Press Gang

[kevinandt at gmavt.net]

Another Pete Diary I haven't seen posted....
Kevin in VT

28 July 2006
Press Gang

Back to Diary Dates
 Ah! Journalists. They trawl these diaries over breakfast and
extrapolate something, teasing it to fit a headline created by some
sub-editor with a sense of humour.
Today it is the British Times newspaper that correctly divines that I am
trying to get a sense of our fans opinion about the value of webcasting
so I can give Roger an accurate view, but I am most certainly not
"sulking" by stopping the webcasting - I respect Roger's very real
ambivalence about it. But of course it frustrates me, the Who is a
partnership, neither of us get exactly what we want.
I am an internet nut. In Madrid last night I met at least a dozen
shining Spanish fans who up until now I have known only through
exchanges on the web on Blogs or through my appearances on In The Attic.
There are two way of looking at these people - either they are real
fans, who buy tickets and support me unconditionally as an artist, or -
as decried by Janet Street Porter recently - they are Blogging 'Saddos'.
Either way, we have fun, we connect, we are alive. At a concert where
the Who play to what looked like 20,000 roaring people I also have a
more intimate sense of connection with some of the audience. I suppose
the only thing that's 'sad' about that to the press is that it doesn't
make them any money.
Until Roger and I have some kind of agreement on webcasting I will stop
pushing it. I sincerely thought he would get behind it if I demonstrated
how it works. But I have no regrets, the experience has been hugely
valuable to me and - as long as I can fund the business - I will
continue to produce Live arts-based webcasts shows of some kind for the
rest of my life, I feel certain of that.
I am taking down www.thewho.com as well after tomorrow, but again this
is not out of spite or anger. This was always something that was planned
to be a part of the webcast package, and on this Roger is in agreement
to help support a new and greatly revised website, reflecting more of
his ideas, as soon as we can find a good webmaster. This new website
will definitely go up prior to our first U.S. dates in September.