“I loved the
dance so much that I didn’t want to stick around and watch it completely fall
apart, which it ultimately did.” Sean McCann on Great Big Sea.
This
post is a response to the interview with Sean McCann “Emerging from the
darkness” by Sean Daniel Katz on November 5, 2015. Bow Valley Crag and Cannon.
The interview has been circulated on my Google + page for those interested.
Lynda
Here continues to circulate Sean McCann interviews on her own Facebook page and
the Great Big Sea Online Kitchen Party Facebook page and the fans keep
responding. There are times when I am glad I am not an active participant in
the fandom, on the GBS Online Kitchen Party on Facebook and I don’t have an
active Facebook account. This is one of them.
Alan
Doyle and Bob Hallett have put forward their positions on Sean McCann leaving
the band and I absolutely believe and support them. This is the time to let
sleeping dogs lie but on and on Lynda Here goes.
“I just hope he
can get past this need to try to turn GBS into much less than it actually was,
perhaps in an attempt to feel better about having walked away from it. It does
no one any good at all and it causes genuine hurt to some” Lynda Here 8
November, 2015 on Facebook.
I
don’t understand why some fans give Sean McCann (and ultimately Lynda Here) so
much power in determining how they feel and negatively respond to something
they got so much pleasure out of. The more negative discussions fans have of
their experiences the more negative they will become. And the fans shouldn’t
give their validation of their positive experiences away to other people’s
negativity.
What
Sean McCann says or doesn’t say doesn’t make my experiences that I had
travelling to see Great Big Sea perform in Canada, Newfoundland and
Australia any less valid. They are still one of the best times of my life.
What Sean McCann does or doesn’t say doesn' t make the time I have spent writing my blog
or interacting with other fans in person and on social media any less valid to me.
As
I have said before on a previous post I thought Lynda Here would be happy
following Alan Doyle and The Beautiful Gypsies around but obviously she is not.
Yet she seems to spend a lot of her time research and initiating negative
discussions on Facebook about Sean McCann and his days in Great Big Sea. She
has never really been a Sean McCann fan. To the best of my knowledge she has only
attended one Sean McCann show this year in St. John’s. So why such a keen
interest in what Sean McCann says or doesn’t say? Her interest is getting her
attention on Facebook. Bullying someone into silence or acceptance and
validation doesn’t work and there is no one who knows this better than her.
Lynda
Here’s attempt to fracture the fandom and create negativity is nothing new. At
every major event in the Great Big Sea career over the past couple of years she
has tried to stir up trouble in the fandom on her blog Between The Rock and A
Hard Place attacking not only in the Great Big Sea fandom but other fandoms
including the Indoor Garden Party fandom as well. I have written posts about her
interactions with the fandom at the Republic of Doyle premier, at the beginning of
the Great Big Sea XX tour and the Indoor Garden Parties in St. John’s and
Australia over the past three years to name a few.
The
constant negative discussion initiated by Lynda Here and her research will
fracture and undermine the fandom. Fans will do one of three things, they will
take Alan Doyle’s side, they will take Sean McCann’s side or they will leave
the fandom altogether because they are sick of all the negativity. And that is
not good for anyone including the musicians and the fandom. Perhaps the best
way for the fandom to move forward is to ignore negative articles and
interviews and refrain from negative comments that keep providing fuel for the
fire. Many of the big name Great Big Sea fans refrain from entering into this
type of discussion and just attend
concerts and enjoy the music.
All
the genuine Great Big Sea fans know the real reason why Great Big Sea are
unable to move forward and that is Sean McCann has refused to let go at least
legally anyhow. Why is someone so determined to make a full recovery from
something so soul destroying in the past that he is refusing to let go of all
his contact with it? I am no psychologist but I thought the obvious way to heal
from something so soul destroying is one, to put physical space between the person
suffering and the cause (which he has done) and the second is for the person to
cut all emotional and other ties including legal from the source (which he
hasn’t).
If
Great Big Sea were really doomed as Sean McCann says then wouldn’t he like to
be proven right by giving the remaining band members the opportunity to move
forward without him, fail and receive the ultimate I told you so? But he
obviously doesn’t believe in their demise so he will prevent them legally from
doing so. Then come to think of it neither do I believe in the demise of the
remaining members of Great Big Sea.
