I see history repeating here. In @lyndahere’s blog post
about the opening night of the GBS XX tour Alan Doyle was the only member of
Great Big Sea mentioned. A year and half later in the latest blog post 21 June
2014 there is no mention of the other members of the Alan Doyle band, no group
photographs and no mention of what was played at the various shows and what was
uniquely Alan Doyle.
Again @lyndahere tells us what a kind and thoughtful soul
she is providing these videos of Alan Doyle doing Great Big Sea songs to help Great
Big Sea fans during their hiatus. Justification, I suspect for her endless bootlegging and
perhaps a slight dig at the members of Great Big Sea for their lack of acknowledgement
of her ‘work’ and social media presence during their time. Yes, the Alan Doyle solo career is
rolling along nicely without them.
But she clearly misses the point of why Great Big Sea fans
love these songs and music. They are distinctly Newfoundland. Great Big Sea
songs and music are a distinctly Great Big Sea team effort in creating and
playing them. This is why they sound so great. Great Big Sea fans will notice
this too.
For all those Great Big Sea fans missing Great Big Sea there
are the professionally made videos on the Great Big Sea official YouTube site
and CBC radio concert videos we can view again. Perhaps an overdue retweet is
in order if @lyndahere is really concerned about Great Big Sea fans during
their hiatus.
I certainly can understand why Alan Doyle doesn’t play any
new music at concerts before the release of his new CD. @lyndahere will bootleg
the music and load it up onto YouTube ASAP without any serious thought to the
consequences. People will make decisions based on these videos whether to
buy the CD before it is released and without hearing it in its entirety or
before the music is finished.
Over a year and a half ago I wrote this blog post about
@lyndahere’s reports on the opening show of Great Big Sea XX and her lack of
inclusiveness when reporting events for fans. I see that continuing today with
the various forms of the Alan Doyle band.
@lyndahere Great Big
Sea the obsession and bootlegging continue…
“If only there were a
way to give Alan 24 hours a day in the spotlight at centre-stage edge. Right
where he belongs”. (Between the Rock and a Hardplace 17 November
2012) And he clearly is in @lyndahere’s world.
In her two most recent posts at her blog page Between A Rock
and a Hardplace (“…And A New One Begins
Days of Future Past and Embraceable Contradictions Danforth GBS Show Conclusion
and Beginning 17 November 2012 and the first part of the post “A New One Begins” Part One Great Big Sea
XX tour, First Show (Danforth Music Hall Toronto 14 November 2012)
@lyndahere talks about the first Great Big Sea show for Great Big Sea XX. I
predicted I would not read a lot about the team that is Great Big Sea. In other
words I would read about the Alan Doyle show with four other guys whose name
and contribution get a brief mention if any. @lyndahere writes a lot about her
beloved Alan Doyle, his showmanship and the music he writes and plays but not
much about the team that is Great Big Sea and their contributions to the
successful twenty years they have been together. @lyndahere talks about how she
measures the best shows “My own Great
Show standard of measure is twofold. I love shows in which Alan gets to shine
brightly and I love shows in which just about everyone present on stage feels
grateful to be exactly where they are”.
While she goes on and on about gratitude in her blogs and on
Twitter I don’t read much about team Great Big Sea and her appreciation of the
music they have made together rather than the music made by Alan Doyle. I read
a lot about how much she admires people who are grateful. I don’t read about
her being grateful that if her taxi crashes on the way to gig there are people
who have worked hard and made sacrifices so they can help people, and there are
the people who worked so they could be educated. I don’t see her being grateful
for the people who grow, produce and sell the food she eats, the staff at the
pub where she has a drink that serve her working long hours or the taxi driver
driving her to gigs or at the hotel working all hours of the night. They pay the
taxes and provide the services that keep America and Canada running. There are
the usual flood of Alan Doyle pictures, videos and the Alan Doyle moments and
memories. I am still waiting to read about team Great Big Sea.
So it is within this context @lyndahere writes about what a
kind and thoughtful soul she is towards Great Big Sea and their fans while
bootlegging the whole show and forgetting about the contribution of each
member. “ I am going to still hold off a
bit more before writing in depth about the XX Box Set. Two reasons for that,
the first (and most important) being that a few folds are still waiting some
patiently, some a bit (understandably) less so – for their orders to be
delivered, and it seems more polite to wait a bit longer before I go blathering
on about what they’re still waiting to see for themselves”. The second reason
is that because I have never been a Box-Set Purchaser (this is the first one I
have ever brought though there a least several dozen of the things to be found
on various shelves in my house) I’ve asked a few friends who have much more
expertise than I have to take a look at XX and tell me how it stacks up in
satisfying the Diehard Fans’ desires. I’m still waiting to hear back from a few
of them but so far the responses I have gotten have been impressively positive
(“…And A New One Begins Days of Future Past and Embraceable Contradictions
Danforth GBS Show Conclusion and Beginning 17 November 2012).
The diehard fans have spoken. The horse has bolted. @lyndahere
failed to mentioned in her blog posts a significant detail that the Great Big
Sea XX album had gone Gold in Canada within two weeks which says to me people loved it. The special edition boxed sets also sold out pretty quick as
well. On the 14 November 2012 the members of Great Big
Sea announced on Twitter that Great Big Sea XX had gone Gold in Canada (40 000
albums).
@alanthomasdoyle Just got a note from Louis our manager. GBS XX has gone
Gold in Canada. In less than two weeks it seems. I am Humbled and Grateful. 14
November 2012
@bobhallett GBS XX is gold! Thanks to the fans who still believe in us after 20 years 14 November 2012
I did not read congratulations Alan Doyle, Sean McCann, Bob Hallett, Murray Foster, and Kris MacFarlane in her blog post 17 November 2012. Hopefully in her reviewes she will remember that Great Big Sea consists of five members including Bob Hallett, Sean McCann, Murray Foster and Kris MacFarlane not just Alan Doyle who is the first to recognise Great Big Sea is a team.
