Some Of Them Are Just Like Us And Some Of Them Are Dicks
With precious little else to do today, I found myself following a Twitter spat. Frank Turner is supporting Blink 182 on tour. Blink had to cancel their Bournemouth show yesterday on health grounds. At the last minute, Turner arranged a replacement show at another venue in the city with the other support act, The Front Bottoms. A guy on Twitter described the entry arrangements for the show as "a mess" which Turner took exception to. The guy was subsequently thrown out of the show by security and wrote a long Facebook post about how he had been wronged.
I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time with bands everywhere. The guy in question had spent the previous week slagging Turner off on Twitter and a number of people present confirmed that he was a disruptive influence at the gig and was kicked out by security for that reason. A classic case of an unreliable witness. Not that this was enough for Turner's detractors,. It's another example of people online applying a level of scrutiny to someone's words and actions that they wouldn't possibly come through were someone to apply it to them.
I know enough about the music press to know that it's full of snide wankers but I still found it dispiriting that certain people affiliated with certain websites that I used to respect are content to tear Turner down on the basis of unsubstantiated evidence and a couple of usages of language. Someone went as far to suggest that his handling of the situation showed "his complete contempt for his fans". I think arranging a last minute show at an another venue is actually the complete opposite of showing contempt for your fans, but there you go. You can find confirmation biases in the least likely of places these days.
Frank Turner has contributed a huge amount to music both in this country and around the world in the past decade and deserves better than this, but I suppose he'll just have to console himself with the fact that he's enormously successful. Very much looking forward to seeing him, The Front Bottoms and hopefully a fully fit Blink 182 tomorrow.
I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time with bands everywhere. The guy in question had spent the previous week slagging Turner off on Twitter and a number of people present confirmed that he was a disruptive influence at the gig and was kicked out by security for that reason. A classic case of an unreliable witness. Not that this was enough for Turner's detractors,. It's another example of people online applying a level of scrutiny to someone's words and actions that they wouldn't possibly come through were someone to apply it to them.
I know enough about the music press to know that it's full of snide wankers but I still found it dispiriting that certain people affiliated with certain websites that I used to respect are content to tear Turner down on the basis of unsubstantiated evidence and a couple of usages of language. Someone went as far to suggest that his handling of the situation showed "his complete contempt for his fans". I think arranging a last minute show at an another venue is actually the complete opposite of showing contempt for your fans, but there you go. You can find confirmation biases in the least likely of places these days.
Frank Turner has contributed a huge amount to music both in this country and around the world in the past decade and deserves better than this, but I suppose he'll just have to console himself with the fact that he's enormously successful. Very much looking forward to seeing him, The Front Bottoms and hopefully a fully fit Blink 182 tomorrow.
Comments
Post a Comment