This week Alan Doyle made a statement on Twitter
in that he supports the work of @lyndahere, both her bootlegging and
photography. I have always had the suspicious inkling he did. He responded
to a bootlegged video she illegally recorded at the Company Theatre concert and
responded to and retweeted a photograph she took at a sing-a-long at Mallard
Cottage on St Patrick’s Day. While Alan has the right to tweet whomever he
wants, it is good to finally know where he stands and he clearly supports
@lyndahere’s bootlegging and photographs at every event, both personal or
professional.
Alan Doyle releases his solo album and book in the Canadian
fall and has a few solo performances scheduled. So @lyndahere can’t do much
damage except decrease the value of the content already on Youtube by flooding it even more with her bootlegs and other
places and impact on his brand through her form of piracy. However, it is not
just Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea. She is also doing the same with other
Newfoundland musicians and groups she bootlegs and flooding YouTube with it, working to decrease their content
value and their reputations through an association with piracy.
This week Alan Doyle acknowledged and responded to a
photograph @lyndahere took at the St Patrick’s Day celebrations at Mallard
Cottage in St John’s. Neither, Alan Doyle or @lyndahere informed people there
was an informal sing-a-long with him and their friends at Mallard Cottage if
they wanted to come along. They were there for nine hours. I may be wrong (and
other fans will feel differently) but I feel it is a little patronising
tweeting people these photographs and acknowledging them after the event.
Neither of them bothered to inform people the event was on, for whatever
reason.
This seems to be a common occurrence. There are these little
get togethers or concerts with Great Big Sea, Alan Doyle and their friends, that
somehow @lyndahere gets to go to but no one else. She doesn’t inform people
either until after the event. If they do it is entirely by chance. There has
always been a bit of this with @lyndahere. I feel like I’m in Beverly Hills
90120 and missed the popular kid’s party. Here is someone showing off because
she was smart enough or brazen enough to find out and this time with Alan Doyle’s
approval. We will of course read all about it in the post at Between The Rock
accompanied with the photographs and videos.
They say there is no such thing as bad publicity. Well in
this case there is. I don’t like the invasion of privacy of the performers or
the community. I hate the attitude of people being
included when it suits them. I don’t like being told that I am not good enough
to be told and invited and then patronised with photographs and videos after the event. If
they can’t be bothered to tell people then don’t bother telling me about it
after the event. If the aim of this type of publicity is to keep fans
interested then it is having the opposite effect. I don’t like it and neither
do a bunch of other fans who have already left the fandom because of
@lyndahere’s behaviour at concerts and online. There are fans who obviously like
it and is clearly the case in the amount of retweets and tweets of the
photographs.
I will be taking a holiday from the world of Great Big Sea
for a while to pursue other interests in the world of fandom. If @lyndahere’s
aim is to come between Alan Doyle and everyone he loves or who loves him to
increase the interaction between her and him then she is clearly achieving her
goal.
