012
@alanthomasdoyle I fell in Iceland when they chose when I learned they chose between Christianity and paganism. No wars…they voted in 1000 AD. 15 August 2012
Mixing in the same circles…even though Alan Doyle was not on the program she was there just in case.
@lyndahere went to a performance of the Thomas Trio reunion at the Newfoundland Folk Festival. The following tweets were sent to Alan Doyle who advertised on Twitter how exited he was because he was to be going. She of course went and filmed it and placed in on her YouTube site.
@lyndahere Influential ‘90’s St John’s band Thomas Trio & The Red Albino rock the Ship at their 1st reunion gig plus link to her YouTube site. 25 July 2012
@lyndahere It was a blast. Enjoyed it so much I’m going to catch the Thomas Trio’s George Street Festival gig too. 24 July 2012
@lyndahere Really impressed by Thomas Trio & The Red Albino tonight. Light years better than I expected it to be. 24 July 2012
@lyndahere They made the most of their opportunity tonight. Which is something worth respecting. 24 July 2012
@lyndahere Fascinated that your manager and guitar tech came from these guys. 24 July 2012
@lyndahere What a great end to the NL Folk Festival 2 nights in a row seeing the 3 of you onstage…love it Alan. 6August 2012
Belonging to a fan community examples of @lyndahere’s mean girl shit…
On her Twitter page @lyndahere wrote “Best response to the same old Grade 8 Mean Girl shit is the usual. It’s not about me. It’s not about you (hard isn’t it?) but about him” 31 August 2012”. Mean girl shit. Judge for yourself.
Great Big Sea’s sharing is never enough for @lyndahere after Alan Doyle offered the words of his on his webpage and photos from his Iceland trip.
@lyndahere And what about all those Bonus Tracks lyrics? Would love to be sure of every one of your words? 27 August 2012
@alanthomasdoyle Things haven’t changed all that much, have they? (love the photos –keep them coming please and thanks) 15 August 2012 from Iceland.
Flooding the internet with poor quality out of focus photographs and then blame it on the camera…
@lyndahere After using one camera for 8 years and thats intense use – I can’t believe the new one’s autofocus is malfunctioning after two months. 27 August 2012 Lyndahere bragged on her webpage she had taken 250 photographs plus videos at the performances of Alan Doyle at his recent appearances at a writer’s festival in Newfoundland. (Excessive and unnecessary by anyone’s standards).
Making announcements before things happen.
Announcing the lyrics on his webpage before Alan Doyle.
@lyndahere At last! Official ‘Boy on Bridge’ lyrics from @alanthomasdoyle:alandoyle.ca/look-listen (now I can safely write about the songs)
@lyndahere Can barely wait for Testify. Release date coordinated with the Boy On Bridge documentary (10 years out in Sept too)
Complaining about the GBS fan community and their lack of appreciation of her ‘work’ and criticism.
@lyndahere Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be one of those people who can’t show gratitude. But then I decided it’s probably better not to know. 13 August 2012
@carbonbhoy Yeah better if I’d instead how much I appreciate those who feel free to express their gratitude. Best to stay positive. 13 August 2012
Sharing when I feel like it…
@lyndahere What a great end to the NL Folk Festival 2 nights in a row seeing the 3 of you onstage…love it Alan 6August 2012
@lyndahere My blog starts in 2006. Started seeing GBS in the Fall of 2001. Tons of early photos scattered about no videos till 2005/6 …in response to another GBS fan request for old photos of GBS.
Alan Doyle doesn’t like being talked about like this…in a sexist manner.
@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle And a sexy Animal too. 22 August 2012
@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle Its beautiful. I loved your concert attire last night too. Better than your tux shirt. Sweet animal. 22 August 2012
@lyndahere There ought to be a law against being this cute. Resistance is futile @alanthomasdoyle 26 July 2012
@alanthomasdoyle Love your Half-Naked Scene best. Watching RH now reminds me of seeing it in Rome – English Italian subtitles - & Cannes 2 September 2012
Correcting Alan Doyle’s spelling constantly…
@lyndahere Alan when you spell “Niagara” that way, it always makes me think “Viagra” Now segue to “Let’s get it in”. Smiling now. 7 September 2012.
@lyndahere I know you did those official BoB lyrics yourself Alan. Stamp of Authenticity in how you spelled “discreetly’. Loves it.
@lyndahere I love your typos Alan. Is the Torbay gig outly hours away now too? Ready for both options.
There is a difference between advertising a band on twitter to get a few more people to attend than recording and putting it up on YouTube for others to see. It is truly unfortunate that bands who want to play the music they love with the people they love can no longer do so in St Johns without it appearing on YouTube for the world to see. It is also truly unfortunate that Alan Doyle and others who attended a nice evening at the pub were threatened with being filmed and placed on YouTube. Its ‘foreigners’ like Lyndahere that threaten the culture and way of life a community with her constant prying and unwanted filming without the consent of the people who live there.
