Monday, 14 January 2013

Lyndahere And Musicians And Artist's Opinions Of Bootlegging...

It’s a new year and Lyndahere (@lyndahere) is off stalking and bootlegging Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea on some of his solo gigs in America and Canada in New Hampshire, LA, New York and Vancouver and British Columbia Canada. She did quite well in bootlegging the Russell Crowe New York Indoor Garden Party concerts at Joe’s Pub on 8 December 2012 on all accounts after receiving approximately 200000 hits for all the live recorded videos put up YouTube. Approximately $1000 tax free if she is collecting revenue from YouTube. Not bad for four hours work when the average American wage per hour is low.

On her Twitter page Lyndahere wrote these tweets along with all the rest

@lyndahere @alanthomasdoyle Yes, you were awesome, that is. As always. Tonight White River Jct. will be Awesome Trifecta 12 January 2013
@lyndahere I love it when people get excited about your solo music. That’s almost as sweet as is gets. NYC show will be awesome, Alan @alanthomasdoyle 11 January 2013
@lyndahere 5.30 am airport shuttle = time to get a bit of sleep tonight. Great night tonight with the Alan Doyle Band. More shows alandoyle.ca/tour 11 January 2013
@lyndahere A gorgeous Dream of Home Alan Doyle Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry NH on Youtube @alanthomasdoyle 11 January 2013
@lyndahere Gotta love a man who knows right where he belongs: Alan Doyle, Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry on Youtube @alanthomasdoyle 11 January 2013
@lyndahere I love St. John’s but from what I am hearing and reading about current weather conditions, I don’t think I mind not loving her until Tuesday 11 January 2013

So what do some musicians and artists think about the bootlegging of their live shows? After a brief search of the Internet the opinions of musicians and artists recording their concerts are pretty diverse. Some don’t like it and make their opinions very clear. Others issue statements and develop policies. Others approve for a variety of reasons with some conditions on recording like for personal use only and no trading. Some bootleg their own concerts and release them to fans. But regardless of what the musicians or artists want most people like Lyndahere who buy tickets to concerts will always do exactly what they want with little respect for what the musicians and groups want and still call themselves fans.

In 2000, over 70 musicians and artists formed a coalition in the fight against all kinds of piracy. They included Canadians Bryan Adams, Barenaked Ladies and Alanis Morissette and Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Faith Hill, Garth Brooks and Metallica. “AAP’s goal is to create public awareness, appreciation and understanding of the value of music and to advocate artists’ choice in determining how their music is presented, distributed and marketed online”. The initiative was also supported by various companies. The fight continues in 2012 as British musicians and artists lead by Sir Elton John, Pete Townshend and Robert Plant wrote a letter to the British Prime Minister David Cameron to influence the government to implement the antipiracy focused Digital Economy Act 2010 that will assist in the fight against music piracy.

Action seems to be taken at venues as well as by artists and musicians at various concerts. They are described in a bootlegger’s blog called “Starknakedtruth: Confessions of a Rock Concert Bootlegger”. Most alleged self-confessed bootleggers start out with good intentions and to trade only but then get into selling attracted to the huge amounts of money involved. This bootlegger writes about the conflicts between his real job and his bootlegging business, developing tricks of the trade, running a website and dealing with customers, numerous conflicts with security and police, fights with other fans who reported him to the RIAA and band’s management, and problems of distribution through sites like EBay blocking the sale of some bootlegs. He talks about fans willing to take action or perhaps other bootleggers ratting out the opposition. “Janis’s lawyers sent me a letter to ‘cease and desist’ in any distributions of copies of this show, after a fan on her message board rats me out to her lawyers. I would receive about half dozen of such legal letters to comply to from various bands like Cheap Trick, Journey ect in their future”. Despite all the objections from the musicians and artists themselves, their security, fans and actions by EBay this person continued to bootleg and sell them.

In 2004 a Finnish man was prosecuted for spreading unauthorised recordings of Alanis Morissette concerts on the Internet. The man was found to have swapped over 1900 copies of auauthorised concerts recordings between 1999 and 2003 with other bootleggers through his website. He had not made illegal recordings himself. He was ordered to pay $21 756 in compensation to Morissette and others for copyright infringement. Alanis Morissette was of course at the for front of the Artists Against Piracy campaign established in 2000 as were many of the musicians and artists bootlegged by the author of Starknaked Truth blog.

The Dave Matthews Band is one band whose views on tapping live shows is well documented and is on their official site as they allow it at almost all of their performances. Their taping policy on their official webpage states “ We feel that each show is unique and want to offer our fans the opportunity to recreate the live experienced through the audio reproduction of our shows. At all taping authorised performances tapers can tape form any ticketed seating located in the venue. Also for many of these performances tapers are able are to purchase specially designated taper section, normally located immediately behind the soundboard…Taping is limited to audio-only, using microphones…We sincerely appreciate all of our fans so we ask you that you please be considerate of those around you by not obstructing anyone else’s of the performances…All recordings must be used for personal used or trading only…”.

The Dave Matthews Band unlike others recognises bootlegging is a major problem in the music industry. They recognised the contribution fans can make in the fight against bootlegged material “Those of you who have passed along information about commercialised recordings have been very instrumental in our fight against bootleggers. An equality important violation of the integrity of the music is the unauthorised commercial exploitation of the band now occurring on television and radio…And don’t forget the battle of the bootleggers is an ongoing one”. But despite their best intention, generosity and attempts to cooperate with their fans by allowing taping and trading there will always be those out to exploit. A search of the Dave Matthews Band on Youtube shows this in the number of hits of illegally copied pirated videos and bootlegged material. Despite the policy being displayed on their home webpage some fans remain ignorant and choose to ignore it. In one illegal video I watched the sound recording and the visual were from two different concerts.

To me the taping policy of Great Big Sea has been made perfectly clear via Twitter. That is they don’t mind people taping their shows for personal use but they don’t like their entire concerts being taped and posted on YouTube. This is evident in the fact the three primary members of Great Big Sea (Alan Doyle, Bob Hallett and Sean McCann) have never officially acknowledged or retweeted any of Lyndahere’s hundreds of videos she has sent them via Twitter in the last year or so. Alan Doyle has on occasions tweeted Lyndahere welcoming her presence at concerts but never acknowledged any of her videos. Links and retweets of her videos have on a very few rare occasions been provided by Russell Crowe, Scott Grimes and other friends of Alan Doyle such as Great Big Sea member Murray Foster and Alan Doyle Band member Kendel Carson. Nearly all Great Big Sea fans respect their unspoken taping policy and are more interested in creating memories for the moment listening and enjoying the music than creating memories for someone else to visit sometime in the future. But I could be wrong.

Bootleggers and those that view and make live recordings at concerts continually justify their activities with a range of arguments. Bootlegging is a hobby of music enthusiasts and they should be allowed to do free from legal threat. There is a thought that a fan base will increase if they are allowed to video and trade in bootlegged material following certain guidelines or rules and create a community of fans. However, it is clear in the case of Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle that the primary bootlegger Lyndahere is not interested in following other guidelines laid down for taping by the venues or ticket holders or those of the musicians.

Bootleggers seemed more concerned about the fans their bootlegged videos on YouTube may attract than the people who have already purchased tickets and are there at the concert. In one of the official and bootlegged videos of Russell Crowe’s Indoor Garden Party in New York bootleggers have their cameras on in the front row and in others by the audience they are raising their cameras above the crowd obstructing someone’s views and shining a light in their face. There is clear evidence they piss off some performers such as Neil Young. “With the Internet there is no more privacy and not even the chance to express yourself in front of your audience in the intimacy of a concert that lets songs evolve. You can’t do this because they immediately get it circulated”.

Bootlegged recordings made by relatively unknown bands can be used as a cheap form of publicity without paying for the large overheads like labour to produce it, the license to record or the distribution. Bootleggers like Lyndahere believe live recordings help bring in new fans who will in turn go to concerts and buy CDs. Illegal live recordings are used as modes of word-of-mouth advertising to increase enthusiasm amongst fans and create a community. Bootlegged recordings are often the first material many fans see and as a consequence may be turned off because of the poor quality and discourage fans from attending concerts. Bootlegging can also work in reverse and piss people off who don’t agree with piracy, and who support the coalition of musicians and artists who don’t support piracy. In a country like America on the brink of an economic crisis, money for entertainment of any kind is limited. If a concert is bootlegged in the way Lyndahere bootlegs more and more people are going to watch it on YouTube. Rather than spend $30 on a ticket to a show they can pay for Internet usage for a whole month. They are very unlikely to buy a CD if they can access it for free.

Canadian Neil Young writes in his biography Waging Heavy Peace about being on the road, performing to today’s audience and the presence of technology at concerts “If you forget what you’re doing, it shows up on YouTube. If you do something new that isn’t ready, or something old that you screw up, it is on YouTube. If snot comes off your nose while you are playing the harmonica and slithers down the harmonica rack onto your T-shirt, it is on YouTube. If you say something stupid…”

References
“Artists speak out against piracy” at www.musicunited.org viewed 10 January 2013.
“Artists Against Piracy Launches Nation Media Campaign” at www.interentnews.com/ec-news/articles viewed on 10 January 2013.
“Finn ordered to pay Alanis Morissette for Internet bootleg spreading” www.murmurs.com viewed 10 January 2013.
Rolling Stone, “Elton John, Pete Townshend and Robert Plant Sign Anti-Piracy Letter to British Prime Minister”, 25 July 2012. www.rollingstone.com/music/news viewed 10 January 2013.
“Starknakedtruth; Confessions of A Rock Concert Bootlegger 9 October 2012” www.startnakedtruth.blogspot.com viewed 10 January 2013
Young, N. 2012. Waging Heavy Peace. Penguin Group: London.

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Lyndahere And The Story Of Other Bootleggers...

“Startnakedtruth Confession of a Rock Concert Bootlegger” is a seven and a half thousand word blogspot post written by a rock concert bootlegger. It provides an insight into the motivation behind bootlegging, the move from concert goer to trading, producing and selling, the clashes with security guards and fans about bootlegging and eventually the threat of legal action by musicians and artists. He concludes that technology made taping and trading eventually obsolete.

“My name is Mad Raving and I had been collecting bootleg video tapes for a long time as hobby (since the late 80's). Most of these were purchased at record/video shows (usually held in malls) or via mail purchase from a bootleg seller advertising in Goldmine magazine - the ultimate magazine for ads involving old time records but also audio and video bootlegs. Soon we would both get involved in trading copies of our vhs tapes for other collectors live concert vhs tapes. I would eventually get involved in trading on my own as my brother was now supporting a family by the mid and late 90's….

(NOTE: BOOTLEG VIDEO TAPERS would be simply known in the bootleg world as "Filmers" or "Bootleg Filmers".I will use the term FILMERS more often in this story.)

My brother and I were big concert goers from as long as I could remember. It's easy to remember our first concert since it was The Who in Orlando on November 27th,1982. Since then it has been a passion. Right from waiting on the lines early in the morning to purchase the tickets, to the pre-concert tailgate parties, and then the show itself. For myself, the passion would remain up til 1998, but it would be for a different reason….

I met a guy named Bill at a Jefferson Starship concert on a Sunday afternoon at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale,Florida (spring 1998) while he was standing to the right of the sound desk and video taping the concert on a tripod. He told me he was given permission by the band's manager about 30 minutes before show time. But he told me that was rare, that most of the time he had to hide the camcorder with a shirt and sneak (stealth) tape a show. He told me he had the tripod in his car, and once he was given the permission, he went back to get it. But in most cases in the future for myself, if you used a tripod in a sitting down situation inside an arena, a minitripod was what you would use. Also known as a lap pod. This was used for sneak/stealth/bootleg filming….

He gave me some tips on how to get started. But one thing he was adamant about was that he only traded copies of his master video tapes. He was big against selling them. At this point I was only interested in the trading aspect of it anyway. We both agreed to start a website called http://www.southfloridatapers.com/ for bootleg filmers locally to trade copies of our master tapes with each other. I spent some time at his home with his wife and we became good friends. I would also get involved in other national and international message boards and forums where bootleg video tapers (known as "Filmers") would discuss and advertise their own filmed shows for sale. I was told I could make some good money. At this point I had declined the notion of doing such a thing. First of all, I was a bit wary of the risks involved. I was also afraid to betray my new friend Bill…

I saw no sign of him on the national bootleg filmer forums and started to interact in conversations via these message boards and in doing so, learned a lot about what type of camcorder was the ultimate type for stealth filming. What type of mic,tapes,batteries,etc. There were tips on the best way to sneak the camcorder and the additional equipment into the venues. I would eventually learn my own methods to get inside. I had read that some boot filmers would get caught at the door more often than others. I was adamant to not let that happen to me. My stories on how I got past pat down searches and metal detectors on a daily basis are included in the a few of the concerts below…

Then there was the information about where to advertise your video tapes for sale. I learned there were fan based message boards for most of the rock bands. You could find the busiest ones by doing internet searches. I would technically become a spam artist. Some fans of that certain band would object to the advertisement, but most would be very appreciative and very excited over the chance to purchase a decently bootleg filmed concert of their favorite band…

My first attempt was a Stones show in Sunrise at a brand new arena in Sunrise in March 1999.It was good practice. The show was sold out and there was a lot of security and this was a major band. Remember, at this point in March of 1999,I was in the trading community only. So there was no pressure, other than that I was green and scared just by what I was attempting to do.I recall filming openly and no one caring. Security just never saw me. I lucked out. I was told by other filmers on the forum that I would need to hide the cam with an exta shirt, leaving the lens uncovered of course. The next several months would involve me saving money to upgrade everything. As you read my concert film chronicle below, you will see the progress via my notes.

In January 2000,appx. 10 months after I started filming shows, and appx. 12 years after solely trading tapes - I was now official a bootleg seller. My first show was prolific in profits. It was Davy Jones (ex-Monkee) at Gulfstream Park (see the story below).How ironic, the same venue I met Bill at. My internet search would lead me to find out that there were hundreds of Monkees and Davy Jones fan based message boards…

I had continued to be a member of the traders only group at the aformentioned south Florida website and had kept the secret from Bill as long as I could. But of course he found out, and lectured me and the he dropped me as a friend immediately. I was ok with it, I was moving on. I soon found out that he wasn't much of a taper. I soon found out that I would end of being the ONLY bootleg filmer in all of Florida. And I would soon become internationally known and almost as prolific as the notorious North East filmers (Kevin in NYC,Joe in Philly,and so on)…

Soon, I would start selling on Ebay. Going through numerous different accounts each time I would get suspended. There was no way to figure out why ebay suspends some bootleggers and others never get suspended. One thing was known. Ebay had a watch group that involved band's lawyers, their record labels (Warner,Epic,etc) and various spotters who would red flag suspicious auctions (bootlegs for sale!). I would go through a dozen different ebay accounts using different credit cards and various bank account information. Using different user names and so on. My business got so out of hand. I was filming the shows and then advertising on forums and selling on Ebay. I would answer hundreds of questions from potential buyers almost daily, while I took in the payments via paypal or snail mail money orders. I designed the bootleg case covers artwork. I ordered new dvd cases every 3 weeks. As well as cases of vhs and dvd mailers…Most of the time things went well. But you had to deal with anything at anytime. This also involved some fans sending me hate email which included "turning" me into the RIAA or the band's management themselves. 

Our favorite band, The Who, announced a Summer/Fall tour for 2000.I would plan Mike and I's first road trip to see several shows. The bootleg business would help a great deal in the finances involved in seeing these shows. I filmed over 900 concerts in many different venues in South Florida and some in North Florida. I only include notes to concerts of interest as far as incidents involved with the filming or sneaking in each show…

Not mentioned in the story are the 30 or so times I got caught. Honorable mention includes being roughed up by Bob Dylan's personal crew at Ft. Lauderdale stadium a few years ago…I also learned to never attempt to film a Dylan show ever again. His boots never sell well anyway. Not worth the trouble…

At a YES concert in W.Palm Beach, I was caught by one security guy..a young but big dude. He demanded my tape, but I had asked him if we could walk down stairs and away from crowd to avoid the embarrassment. He agreed and as we walked, I trailed behind him just enough to eject the tape and stuff it down my pants. I replaced a blank tape (usually my decoy tape is at the midpoint, so if security examined it, it looked used)...but I didn't have it with me, so I had use my blank tape, which I was going to need for the YES encore, which was about to begin when I got caught…

The fun part about the Amphitheater that would change their name like four times, was their security was in huge numbers and all over the place in this venue. But somehow I managed to film over 100 shows here and only got caught a few times. I would soon start dealing in importing PROFESSIONALLY Filmed concerts from various sources (TV,Euro and Japan pay per view or free tv events, In House video screen,etc).The main imports came from Japan and Germany and involved classic rock bands (60's,70's,80's).The stuff that was surfacing from 2003-2006 was exciting. You talk about super visual quality and sound quality pro filmed shows..complete. It would make the bootleg filming/taping a secondary interest…

At this point I had only been trading my own copies with other bootleg filmers. This was my first attempt at selling copies to fans - and what a way to start! i always knew The Monkees continued to have a massive fan base even as of today...especially Davy Jones, the idol of the band. I saw that the fans had over 100 busy message boards, more than the Beatles. This video/film of the show sold nonstop for 4 years. He never came back this far South until another Monkees show later would also do well for me.

Janis's lawyers (Janis Ian) sent me a letter to "cease and desist" in any distributions of copies of this show, after a fan on her message board rats me out to her Lawyers. I would receive about a half dozen of such legal letters to comply to from these actions via various bands, like Cheap Trick,Journey,etc in the future…

I would continue to film shows from 2004 to April 2009.But my days of filming have slowed down to a rare show here and there by 2009 and the trading and collecting days are just about over in this age of Bit torrent uploading and down loading”.


Reference
“Starknakedtruth; Confessions of A Rock Concert Bootlegger 9 October 2012” www.startnakedtruth.blogspot.com viewed 13 January 2013

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Lyndahere And Quotes From Musicians And Artists About Their Fans...

I was interested in what artists and musicians think about their fans. Brainy quotes is a very interesting webpage that literally has hundreds of them. I don’t know if the musicians and artists actually said these things about fans, somewhere at some time as they are not referenced. But I like the comments made and like to think they made them.

“What good are fans? You can’t eat applause for breakfast. You can’t sleep with it”. – Bob Dylan

“Fans will praise you, scold you, and offer helpful advice. Fans will also defend you”. – Charlie Pride

“I’m very grateful because my fans are very loyal”. – Cliff Richard

“I know without our fans and devotion of our fans we wouldn’t be here. I don’t mean to put them down, but I’m just stating a fact that it is hard to play to people that see you all the time and it takes a lot of fun out of it in some ways”. – Rojer Daltrey

“Most of the fans of John Lennon and maybe John and Yoko are younger than me”. – Yoko Ono

“The instrument I never learned how to play was my fans. You know they are the part of the story that nobody teaches you. I just to do the right thing; I want to be a voice with them, among them”. – Lady Gaga

“If fans are going to turn on me because of this they weren’t my fans anyway. I couldn’t betray a whole 25 years of record making and not do this. I had to”. – John Mellencamp

“Metallic fans sided with Napster because they’re lazy bastards, and they want everything for free. I like playing music because it’s a good living and I get satisfaction from it but I can’t feed my family with satisfaction” – James Hetfield of Metallica

“So these cell phones and rich folks who can afford the big bucks for prime seating distract me from what I am doing and make me feel like I am on display in a museum. It’s not good for the music, which a lot of the time feeds on the energy of the crowd” – Neil Young

“Some girl asked me for an autograph and I asked her why, she said because she admires me, I said she should see a shrink. The she started crying and I started laughing.” - Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue

“We get paid in flesh. Our audiences are sluts and whores, each and every one”. - Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue

“I could go on stage, unzip my pants, and have my dick out and people would think it was some kind of statement or something.”- Bono

“There’s no guy that would wanna kill us. There are girls that get so obsessed they would want to kill us. They wanna shoot us they wanna do what whatever”. – Caleb Folowill, Kings of Leon

“As I get older my eyesight’s going bad. I don’t know what I am in for with groupies until they come backstage and they’re very large with missing teeth”.- Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue

“It actually came as quite a shock to learn just how many people don’t like me”. – Phil Collins

“I’m warning you with peace and love I have too much to do. So no more fan mail. Thank you. And no objects to be signed, nothing. Peace and love, peace and love”. – Ringo Starr

“The fans have been great to me. I don’t think it’s asking too much to have me sign something for them”. – Justin Timberlake

“Every bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m trying to liberate them. I want to free them of their fears, and make them feel like they can make their own space in the world”. – Taylor Swift

“Fans are my favourite thing in the world. I have never been the type of artist who has that line drawn between their friends and fans. The line’s always been really blurred for me. I’ll hang out with them after the show. If I see them in the mall I’ll stand there and talk to them for 10 minutes”.- Taylor Swift

“When the line starts to blur between the fans and the players, sometimes things can get ugly”. – Karem Abdul-Jabbar

“For film and television, it’s interesting how fans feel that their particular ways of manifesting their affections are the correct ones. It’s not just about being a fan, it’s about how you perform your fandom. That’s been interesting to me”. – Carrie Brownstein

“Coldplay fans are the best in the world. If you like Coldplay then you’re obviously very intelligent and good looking and all-round brilliant”. – Chris Martin

“Its been quite a roller coaster ride, but I’ve grown and learned a lot about myself. The greatest thing is being able to interact with fans and touch people’s lives…for that I give thanks”. – Christina Aquilera

“My understanding is, the fans are so ravenous in Canada, they gnaw on the stars”. – William Shatner

“Really, what I try and in still in my fans is to be healthy and happy. I no desire to be super-skinny”. – Kelly Clarkson

“Ever since I started to get recognition I’ve picked out certain fans and reverse stalked them”. – Jim Carry

“I think some fans want everything to stay the same because they want to stay the same”. -
Alanis Morissette

“I don’t want to treat my fans like they are stupid”. –Keesha

“From the moment I leave my house or my hotel room, the public owns me. The public made Alice Cooper and I can’t imagine ever turning my back on my fans”. – Alice Cooper

“The fans of ‘The Hunger Games’ of the book, are passionate. It’s funny; Even at my concerts there are people holding up ‘Cinna’ signs”. – Lenny Kravitz

“It’s very little trouble for me to accommodate my fans, unless I’m actually taking a pee at the time”. – Harrison Ford

“The tastes of country music fans are not limited to the narrow range defined by consultants and programmers and record company moguls”. – Charley Pride

“And looking at today’s music scene, I think it’s cool that there are a lot of consumers and fans not limited by what radio and record companies tell them to buy”. – Juice Newton

“Touring is always important to me. It’s like a big IOU to my fans, because I know they are the reason I exist”. – Katy Perry

“If your music is great, you will have fans not because you have spent time chatting on social media”. – Bryan Adams

“I like Twitter a lot. It is a great way to get the fans knowing another side of you”. –Caroline Wozniacki

References



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Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Lyndahere And A Beginning Revised...

This is the story of an American woman Lyndahere (@lyndahere) or Lynda Elstad following a Canadian musician/singer Alan Doyle and the band he plays with Great Big Sea from Newfoundland. It is a story of a woman who has followed the singer/musician and the band for over 12 years writing, photographing and filming about her efforts with little regard for the privacy and rights of the singer/musician and band or the integrity of their work. The aim of this page originally was to raise awareness of music piracy, stalking or “criminal harassment” laws, copyright and privacy laws in Canada, and to raise awareness of the obsessive fan behaviour associated with Alan Doyle, Great Big Sea and other celebrities in Canada. Hopefully Canadian news and current affairs shows will also pick up this research and do stories to raise awareness of some the issues facing their artists around the world.

My first introduction to Great Big Sea was through the Australian actor Russell Crowe. I followed Russell Crowe on Twitter and he regularly talked about the Canadian band Great Big Sea and the singer/musician Alan Doyle. The movie Robin Hood introduced me to the brilliance of Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea. To be honest I fell in love with them through watching illegally recorded videos on Youtube and most probably those of @lyndahere. I saw an illegally downloaded recording of the song ‘Where I Belong’ by Alan Doyle about his native Newfoundland and I was a fan. I have since brought albums, gone to concerts and met the members of the band. I also listen to other Canadian bands such the Barenaked Ladies and The Once Band and a range of other music.



But for every fan like me won through illegally recorded poor quality homemade videos how many are lost and how much money do artists lose. I don’t particular enjoy videos of live recordings where women scream and talk and love the sound of their own voice more than the artists they pay to watch. They continually breakdown and the sound is poor and I am out of there. I have become fussy about what I watch with limited time and money. It is has only recently that I have begun to gravel with the moral and ethical implications and the impact that illegally recorded videos can have on creative artists including financial lose. It is not just financial lose but spending time away from their family and their children as they have to travel more. In my research I found that Canadians are the biggest computer pirates in the world. The fact that Canadians are among the biggest computer pirates in the world downloading billions of dollars of illegal material including music makes Great Big Sea’s success with traditional music more remarkable.





In the seven months since I started this blog I have read a lot articles on the Internet, books and viewed other sources. They have included information on subjects that arise for example ticket scalping, trading in bootlegged material, cyberbullying, blogging, the paparazzi and others stated in the original introduction on music piracy, copyright and stalking. I have also included some responses to posts on Twitter from @lyndahere.

I have recently started reading research articles on celebrity worship syndrome and different types of fan behaviour including trolling, fandom, groupie behaviour, bootlegging in the movies, and phone hacking. Some topics for example, how musicians communicate with fans via social media such as Facebook were started and I have to return. I have also explored a range of resources including songs, photographs and some very old yet fascinating articles from magazines like the Rolling Stone, Time and the New York Times that provide a historical context for examining fan behaviour. Recently a range of rock and roll stars have released their biographies which provide a look at fan behaviour from their point of view some of which I am currently reading.

The topics are endless as well as fascinating. While the initial blog was started to raise awareness of negative fan behaviour it has extended way beyond that. It has extended way beyond the fan behaviour of @lyndahere with her words and actions inspiring further research only for me to find that she is part of range of people who are involved in my opinion a range of behaviour not always positive towards musicians and celebrities they profess to love. I want this story on the record.



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Lyndahere And Boner Stories....

Lynda Elstad or @lyndahere “Boner stories? That’s the best you have to give? Did you confuse me with someone else?” 9 December 2012.

“Zappa may wind up the ultimate historian of the groupies (whom he sees as freedom fighters at the Avant garde of the Sexual Revolution that is sweeping Western Civilization)”. He’s got hours of interviews on tape, plus all the diaries of the Plaster Casters plus hundreds of letters and photos and he’s already gotten the thing into a book called The Groupie Papers”. Frank Zappa in “The Groupies and Other Girls” by John Burks, Jerry Hopkins and Paul Nelson.

After recently researching fan behaviour on the Internet I have come to learn it is a very complex subject indeed. Fandom, celebrity worship syndrome, groupies, stalking, music piracy and hacking are terms used to describe a whole range of fan behaviour that have different meanings and fields of research. What do they all mean and where do I find out information about them? Whose stories are valid stories and whose are not?

I came across some information about Deakin University in Australia and their launch of it’s inaugural celebrity studies journal and conference in December 2012. How exciting, a conference and an academic journal on the topics of celebrity and their fans. While I did not go to the conference I have found a life time of interesting and legitimate research and papers on the subject by highly respected scholars and topics to write about that extend way beyond the topic of this blog. The conference has a Facebook page (inaugural celebrities study page) and Twitter page #celebstudies. Celebrity studies to my surprise is a legitimate field of study in its own right and within the areas of other subjects such as cultural and media studies. However the conference topic was celebrity now. The history of celebrity and how it developed is also very interesting in particular about musicians and groups from different generations.

Some of the topics suggested for the conference.
The celebrity studies canon The value of fame Method: how to do celebrity studies
Star and celebrity images Pop stardom The TV Personality
Celebrity and performance National cinema, international stars Digital platforms
DIY celeb Ordinary celebrity Austerity and celebrity
American Quality TV Entrepreneurial celebrity Olympic celebrity
Celebrity fandom Literary celebrity Queer celebrity
The celebrity ambassador Fame damage Celebrity affect, emotion
Celebrity and gender Anti-celebrity The phenomenology of celebrity
Cult stardom and celebrity Charisma and celebrity Pathology and celebrity
Toxic celebrity Celebrity and news The sexualisation of celebrity
Celebrity art/artists Race, ethnicity and celebrity Celebrity and persona
Porn stars Sport and celebrity Gaming and celebrity culture
Political fame



The conference is available to anyone who knows about it and is willing to pay approximately $300 to attend. The problem with some of the information is it will only be available in journals that people pay access for or on academic data bases purchased by universities. Academic research in its purest form can be interesting but a bit hard to understand for someone like me just writing for an interest rather than academic study for a masters or PHD.

Wikipedia gets a hard time from universities. It is often seen by universities and researchers as an illegitimate and unreliable source of information. While it may not be suitable for academic research for university students it does provide a great place to start for people with interests like mine on fan behaviour. The information written may be unreliable as members of the public can access the site and contribute who present misinterpretations of valid research and particular points of views. The site and structure however provides links to legitimate research and articles including academic articles, general articles from magazines and newspapers plus terms and links to similar sites of interest. The contributors on subjects like fan behaviour and groupies provide references from rock musicians and their thoughts, groupies themselves, studies, documentaries, films and a whole range of sources.

A groupie can be defined as a person who seeks emotional and sexual intimacy with a musician or other celebrity….There are two types of groupies those that seek brief sexual encounters with musicians and those who travel on the road for extended periods of time doing jobs that range from a stand in girlfriend or wife to taking care of the musicians. The Wikipedia entry on ‘groupies’ provides information about some of the experiences the Beatles and Paul McCartney had with fans…“The Beatles' song "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" refers to the day a few Scruffs climbed into Paul McCartney's house through an upstairs bathroom window and raided his closet for a pair of trousers, which they took turns wearing. They also took a framed photograph, which they later returned at McCartney's request. There is no reference for this story so whether it is true is doubtful. But it is an interesting story for those of us interested in fan behaviour and its evolution. However the topic provides links to other credible sources.

The topic of groupies in Wikipedia referenced a totally brilliant article from a 1969 edition of Rolling Stone magazine titled “The Groupies and Other Girls” by John Burks, Jerry Hopkins and Paul Nelson. The article discusses groupie behaviour and in particular that of young girls from different parts of America with prominent bands of the time. The singer musician Frank Zappa shares his thoughts on these types of female fans “I am personally not troubled with groupies but other guys in the band seem to get a little action after the hop…New York groupies…are basically New York chicks. They’re snobbish and uptight das…they think they’re big. San Francisco groupies are okay, but they think there’s nothing happening outside San Francisco. L.A. groupies are without doubt the best – most aggressive and the best fucks and the only drawback is the incredibly high rate of venereal disease”. The work of Frank Zappa on groupies and fan behaviour is absolutely fascinating.

There were two groupie groups primarily associated with Frank Zappa and his various bands Girls Together Occasionally and Plaster Casters. He has collected diaries, letters, photos and tapes which he put together as a book called The Groupie Papers. Zappa describes the importance of groupies during the 1960s in particular to sell records…“It pays to make a favourable impression. Groupies are very influential on the record market because they know so many people…if you’re a hit with the groupies you’ll sell 15 000 records in L.A alone”. All the young girls in the Girls Together Occasionally group have their own interesting stories. Pamela Des Barres perhaps the most famous groupie wrote three books about her experiences I’m With The Band: Confessions of a Groupie (1987), Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart (1993) and A Groupie Grows Up (2007) and has given numerous interviews.

The Rolling Stone article from 1969 also featured a collection of beautiful black and white photographs by Baron Wolman the chief photographer at the magazine and interviews with Girls Together Occasionally the group of female fans formed by Frank Zappa. Baron Wolman recalled during the photo shoot “During the groupie interviews we learned how they would chase after a rock star and get him into bed in his hotel room or wherever he was staying when he was on tour” says Baron. But besides the chase the most important element “was when they would pick up the phone in the hotel room and call their friends and say, “You’ll never guess where I am?””

It was totally fascinating and just as legitimate as any academic research. Contact between fans and celebrities has changed a lot since the late 1960’s and the Frank Zappa girls group. Admiring celebrities is still considered a normal part of identity development in childhood and adolescence by psychologists like Erik Erikson, however the way the young girls are involved has changed with the evolution of the Internet, social media and other technology. While fans like @lyndahere may not be in a hotel room with a rock star having sex there is still the thrill of the chase and writing on social media sites “guess where I am supported by photographs” to the world as well as their best friends. However, the young female fans Zappa was involved with were young teenagers while @lyndahere is a mature woman in her late fifties. They are also interested in becoming famous in their own right, and developing a place for themselves within the environment of the musicians and groups they are interested in following in the footsteps of those that go before them.

References
Burks J, Hopkins, J & Nelson, P. “The Groupies and Other Girls” Rolling Stone Magazine February 15 1969 viewed 6 January 2013 at www.afka.net/articles/1969-02 _Rolling Stone.
Kazdin, C & Escherich 2009 “Almost Famous’ to ‘Rock of Love’: Groupies Then and Now” www.abcnews.com viewed 7 January 2013.
Powers, A. 1992,’ POP VIEW; That Girl by the Stage, and Why She's There New York Times at www.newyorktimes.com viewed 7 January 2013
Rock Paper Photos “Groupies by Baron Wolman” viewed 6 January 2013 at www.rockpaperphoto.com/groupies
Time Magazine “Manners and Morals, The Groupies” Time Magazine February 28 1969 viewed 6 January 2012


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Lyndahere.. And a history of the groupie.

I found this very interesting article on the Internet called the “The Groupie Chronicles. Part 1 An Historical Underview” by John Pecorelli about the history of groupies. (no copyright infringement intended)

…As long as there's been fame, there have been groupies. For millennia, power players from John the Baptist to Jon Bon Jovi have gorged themselves on the booty of their fine repute. (And it's not just History, either: Catherine the Great had quite an appetite for her admirers. Come to think of it, Mary Shelley wasn't exactly Polly Pure.) But forget all that, because the id-driven pulse of modern pop has been the biggest magnet of hormone-happy fan adulation in human history.

Hell, it wasn't until the advent of rock 'n' roll that the term groupie even came into being. According to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the date was 1967, the same year that Frank Zappa penned "Son Of Suzy Creamcheese," the first of many rock odes to girls who give it up for The Cause. Within a year, Zappa was himself married to a self-professed groupie, "a fascinating little vixen" called Gail, who recalls the late-'60s groupie scene in near-Homer-esque prose: "The altar was rock 'n' roll," she told Select magazine, "the guys were the gods, and the women were the high priestesses."

If she exaggerates, it ain't by much. In the late '60s a groupie could get as much media play as the stars she serviced: Groupies were suddenly appearing on album covers (Miss Christine appeared on Zappa's Hot Rats); albums were being written about groupies (Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland); and groupies were even landing record deals of their own (consider the Pamela Des Barres-led G.T.O.'s, partially funded by Zappa). Ladies such as Jenny Dean, Des Barres, Jenny Fabian, Emeretta Marks, Devon Wilson, and Cynthia Plaster Caster (the subject of a KISS song of the same name, detailing her artistic practices, which involved band members' members) practically attained marquee status on the rock circuit.

Yes, it was a real heyday for the electric ladies; New York Times scribe Ann Powers has alluded to the '60s groupie scene as "one of the rock era's liveliest, unofficial conceptual art projects." Des Barres, author of the best-selling memoir I'm With The Band (among other books), agrees: "'Groupie' was not a bad word back then. The bands respected the girls—The Rolling Stones were absolute gentlemen. They considered us temporary muses, inspirations—we took care of 'em, you know. But it slowly changed."

And how it changed: Rock 'n' roll excess defined the next decade. Two words: Led Zeppelin. Zeppelin's outrageous groupie tales alone eclipse all other bands' of their day…"In those days," writes Cole in his tell-all Stairway To Heaven, "lots of women just weren't timid or self-conscious about anything. We saw no reason to show any restraint ourselves…

"The guys were bored to death on the road—and they toured so much," says Des Barres, who had a long (by rock standards) relationship with Jimmy Page early in Zep's career. "The same hotel rooms in every city—you don't realize how boring that gets. And they wanted toget up to something to titillate them. And they did."

It was at this time that a whole new style of groupie emerged. "Fucking musicians and singers is my life," said "Sweet" Connie Hamzy (immortalized as one of the "fine ladies" in Grand Funk's "We're An American Band"). Entertaining everyone from Peter Criss to Doc Severinsen (and claiming Huey Lewis had the biggest schlong of the lot), Hamzy worked part-time jobs only so she could moonlight, in her words, as "a full-time fixture backstage for bands that performed within a 500-mile radius of Little Rock, Arkansas." Meanwhile, other groupies, à la Bebe Buell (mother of actress Liv Tyler, a product of her relationship with Aerosmith's Steven Tyler), Cherry Vanilla, and Sable Starr, were popping up to fill the void left by the likes of Des Barres, who had matured and moved on.

The rise of '80s hair-metal would raise the bar yet again, boasting a level of tactical groupie procurement that'd make Bonham blush in his grave. It went something like this: Roadies and tour managers were sent into the crowd, backstage passes in hand, for the express purpose of finding young women for the bands to ravage post-gig…

As the decade, uh, progressed, bands grew even more brazen: Poison installed a condom machine on their tour bus. Members of Def Leppard, as noted in a recent episode of VH1's Behind The Music, held "Sodom And Gomorrah"-style orgies backstage during drawn-out drum solos. And Motley Crue's sexual shenanigans alone could fill a book (though members Tommy Lee and Vince Neil apparently prefer the video format)….

Before long, hair-metal was, mercifully, dead. Grunge bands like Mudhoney, Nirvana, and Alice In Chains sacked the genre like Visigoths invading Rome. This new genre, and the American (sorta) punk revival that followed, deemed all the trappings of '70s and '80s rock excess unfit for the times. Grunge was about anger, alienation—and its anthems, "Touch Me I'm Sick" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit," were hardly the stuff of Bacchanalia. As the Chicago Tribune reported in 1995, "Forget groupies, cocaine, and champagne—the clichés of free-flowing rock debauchery do not apply in the Pearl Jam camp."

But the glory days of unfettered hedonism would return anew with the popular acceptance of hip-hop and rap-rock in the mid-'90s. And with an entirely modern twist, to boot: video. The Backstage Sluts series (soon to be a trilogy) features hardcore sex as well as interview footage...


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Monday, 7 January 2013

Lyndahere And Celebrity Worship Syndrome...My interpretation.

An article in the UK Mail on Celebrity Worship Syndrome provided an overview of some research being done on the condition by psychologists at the University of Leicester. Celebrity Worship Syndrome is defined by Wikipedia as an “obsessive-addictive disorder in which a person becomes overly involved with the details of a celebrity's  personal life. Psychologists have indicated that though many people obsess over glamorous film, television, sport and pop stars, the only common factor between them is that they are all figures in the public eye (i.e., celebrities)”.

The basis of the article was from the research conducted by Maltby et al (2003) in their article “A Clinical Interpretation of Attitudes and Behaviors Associated with Celebrity Worship”. They developed a scale and argue there are three levels of attitudes and behaviours associated with Celebrity Worship Syndrome, entertainment-social, intense personal and borderline pathological.

The study of around 700 people aged 18 to 60 found “ 22 per cent of our sample had the low-level form of Celebrity Worship Syndrome (entertainment-social), while 12 per cent showed signs of the moderate (intense personal) form which meant they had an intense personal type relationship with their idol. Around 2 per cent of people had the most serious form of the syndrome, meaning their celebrity worship was borderline pathological."(UK Mail).

Maltby et al (2004) provides an overview of the three levels in the article ‘Personality coping. A context for examining celebrity worship and mental heath’. “Low levels of celebrity worship have entertainment–social value and comprise attitudes and behaviours like ‘My friends and I like to discuss what my favourite celebrity has done’ and ‘Learning the life story of my favourite celebrity is a lot of fun’. This stage reflects social aspects to celebrity worship and is consistent with Stever’s (1991) observation that fans are attracted to a favourite celebrity because of their perceived ability to entertain and capture our attention”.

“Intermediate levels of celebrity worship, by contrast, are characterized by more intense–personal feelings, defined by items like ‘I consider my favourite celebrity to be my soul mate,’ and ‘I have frequent thoughts about my celebrity, even when I don’t want to’. This stage arguably reflects individuals’ intensive and compulsive feelings about the celebrity, akin to the obsessional tendencies of fans often referred to in the literature (Dietz et al., 1991; Giles, 2000)”.

“The most extreme expression of celebrity worship is labelled borderline–pathological, as exemplified by items like. ‘If someone gave me several thousand dollars (pounds) to do with as I please, I would consider spending it on a personal possession (like a napkin or paper plate) once used by my favourite celebrity’ and ‘If I were lucky enough to meet my favourite celebrity, and he/she asked me to do something illegal as a favour I would probably do it’. This factor is thought to reflect an individual’s social pathological attitudes and behaviours that are held as a result of worshiping a celebrity”.

The researchers in this piece conclude celebrity worship syndrome was not an uncommon behaviour. They argue like many attitudes and behaviours carried out in moderation should not be of concern. Celebrity worship for entertainment and social reasons was not related to any mental health problems. However, when carried out for intense personal reasons and the way they engage people may be at risk of severe mental health problems including stress, anxiety and depression. Celebrity worship is seen as a coping strategy and a way of disengaging with life.

“Therefore, it may be necessary to begin to speculate how it may be possible to intervene when celebrity worship takes on intense–personal characteristics to a point of concern. The present findings inform this issue. For example, those who engage in intense–personal forms of celebrity worship are characterized as tense, emotional and moody (neuroticism). They deal with stress by disengaging (both mentally and behavioural) and by living in a state of denial…As a result, individuals who demonstrate a worrying level of intense–personal celebrity worship and who suffer from mental health problems might be best helped by understanding and addressing their emotionality”.

So do you have CWS symptoms?
Say yes to the following and you may have low-level CWS:
  • My friends and I like to discuss what my favourite celebrity has done.
  • I enjoy watching my favourite celebrity.
  • Learning the life story of my favourite celebrity is a lot of fun.
Agree with these more intense feelings and you may have a moderate case:
  • I consider my favourite celebrity to be my soul mate.
  • I have a special bond with my celebrity.
  • I have frequent thoughts about my celebrity, even when I don't want to.
Agree with these and you may be obsessed, borderline pathological and suffering seriously from CWS:
  • If someone gave me several thousand pounds to do with as I please, I would consider spending it on a personal possession, like a napkin or paper plate, once used by my favourite celebrity.
  • If I were lucky enough to meet my favourite celebrity, and they asked me to do something illegal as a favour I would probably do it.
  • I would be very upset if my favourite celebrity got married.
The UK Mail placed this quiz for celebrity watchers to decide whether they or their friends had ‘Celebrity Worship Syndrome’. From the questions asked I guess anyone who follows a celebrity on social media and responds to a post written by them or to other followers/friends has some type of low level Celebrity Worship Syndrome. A celebrity wouldn’t be a favourite if people didn’t know something about them, seen their work or enjoyed watching them do their work. This level of interest was not associated with any mental health issues according to the research.

What was interesting about this survey was the criteria offered by psychologists for the third level borderline pathological and suffering seriously from Celebrity Worship Syndrome and the statement ‘if I were lucky enough to meet my favourite celebrity and they asked me to do something illegal as a favour I would probably do it’. Lynda Elstad or @Lyndahere did take it upon herself to do something illegal which was to make bootlegged videos of live concerts and engage in music piracy on YouTube.  She then distributed links via social media and has loaded them up onto other sites for distribution. The other statement that defines this type of condition “If someone gave me several thousand pounds to do with as I please, I would consider spending it on a personal possession, like a napkin or paper plate, once used by my favourite celebrity”. @lyndahere spends thousands of dollars on travel, accommodation and tickets to see Alan Doyle and Great Big Sea and every show creates bootlegged videos for people to view on YouTube and listen to on other sites.
References.
Maltby, J., Houran, M.A., & McCutcheon, L.E. (2003). ‘A Clinical Interpretation of Attitudes and Behaviors Associated with Celebrity Worship’. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 191, 25-29.
Maltby, J., Day,L., McCutcheon,L.E., Gillett, R., Houran, J & Ashe, D.(2004). ‘Personality coping. A context for examining celebrity worship and mental health, British Journal of Psychology, 95, 411–428
Wikipedia Celebrity worship syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.mht. Viewed 4 January 2013.




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