I recently Facebook friended a work colleague who it turns out was a drummer in an obscure band in the 1980s (don’t ask). I’m not a great FB user but when I do use it I notice his shared posts now appear in my timeline with comments from many musicians of that era. It appears that as well as being a musician, my workmate was involved in industry management and PR for a while. As such, he became very matey with members of many bands on the Liverpool, Manchester, London and Australian scenes at the time. He’s about five years older than me, and his contemporaries were the people in the bands of my school and uni years. I now find that the people who composed and sang my favourite songs and played the memorable riffs of my youth are popping up on my FB feed talking about such mundane matters as electricity bills and AirBnB reviews. As a teenager I’d envied their rock and roll coolness and so much wanted to BE them, or at least in their gang. Now now they are just other names in the comments and replies section moaning about Trump or sharing inspirational quotes and viral videos. When I walk down the street listening to some 80s artist on my headphones I’m no longer reminded of the Lyceum in 1981 but of a long form article from the Atlantic shared by the the bass player. Should I unfriend this colleague? I want my youthful dreams back. But it’s too late. The mystery is gone! Never meet your heroes, especially on social media.
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Leicester Bangs says
How obscure? Janice Long, John Peel, or even more obscure than that?
mutikonka says
Definitely John Peel. A band I’d vaguely heard of at the time. Weird to see the portly guy sat opposite me at work as a youth bashing away on the drums in a grainy Youtube clip.
nigelthebald says
You could always stop following rather than unfriend the person concerned. Go to their page and there’s an option to do so near the top.
That way you’ll still be able to check up on them if you wish, but won’t get their notifications in your news feed. (I think.)
Junior Wells says
Yeah that’s what I did with Nigel …. oops
nigelthebald says
Wheezing with helpless laughter here, @Junior-Wells.
Or may I call you Tony?
Junior Wells says
👍
fentonsteve says
One of my best pals is (and always has been) a jobbing musician. Whilst I think he deserves National Treasure status and comfort for the rest of his life, he’s not a household name.
The point at which I grew up (a bit) was realising my heroes also have bills to pay and families to support, and they have to work to acheive that. And their farts stink, just like everybody else’s.
In many respects, the musicians I know work harder than I do. Having kids means we all get up at the same time, I ponce around in a comfortable office while they ring round for their next scrap of work and/or travel to the gig, then I go home by the time they’re soundchecking. By the time they’re onstage, I’m tucked up in my comfortable bed.
Being a musician is not a valid long-term career choice for a slacker. Has it ever been?
Lemonhope says
[You] wanted to BE them, or at least in their gang” And now you are…
The Good Doctor says
The ‘mystique’ of bands was always a bit of a myth. New Order are a great example, Rob Gretton was very keen to keep them away from the media and let the music speak for itself. Very wise move, and it paid off. (They’ve made up for it since – the 60+ year olds slanging match between Hooky and the others seems to have no end in sight)
That’s all gone and most new bands have to have some social media presence and ‘connect’ with fans. Often times I’ve seen a band play a powerful, visceral set only to finish by saying “thanks for listening and we’ll be there by the merch stand in a minute to sell you some Vinyl and CDs” -can’t imagine Ian Curtis doing that somehow – but he’d have to nowadays.
mutikonka says
I’d always imagined that people in the bands would live some sort of 24 hr creative bohemian life, scribbling lyrics on bits of paper and hanging out at each other’s performances. Bit of a letdown to see them complaining about the council failing to fix the potholes in the road.
Black Type says
Notice on the Joy Division merch stand – “This is the way, step inside”
Mike_H says
A very old friend is a bass guitarist who currently plays in both an established NWOBHM trio and a ’60s-’70s covers quartet on his local pub circuit. He also works as a painter and decorator, which is where the bulk of his income comes from.
He gets paid enough to cover expenses for the infrequent Metal gigs but makes no real money as he loses decorating income every time they play, never anywhere local, often in Germany or Belgium.
He gets paid £60 a time, regular as clockwork, for each cover band gig and as it’s all local work, it supplements his other earnings.
A local rock pub venue wants the covers band to play an unpaid audition gig, with the promise of regular bookings to follow. It’s a reputable venue with a good PA system, a proper stage and a good sound engineer in attendance. The band won’t do it, because they know they already have an established checkable reputation and although it would be a step up for them, in terms of not having to haul their own PA and lights and not having to play in a corner of a pub floor, their book has plenty of gigs as it stands and they don’t actually need that pub enough to warrant breaking their no-pay-no-play policy.
He’s now 63 and looking forward to his pension. He moans to me about his noisy neighbours keeping him awake when he’s got early starts for painting jobs and about the difficulty of finding spaces to park in his road. What a life they lead.