Too Bad About His Taste

November 24, 2008 4:39 AM

Britain's Biggest "Gigaholic".

Your favourite gig sucked, apparently.

posted by chuckdarwin (42 comments total)

It's nice to see society finally celebrating OCD. It's nice to see society finally celebrating OCD. It's nice to see society finally celebrating OCD. It's nice to see society finally celebrating OCD.
posted by datter at 4:51 AM on November 24, 2008 [3 favorites]

If he's attended over 5000 gigs, that's approximately 0.5 gigagigs, right?
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:53 AM on November 24, 2008

Crap. 0.005 gigagigs, I think.

Math is hard. Let's go shopping.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:57 AM on November 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

When you saw the link, you assumed you were going to see

[ ] A hard drive obsessive
[ ] A concert obsessive
[ ] All of the above
[ ] None of the above

This question is timed. Thank you!
posted by cavalier at 4:59 AM on November 24, 2008

here's his site
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:13 AM on November 24, 2008

So sad to see another young Briton succumbing to gigahol.
posted by DU at 5:14 AM on November 24, 2008 [7 favorites]

...even if it means that person will never have a social life...
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:17 AM on November 24, 2008

When you saw the link, you assumed you were going to see ...

Another news story about a senior citizen with maddeningly huge bandwidth availability and download speed.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:18 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

What is "blagging" and how might I use it to attend a gig?

I'm glad there is guys like this around. Althought I haven't seen his site yet, its nice that someone out there is documenting the banal and sometime cool minutea of attending shows.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 5:22 AM on November 24, 2008

There were "shuttlecocks down pants" for Wham

Giggity giggity giggity oh this joke was over before it even began.
posted by Spatch at 5:25 AM on November 24, 2008

I'm with Marisa (as usual): I expected a story about downloads, perhaps with usurious surcharges.
posted by rokusan at 5:32 AM on November 24, 2008

Great thread 9.25/10
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:14 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

9.25/10... some girl ran upthread and smacked chuckdarwin full in the face.
posted by rokusan at 6:19 AM on November 24, 2008

extra! extra! rokusan and marisa are intimately involved! news at eleven!
posted by ashbury at 6:19 AM on November 24, 2008

FOB: You mean 0.005 teragigs. Bandwidth-wise, the guy's an amateur.
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:29 AM on November 24, 2008

I thought all of the obsessive Brits hung out at train stations. British geeks always seem to be the least cool out of all of the various geeks of the world.
posted by burnmp3s at 6:30 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

twoleftfeet: you don't consider going to gigs an adequate social life? (he is wearing a strange jacket though.)
posted by krautland at 6:47 AM on November 24, 2008

He reminds me of Beatle Bob.
posted by suki at 6:57 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

You mean 0.005 teragigs

No, 0.000005 gigagigs. 5000 gigs = 5000 units. One gigagig = 1,000,000,000 units. So 0.000005 gigagigs = 5/1000000 of 1,000,000,000 units = 5,000 units.

Math is hard. Let's go to a concert.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:00 AM on November 24, 2008

you don't consider going to gigs an adequate social life? (he is wearing a strange jacket though.)

Well, hell, if you're going to ask your question and answer it in the same sentence...
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:04 AM on November 24, 2008

I bet you have to repeat things to him twice........ I said, I bet you have to repeat things to him TWICE.
posted by Senator at 7:24 AM on November 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

Suki, Beatle Bob is who I thought of as well, although this guy doesn't seem quite as odd.
posted by Bookhouse at 8:22 AM on November 24, 2008

Other than watch rock bands, what does he do? Does he have family or friends, or is he going out alone every night?
posted by pracowity at 8:27 AM on November 24, 2008

Britain's Biggest Zigazigaholics
posted by Sys Rq at 8:28 AM on November 24, 2008

I thought of Beatle Bob as well, who I have mixed feelings about. Growing up in the Lou, I've seen him a bit out at shows and there's just something about him that sticks in my craw. Maybe it's his sense of entitlement, that he can waltz into a show and stroll up to the front without regard for the folks that have been waiting all night to see whoever is on stage. But then again, he's never done anything to me personally and his goofy dancing is entertaining, so what do I have to complain about?
posted by friendlyjuan at 8:31 AM on November 24, 2008

This guy is ace - he's like the anti-pitchfork:

Gig was fine. One man had a bass. 9.75/10
posted by Cantdosleepy at 8:42 AM on November 24, 2008 [5 favorites]

So sad to see another young Briton succumbing to gigahol.

Seriously, is there a reason why people insist on using "-holic" rather than "addict" for everything that could potentially be considered addictive? It ranks right up there with "-gate" as one of the most annoying suffixes that never seems to go away.

I'm just waiting for the press to get news of collusion between the Secretary of Defense and Microsoft. "GatesGatesGate" will be the scandal of the century!
posted by explosion at 8:45 AM on November 24, 2008

When you saw the link, you assumed you were going to see

[x] A story about Britain's biggest abuser of Bittorrent
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:18 AM on November 24, 2008

What is "blagging" and how might I use it to attend a gig?
by KevinSkomsvold

Blagging is bullshitting/sweet talking/"Social engineering" someone, in the sense that he uses it.
posted by flippant at 10:58 AM on November 24, 2008

Counting all the bands he saw while working as a bouncer at the Apollo seems a bit iffy.
posted by jack_mo at 11:48 AM on November 24, 2008

What is "blagging" and how might I use it to attend a gig?

I checked out Blagspot but the very first image made me question my belief system, so I turned it off.
posted by rokusan at 11:50 AM on November 24, 2008

Blag?
posted by sdodd at 11:53 AM on November 24, 2008

Gig was fine. One man had a bass. 9.75/10


Crap view spoilt the show: 9.5/10.

Seriously.

I wish I could be that enthusiastic about all music, all the time. Can anyone find a band who got less than 8/10?
posted by Infinite Jest at 12:13 PM on November 24, 2008

Can anyone find a band who got less than 8/10?

Charles Asnevour 4/10

Poor old Charlie... put he's no Sex Pistol

I saw a 6 for something else as well

(And I put on my anorak earlier to go looking for his worse choices)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:37 PM on November 24, 2008

I love the guy, even though I don't love his tastes (and I sent him email offering him a beer if he's in New York).

It got me wondering, though - how many shows have *I* seen? I've been in New York for 25 years, I've seen at least 2 a week, that's 2500 shows. Damn! (I probably saw 100 shows total before I came to New York...)

I don't regret a moment of them, by the way. There were some dreadful individual shows but such an incredible host of memories.

Sort of wish I'd done what he did. I'm a much better writer :-D or at least a better formatter. But then I might not have time to play music then.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 12:54 PM on November 24, 2008

Well done, that man!
posted by pompomtom at 2:26 PM on November 24, 2008

But then again, he's never done anything to me personally and his goofy dancing is entertaining, so what do I have to complain about?

Beatle Bob steals from venues and just about anywhere else he can get away with it. And lies about where he lives. And smells bad. And sleeps in Dumpsters. And is obnoxious as hell.

At least this Brit guy seems to actually have a home and a Web presence.
posted by limeonaire at 6:29 PM on November 24, 2008

I had heard about the stealing part, as well as using old/fake press credentials to get into shows. So I see where you're coming from. And to be perfectly honest, if I never saw Beatle Bob at another show I wouldn't be the least bit disappointed. But as the linked article about him pointed out, at least he's out there doing his thing and supporting the music scene. It would just be nice if he didn't give off the air of thinking his schtick is more important than the folks on stage.
posted by friendlyjuan at 8:03 PM on November 24, 2008

2501. :-D I just saw something tonight.

I'm pretty sure the guy who invited me has seen something like 5000 shows. He's in his late 50s and he still sees four or five shows a week - not all live music, though.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 10:14 PM on November 24, 2008

What is "blagging" and how might I use it to attend a gig?

Blagging is a form of armed robbery. eg 'Me and Nobby blagged a Post Office on Monday, and had ourselves a nice little drink out of it.'

This guy obviously turns up to gigs with a sawn-off shotgun underneath his raincoat, and insists that if they don't let him in for free, he's going to disable the ticket-collectors for life.

This seems to me to be a much more likely use than the other meaning, which refers to attempting to get in solely on the strength of his charisma and conversational skills. I mean, if he were a 22 year old woman with great boobies, that might work, but a 48 year old man is going to have to rely on the shotgun approach, IMO.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:11 AM on November 25, 2008

Also:

Bryan Adams + T'Pau Wembley Arena , London 19 /23 .06.1987 9,75

WTF?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:23 AM on November 25, 2008

Luckiest guy alive, I'd say. Different music, and maybe a little less of it, but I wish I could be in his shoes.
posted by papayaninja at 6:25 PM on November 27, 2008