Grex Music3 Conference

Item 26: The Super Fan (the musical kind)

Entered by tpryan on Mon Sep 3 14:05:56 2001:

        Do you know any Super Fans?  The web-page creating, fan-zine
publishing, multi-concert attending types?  What do you think of 
them.  How are the ones as friends different than the nut-job you
hear about?

        I know the president of the Al Stewart fan club and 
publisher of the fan-zine Chronicles.  Ken would also know Kim.
She will be flying to the UK this September, and will be catching
all their shows.  Now in a position of trust with Al and the band,
she does get privileges to be around the band others do not.
12 responses total.
#1 of 12 by tpryan on Mon Sep 3 14:14:56 2001:

        I found out this past year, I know the super fan of 
Ben Folds Five group.  A freind from high school and college
days, Frank put up a Ben Folds Five webpage.

        I also have met many a "Werid Al" Yankovic fan.  Some
are quite fanatical.  We can talk about them more in the next
item, #27, the all "Werid Al" Yankovic item.

        Another freind, Bill, is also rather fanatical about 
comic/white rapper, the great Luke Ski.  I also know Luke,
but am not so into joing Luke onstage as any part of his show
as Bill.
        Find more about Luke Ski at www.lukeski.com (his own site)

#2 of 12 by scott on Mon Sep 3 20:25:28 2001:

Well, llanarth/balynce from Grex here is/was a huge fan of Sammy Hagar &
others, although I don't think she designed web sites for him.

#3 of 12 by raven on Tue Sep 4 02:27:15 2001:

I'm a pretty big Kristen Hersh fan but not to the point of designing web
sites for her. I would probably drive up to 250 miles to see her in
concert though.  Thank goodness she played in Ann Arbor this year and not
a more remote location. :-)

#4 of 12 by eeyore on Tue Sep 4 14:19:54 2001:

We did just go to Chicago to see Great Big Sea, however, I can't say I'm
*that* much of a nut....I'd like to think that I have some limits. :)

#5 of 12 by katie on Tue Sep 4 15:22:46 2001:

I have been exposed to Melanie superfans. Most are OK; some are
downright scary.

#6 of 12 by tpryan on Tue Sep 4 15:51:09 2001:

        What does an artist do to keep the scary ones happy?
Still greet them after a show, shake hands, give audience then
excuse themselves?  Use security to throw up a roadblock?
ie "We need to limit after show guests [due to ...]" lie or 
some truth, such as "due to our need to get out of the auditorium
by 11:30pm"?

#7 of 12 by katie on Tue Sep 4 16:56:02 2001:

The scary ones are the ones with no concept of "personal space."

#8 of 12 by scott on Tue Sep 4 18:01:29 2001:

I'd guess that the scary ones are the ones who think that that the artist will
somehow personally solve their problem[s], if only they can get close enough
to properly explain it to the artist.

#9 of 12 by krj on Tue Sep 4 21:45:10 2001:

((resp:3 and a big digression:  I thought raven lived in Oregon...))

#10 of 12 by mcnally on Wed Sep 5 07:51:38 2001:

  I thought so, too..

#11 of 12 by sspan on Sat Sep 15 02:36:06 2001:

Hmmm.... I guess I'm kindof a Kasia Kowalska superfan.. I designed a website
about her (www.delanet.com/~ssbob/kasia/) which got a mention in Tylko Rock,
the largest selling monthly magazine in Poland. I've also managed to track
down all of her CDs except for some singles, and a copy of the movie she
starred in. All that after seeing a couple minute long clip of her on tv a
few years back.

#12 of 12 by jaklumen on Wed Apr 17 04:00:13 2002:

I used to be in contact with Daniel "The Brat" Barassi, back when the 
Depeche Mode [e-mail] Mailing List was on a really quiet note.  It was 
after _Songs of Faith and Devotion_ was published, and DM fans were 
pretty bummed because another concert tour looked far from reality, 
there hadn't been an album done in a while, and well.. you know.

DM super fans are obsessive and religious almost in their devotion.  
I've always enjoyed much of what the band has done (although I have 
yet to listen to _Exciter_), and Julie and I went to the '98 concert 
in Seattle before we got married.  But I knew fans that could rattle 
off the band members physical characteristics, their relationships 
(that were known, anyway), their fears, and the songs that each loved 
and hated.  Too much.

Brian L. Heess made a T-shirt for the list back then in 1994 when I 
was on the list.  It's the only T-shirt I can wear; concert ones don't 
come larger than XL.  Some folks do mistake it for a concert shirt, 
however.

Many members then had seemingly bottomless collections of DM stuff 
totalling in the hundreds to almost thousands of dollars.  Barassi was 
the undisputed king, apparently gaining most of his collection being a 
DJ.  If anything exists that is connected to Depeche Mode in any way 
(including Alan Wilder's Recoil material), he's got it.  Apparently WB 
realized he is the fan authority, and so he is the webmaster of the 
current DM webpage.

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