So jealous of you seeing Rory Gallagher. Have a massive Rory phase those last weeks.

Oh man. I got to touch his foot! :D

You're just being silly here. All I'm saying is that if I go to see an artist, I don't expect him to have a problem with me whistling, or humming, or singing along. I don't want him to be my bitch, but I don't want him to make a bitch move like that.

Mind you, I'd be in the very very very cheap seats anyway, so it probably wouldn't matter to me personally. "WHAT did he say?" "Something about it'd be better without fishing, I think!" "Oh, that's obviously a reference to this Pink Floyd song from..." :D

I'm coming to Ireland to touch yours then. Closest I'll get, I guess.

Now That's What I Call Entitlement Vol. 25

Urgh! Is that one of those "NOW" series of albums??

The first 24 volumes are dedicated to the millenials or generation z or whatever the youngest generation is right now.

You're not getting near mine. Oh wait: you meant my foot, yes?

Fifty Euro to you. Actually, it'd be my hand, wouldn't it? That's way gayer.
A hundred Euro, and the touch lasts no longer than two seconds.

And that's how your exciting new life as prostitute starts.

Both Van Morrison and Mark E Smith are idiosyncratic artists. I don't get the concern about which way they're facing, personally. I saw The Fall and don't remember him doing that on stage. Wouldn't have cared. I was at a ****ing Fall concert. I was ****ing thrilled. The Jesus and Mary Chain did that for the entire show on top of being hidden by fake fog. It was incredible. I saw both Sonic Youth and Prong give performances where they gave no pause at all for applause or audience interaction and I liked that a lot. Once I saw Sonic Youth another time and they didn't play a single recognizable song or use any vocals. I respected that it's Sonic Youth and seeing them do something especially experimental was really a treat but as a fan that was familiar with all their releases I also felt, and I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, like they should have at least thrown us a bone. Like one known tune for an encore but they didn't even return for an encore. Dylan was the only one where I really thought like Christ this sucks. Because it did.

Re: Springsteen

Full on crowd pleaser but didn't he start refusing to play Born to Run ages ago?

It is a stupid tradition. I like when bands either make it clear they're done or say yeah we're gonna take about ten minutes to drink a beer and smoke a joint. Or if it's like KISS it's cool because you actually want to go bonkers for ten minutes.

I maintain it's ignorant but whatever.
This I do not know. I guess after forty years of playing it maybe he's pissed off. It would be a pity though as I'd consider that an essential encore.
Always waits till the houselights come up. :)

I wonder if anyone has ever been to a gig where the band played, finished, intended to come back for an encore and everyone had gone? :laughing: Now that would be embarrassing!

On a point away from the live thing, isn't it Neil Peart who refuses to sign autographs for any fans? I think that's pretty dickish now.

One song down, now he just needs to get sick of the rest of his discography and I might actually go to a Springsteen show.

Have you ever looked on YouTube what it's like for famous people? It's a CONSTANT annoyance that is almost like a prison sentence. There's always people around that only want to sell it on eBay. You can't go to a baseball game or out to eat. If you buy a Rush ticket he plays the ****ing songs. He doesn't owe people **** when he's not working. Why bother him?

I'm a big Rush fan I saw you in Cleveland blah blah. I would get so ****ing sick of that.

Price of fame, pal. Price of fame. It's all part of the package; you can't just take the bits you like.

And you of all people I am surprised to hear sympathising with famous/rich people. Thought you hated all that ****?

Yeah

I thought about that when I posted it

I guess it's an inconsistency

It gets so annoying but you grow to ignore and get used to it like a cyst.

I never liked that line of thinking. So, fans are entitled twats who don't really see celebrities as people so much as a potential experience to tell their friends about, and that's okay cause it's just that one guy we all want to hassle anyway who gets the shaft. This is the same mentality that killed Princess Diana. Yes, it was the photographers who ran her off the road, but the paparazzi wouldn't have been there in the first place if all of us didn't make it so ridiculously profitable to stalk celebrities with a camera.

I love me some celebrity news and **** when it's Lindsay Lohan in court again or Kanye West walking into a street sign, but I'm also not going to get self-righteous when they give me the finger. I'm a pimple on their ass as much as a part of the public who made them rich and famous in the first place. So if Neil Peart doesn't want to entertain everyone who thinks his time is community property then who am I to criticise him?

Insert my predictable joke here.

You're The Batlord, that's who! :D
But you need to think of it from the other side too. Say you're a fan who's got to see, let's say Rush, for the first and maybe only time in your life. You've travelled hundreds of miles and spent a lot of money getting there. You've waited in the rain or snow for your idols to appear. Geddy and Alex sign, sure, but Neil won't, leaving you without the set. Sure, it's hardly the end of the world but you'd think the guy would care a little, as I said before, about the people who put him where he is? You can't deny that without fans buying his albums and going to his gigs that he would not be where he is today, so why not give them their little moment?

And as for Princess Diana? Are you for ****ing real? Nobody was looking for her autograph. That was pure scum tabloid "journalism", a totally different thing. Don't even try to equate the two.

Sure, it would be nice if they made time for you, and it's understandable to be disappointed if they don't, or even to be offended with how they turn you down, but they're under no obligation do anything but show up and play music. And to be perfectly honest, if I were a celebrity I might get fed up with the 10,000th person who walked up to me and acted like there's some unwritten rule that I was at their disposal like a doctor on call.

You couldn't catch a point if you were on the wrong end of a knife throwing show. It all comes down to the same ****. You want a piece of a celebrity and aren't particularly concerned with their consent.

Meh, you'd love the attention. You'd be ASKING people to take your autographs, you know you would! :D

Bull****. Is this a strawman? My first one? People seeking a name on a piece of paper as proof they met someone has nothing whatever to do with people who are paid to get compromising pictures of celebrities to sell their ****ty papers. You think people ROB autographs? If you can't get it you can't get it. Nobody forces anyone and nobody (normally) makes a profit out of it. Nothing even remotely in the same universe, pal.

Sure, it's all down to the cult of celebrity and personality worship, but if you're going to tar everyone in that sphere with the same brush you're gonna need one ****ing wide brush.

No TH, asking for autographs is like Princess Diana's death in every single way.

Of course it is. Silly me. How could I have not realised that? :banghead:

Jesus Christ, you simply can not entertain notions you aren't already entertaining. You're like a less incessant version of Chula. The paparazzi are simply your surrogates who do what you aren't willing to do yourself to violate a celebrity's privacy. Demanding autographs and cellphone pics is the less invasive end of the spectrum, but it's still entitled. Fine if the artist is open to taking pics with fans, but if they're not then that's their business.

No. You're the one who's refusing to accept that he's wrong. Autograph-hunting is harmless, and almost without exception done with the agreement/consent of the hunted. Paparazzi on the other hand are scum. There is no corellation between the two, other than, as I allowed, they are both part of the cult of personality. But there's a world of difference between the two.

The thing is, you can certainly link the two, but to suggest essentially that autograph hunting can be equated with scumbag journalism is stretching it way way too tight.

Oh, and people don't "demand" autographs, they request them.

Harrassing celebrities for photos and autographs to flip them on eBay could be called harmless I guess.

Well, some people do that, sure, but a lot of people just collect them. It is, or can be, pretty harmless. At any rate, it's in no way relatable to paparazzi tactics. Don't think anyone ever died because someone wanted an autograph.

Paparazzi tactics are fine too, since the two are one and the same.

Um ... yeah .... :confused:

Look. as kids we all collected autographs didn't we? Well, most of us anyway. It wasn't a crime and it wasn't considered a dangerous or bad thing to do. But none of us ever ran a car off the road and caused someone to be killed. I mean, you can widen the focus as much as you want and say it's all part of (as I've said many times already) celebrity worship, but that doesn't equate the two. There are so many differences, not least of which being the intention or goal of the latter, ie to exploit people's private lives for money, that it seems unbelievable and unsustainable that anyone would try to say they're the same thing.

A lot of paparazzi are also autograph hounds. There's pure fans. Professional autograph seekers, tabloid journalists, people who want to do selfies, people who want to goad you into doing anything that'll get hits on YouTube. People are constantly trying to run ideas or scam you and bother you constantly. It wouldn't take but one afternoon before most people would be like all y'all mother****ers need to to **** off. It's just a blur of people who don't let them live normal lives.

And look, Neil Peart isn't ****ing Justin Bieber. Like some 40 year old white dude is pissed he doesn't have all three autographs for his mancave. **** him. Bieber and these teenybopper stars are in a tighter situation. Still, they can hardly get to the real fans the way those professional autograph seekers get all over it. People even take their kids who aren't even fans to get the autographs to sell. I'd just get a big ass bodyguard and tell them no one gets within five feet of me and blast my earbuds and ignore all that ****.

Good points, though at the time I read that article I was about 17 so we're talking about Peart more or less at the height of his career. But sure leave him out. The point I guess is that the main differences between autograph hunters/seekers and scum journalists is that the former will give up or accept if they don't get what they want (generally) whereas the latter will hound you into an early grave. Scum, pure and simple. And those who read their scum press are somewhat complicit in their scummery (!) as, as Batty said, the scum press wouldn't exist without something to feed it.

Then of course, you have the other end of the spectrum...

Thanks for the compliment about the thread, Trollheart! As you must know, it's not always easy to come up with a new idea - though you have done so often enough.
^ Yeah, that whistling must've been another night. Poor Roger; persecuted night after night by people determined to enjoy his concerts !

^ Wow. That makes you a lot older than I had imagined, Occult H!

I'm with TH, by the way. I don't think it's polite to turn your back on the audience for long. Maybe sometimes band members want to watch each other to check where they're heading, to co-ordinate some complex changes or something, but other than that it's very rude, especially for a singer. If you talk to someone, you show them the courtesy of facing them so that your message and gestures are clear. Being famous shouldn't entitle you to be so rude as to turn your back on the people you are supposedly addressing.*

[ * Unless of course you're in some genuine melt-down mode, as Ms. Winehouse was on one or more occassions I believe.]

No mention of Elton John yet, I see. Isn't he notorious for being obnoxious? Has he ever written a song about how tough his life as a millionaire rock star is?

I don't know but I saw Elton John fairly recently and it was great. He's still got it. The ticket came with a notice that the show would start promptly at 7, there was no opening act. He played everything. His voice is still very good, maybe great. When he started up on Rocket Man, it was stunning. Chills. The whole place was like damn. You knew he was going to play it but still it was shocking. That song is that powerful. I thought damn how many times has done this? Made an entire arena orgasm like that.

**** autographs (and **** clapping along to songs).
I'm with elph, be happy the musicians are playing their music and just enjoy what you get.

None of this **** has anything to do with fans.