It is always interesting checking the
statistics of my blog where I can find out what posts are regularly visited by
people, the countries people who visit come from and the number of hits.
When visiting the statistics recently I noticed
a post titled “Getting By With A Little Help From Your Friends” about the
friendship between Russell Crowe, Alan Doyle, Scott Grimes, Kevin Durand and
Allan Hawco was one of the most visited on a regular basis and has had over 540
hits. So I have decided to repost this post again.
Although the friendships have been highlighted
through interactions on their official accounts on Twitter, discussed by all
those involved in a range of interviews in the media and through regular
meetings on social media I am not really surprised the topic has remained of interest.
They are a group of generous and loyal friends indeed.
For those fans who follow our favourite
celebrities, the topic of friendship has continue to reach over into the
fandoms and connected fans who watch movies, TV shows or go to concerts and
charity events to become friends both on social media and in person.
One of the things I still find really interesting
about Russell Crowe on Twitter (his official social media account) is how much his
positive advice can mean to fans who share their creative works (which in turn
is supported by other fans). Not only his personal advice, but also the way he
gives validation to fan’s ideas, thoughts and words through a reply or retweet
and to charitable causes. It certainly has created an online community of fans
who have connected through his online presence and their love of his work and
music.
This final paragraph is from the post and still applies nearly two years
on…“Their friendships I am sure have its
ups and downs and creative differences over time, but is something we can all
learn from and aspire to as a fandom. Fandoms are places where many people meet
and become life-long friends through the activities and sharing stories about
the things they love. This post is a tribute to the friendships between Russell
Crowe, Alan Doyle, Scott Grimes, Kevin Durand and Allan Hawco and all the fans
in these fandoms who have met and become real life friends”.
This screenshot is from the official Instagram
account of Alanthomasdoyle when Russell Crowe, Alan Doyle, Scott Grimes and
Kevin Durand appeared on Allan Hawco’s Republic of Doyle. No copyright infringement intended.
Getting by with a little help from your friends... published 2 February, 2015.
Getting by with a little help from your friends... published 2 February, 2015.
Getting by with a little help from our friends…
“What would you
think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm going to try with a little help from my friends”
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm going to try with a little help from my friends”
Billy Shears
Recently I read a tweet from a person criticising the amount of Twitter
retweets Russell Crowe did. I thought about this for a while and I had to
disagree. There are a couple of things I really like about these musicians and
artists whose fandoms I am interested in and their use of social media.
Firstly, I am always learning something about the places and communities where
they are all from, the story of the products they create and the inclusion of
fans in their stories through retweets and replies. Yes, it is a nice thing to
valid and share fan’s thoughts, creating a sense of belonging and a community
by sharing their tweet. Fandoms and social media are a place which bring people
together and they become life-long friends.
However, one of the really interesting things the fans have noticed on
Twitter over the years is the friendships and support between Russell Crowe,
Alan Doyle, Scott Grimes, Kevin Durand and Allan Hawco have on a personal level
and professional level. As many of the fans know Russell Crowe, Scott Grimes
and Kevin Durand met on the set of Mystery, Alaska, and became friends. Then
Russell Crowe met Alan Doyle and they made Robin Hood and then did Winter’s
Tale and a heap of Indoor Garden Parties in Canada, America and Australia.
Russell and Alan made the album Crowe and Doyle Songbook 3. Then Russell,
Scott, Kevin, Alan and Allan all came together for an episode of Republic of
Doyle. Scott Grimes and Alan Doyle had a regular episode on the show.
I have read some interesting stories about how they all became friends.
Kevin Durand explains how he met Russell and Scott then Alan during an
interview for Robin Hood just after they made Robin Hood together. “Russell,
Scotty and I met on a movie called Mystery Alaska which started back in 1998.
That was my first movie. It was my first audition for a movie actually. I was a
theatre grad up to that point. Then Russell and I also did 3:10 to Yuma
together. Scotty and I did a movie together. It was called Throwing Stars at
the time and then they changed the title to Who's Your Monkey?, a small
independent. So, we were all very familiar with each other.
And the connection with Alan was that I had been a huge, huge Great Big
Sea [Alan Doyle's folk band] fan way back before Mystery, Alaska happened and I
gave Russell and Scotty copies of his CD. And they all became big fans. Through
the course of a decade of different things happening, we all ended up becoming
good friends and becoming the Merry Men, so to speak. I'm grateful for the
journey’. (From interviews in Sherwood. Kevin Durand Actor in 2010 film Robin
Hood. Conducted and transcribed by Allen W. Wright)
In an interview with CBC in Newfoundland 2011, Russell Crowe explained
how they all became friends “in the interview (below) Russell explains that
he met Great Big Sea frontman Alan Doyle at the NHL Awards. Hawco was “on the
bones of his ass – a struggling actor doing Shakespeare in the park or
something like that at the time” (Hawco and Doyle are both from St. John’s and
Great Big Sea’s “Oh Yeah” is the theme song of Republic of Doyle).
But then there’s more to this story than that…here’s what a few hours of
watching Youtube clips and studying Twitter feeds produced on the interesting
relationship between this group of very talented an creative friends (Russell
Crowe – The Republic of Doyle connection by Jamie Ordolis 23 August 2011 CBC
live). I also love this
article as it is the beginning of news agencies using Twitter and social media
as a source of news and searching timelines to find information out.
In an interview for American Songwriter, Alan Doyle describes he came to
meet and work with Russell Crowe in 2002. “I met Russell when we were both
presenters at the NHL Hockey Awards almost a decade ago in Toronto. I had heard
that he was a GBS (Great Big Sea) fan and had even performed one of the songs I
had written. I made sure I was standing in the hall when he was passing through
and casually introduced myself. He had first heard of GBS and my writing when
he was filming a movie called Myster,y Alaska in Canada in the late 90’s. After
a few chats he asked if I ever passed through Toronto where he was living while
filming Cinderella Man and if I would like to write a song or two. I totally
jumped at the chance, of course, and the rest is history. (From ‘Meet Alan
Doyle, Russell Crowe’s Musical Partner in Crime’, by Britta Dragicevic
published on the 16 May 2012 for the American Songwriter).
In a recent interview with the National Post Sessions Alan Doyle talks about when his friendship with Russell Crowe and how his recent trip to Gander made headlines when he tweeted him from the Gander airport. He explains “I’ve known Russell for 12 years now. He was introduced to Great Big Sea while shooting Mystery, Alaska in Alberta and he was a big fan so he introduced himself to me at the NHL awards in Toronto in ’02 or ’03. We ended up writing a bunch of stuff together, I produced his album…it’s a great friendship. Anyways, he called me late one night just before Christmas and said, ‘I’m flying into Newfoundland tomorrow so our plane can refuel.’ I think he was flying from London to Atlanta. I said, ‘You’re flying into St. John’s?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I guess.’ So I was like, ‘Awesome, I’ll come up and see ya.’ About three in the morning I get a text saying, ‘We’re not flying into St. John’s we’re flying into Gander, where’s that?’ And I said, ‘it’s about four hours away.’ And so when he got there he started tweeting about how he expected us to be there, joking around, and the local media made a big deal about it and I was like, ‘Guys, he was on the other side of customs! I couldn’t have even seen him even if we had gone. It’s a gag.’ But you know what’s cool about it? It’s that, and maybe this is little brother complex but I still think it’s cool that there’s a guy that’s as worldly and as famous as him that takes a moment to acknowledge when he’s in Newfoundland, he loves the place, that he’s got friends there and that it’s significant to him. I probably should be above that but I’m not. It feels like a bit of a pat on the back to be honest.” (Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle is looking for something true to sing on ‘So Let’s Go’” by Jon Dekel published on 21 January 2015).
In a recent interview with the National Post Sessions Alan Doyle talks about when his friendship with Russell Crowe and how his recent trip to Gander made headlines when he tweeted him from the Gander airport. He explains “I’ve known Russell for 12 years now. He was introduced to Great Big Sea while shooting Mystery, Alaska in Alberta and he was a big fan so he introduced himself to me at the NHL awards in Toronto in ’02 or ’03. We ended up writing a bunch of stuff together, I produced his album…it’s a great friendship. Anyways, he called me late one night just before Christmas and said, ‘I’m flying into Newfoundland tomorrow so our plane can refuel.’ I think he was flying from London to Atlanta. I said, ‘You’re flying into St. John’s?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I guess.’ So I was like, ‘Awesome, I’ll come up and see ya.’ About three in the morning I get a text saying, ‘We’re not flying into St. John’s we’re flying into Gander, where’s that?’ And I said, ‘it’s about four hours away.’ And so when he got there he started tweeting about how he expected us to be there, joking around, and the local media made a big deal about it and I was like, ‘Guys, he was on the other side of customs! I couldn’t have even seen him even if we had gone. It’s a gag.’ But you know what’s cool about it? It’s that, and maybe this is little brother complex but I still think it’s cool that there’s a guy that’s as worldly and as famous as him that takes a moment to acknowledge when he’s in Newfoundland, he loves the place, that he’s got friends there and that it’s significant to him. I probably should be above that but I’m not. It feels like a bit of a pat on the back to be honest.” (Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle is looking for something true to sing on ‘So Let’s Go’” by Jon Dekel published on 21 January 2015).
Russell, Alan, Scott, Kevin and Allan have made movies and television
episodes together, written songs and created albums together, and of course
done concerts together. When each person has created something new they
seem to be always there with help and encourage each other and give their
work a bit of a plug. Their friendships I am sure have its ups and downs and
creative differences over time, but is something we can all learn from and
aspire to as a fandom. Fandoms are places where many people meet and become
life-long friends through the activities and sharing stories about the things
they love. This post is a tribute to the friendships between Russell Crowe,
Alan Doyle, Scott Grimes, Kevin Durand and Allan Hawco and all the fans in
these fandoms who have met and become real life friends.
The Australian Indoor Garden Party...(From the Daily Telegram.com) No copyright infringement intended.
