Threatin

[MoonDust]

There's a little bit more to it than that. For one thing, he's never been photographed wearing any colour.

https://www.sickchirpse.com/guy-paid-thousands-pounds-tour-uks-most-prestigious-venues-play-nobody/

Seriously I do recommend reading the whole thing, as it is utterly bonkers. This guy isn't just pretending to be more famous than he is, he's signed himself to a fake record label where all the bands and artists are made up(although he used a few real names by accident which totally blows the gaffe), and then invented a fake bookings agency to promote all the same non-existent acts. He even made fake music news websites to promote himself as an upcoming talent. It's proper crazy stuff.

Wow. Not much more I can say to that.

[MoonDust]

I always find things like this more disturbing than they are. Like, whilst most people find it bizarre in an amusing way, things like this make me feel really uneasy for reasons I find difficult to describe.

Like it just seems really fucking sinister deep down. The weirdness of it. Though as someone pointed out on the previous page there was no real victims, still, gives me the spooks for some reason.

Like imagine if you met the guy after this had all gone viral, knowing he did all that? I would feel very uncomfortable for some reason.

Anyone know what I'm getting at?

[sevendaughters]

Anyone know what I'm getting at?

I think I get it. What I find uncomfortable is that he will likely enjoy some kind of infamy and niche career out of this, one that doesn't befit his musical interest levels, and that people will spend ironypounds on keeping this guy in circulation as a musician.

[Neomod]

Who would have thought Jered was a fan of Hoddle and Waddle. Was one of Superlative Recordings fictitious bands named after this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WACF8ID-To

[Uncle TechTip]

Upcoming Netflix documentary on the state of the modern music business?

[Shaky]

Anyone know what I'm getting at?

God yes. It's sort of that thing of, "My Uncle works for Nintendo and has let me play Super Mario vs Zelda 57 for Xmas but I'm afraid you're not allowed to play it," blown up to ridiculous proportions. That person who can't not stop lying so while you feel for them a bit, you want to spend literally zero time in their presence because it just makes you uncomfortable and left wondering were the real person begins and the lies end. The level of deception is both pathetic and weirdly impressive. It hints at a massive problem in their psyche somewhere.

[Clownbaby]

Before seeing a picture of Jered Threatin I got a white hot searing flash of his exact face and hair from the stupid name alone

[gilbertharding]

God yes. It's sort of that thing of, "My Uncle works for Nintendo and has let me play Super Mario vs Zelda 57 for Xmas but I'm afraid you're not allowed to play it," blown up to ridiculous proportions. That person who can't not stop lying so while you feel for them a bit, you want to spend literally zero time in their presence because it just makes you uncomfortable and left wondering were the real person begins and the lies end. The level of deception is both pathetic and weirdly impressive. It hints at a massive problem in their psyche somewhere.

Yep - most people know it as Walter Mitty Syndrome, but because I was at school with him, it reminds me most of Adrian Rigelsford.

Oh - and I'm guessing the venues he's hired are entitled to be peeved, and view it as a scam, because the rate they hire their room out at will be dictated by how much they think they'll be able to earn from the thousands of fans they'll be expecting. At least, that's how things were when I worked for a promoter in the 90s.

[PaulTMA]

He's back on social media (not Facebook though), this sounds promising:
https://twitter.com/JeredThreatin/status/1062294591372701697

Also, the drummer speaks:
https://www.facebook.com/dane.davis.714/videos/1738760289584104/

Plus the guitarist:
"Hey! Thanks for reaching out. This whole thing is been insanely crazy. Two nights ago we talked as a group and the drummer and I both left after all agreeing that we would not be performing any further shows. We had no idea whatsoever about any of this. We were completely shocked one the story broke and we found out about everything. We had never heard of Threatin before being invited to audition. Originally we were told that we would be paid a flat fee of 300 dollars for the tour but the day before we left LA, we found out that money was to be used to buy our food. We're doing good. We've gotten a lot of love and support from everyone. We were just as shocked and surprised as everyone to find this out."
from https://www.instagram.com/p/BqGPUO8nCiw/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

[mrpupkin]

I don't see why the guy is attracting so much ire, I like him. The Ed Wood of failed hair metal bands. Delusional self-belief, hubris, public exposure, maybe financial ruin, how could you hate the guy? I hope he's mentally well enough to weather the public shaming and embrace whatever ironic following he may garner. Legend Jered.

[sevendaughters]

don't think there's much ire, more laughter, with some moderate concern for the venues.

[Neomod]

It looks like he could turn this around if he has any self awareness whatsoever. Laughing at himself is the best policy here and that tweet could be him realising this. Take ownership of the joke and he could make a stack of cash. That's if he needs it of course.

There's defo a Jon Ronson documentary in here somewhere.

[olliebean]

Hang on, though, how do we know that Sick Chirpse article is real? I've never heard of the site before - sounds fake to me.

[Icehaven]

I think there's more than a little to the Wiseau comparisons, wouldn't be surprised if that's the next move/movie (just ffs no one let Franco be involved this time.)

Also (prior to the tour of course) would setting all that up actually require as much trouble and effort as that Sick Chirpse article seems to (crowingly) think it would? It seems a bit contradictory to keep going on about how much effort he's gone to setting up the fictional backstory via websites for non-existent companies etc, but then also make a point of how cheap and crappy looking they all are. I don't know that much about creating websites (although most of them aren't even entire websites are they?) but how long would it take him/a mate to actually create a few very badly done websites and facebook/wiki pages? A few days or weeks? The history/false names/tours etc. is hardly an epic odyssey, the whole thing could have been concocted in one afternoon in the pub (with further evidence of lack of thought apparent in the differing backstories of his 'label'), and (as the SC writer did) a quick dig revealed at least one or two of the tour dates were at venues that had other gigs on when he claimed he was playing, so it's not even as if he's spent that much time researching to make sure his tracks were covered.

The most effort and expense and time is the tour itself, which is eyewateringly ridiculous of course, and if it isn't a hoax/attempt to create a The Room-style phenomena then I think maybe he's just seen Blues Brothers and Field of Dreams too many times.

[Sparers]

What a story this is. The drummer from the tour has spoken to the press https://www.loudersound.com/features/threatin-interview-inside-the-years-most-talked-about-tour

[MoonDust]

I did get a bit annoyed at the tone of the SC article. Mainly calling everything Threatin did crappy or shitty. "Crappy website", "shitty website".

I mean I don't know what the point of those descriptors were. As they were repeated a lot it kinda made the whole article sound a bit childish. I mean we all can laugh at the absurdity of the situation but it just felt a bit school boyish to be like "he even made a crappy website hahaha!" rather than just be like "the websites he made were not professional looking, which makes one suspicious none of this real."

Also seems with all the insults there's some veiled anger from the SC writer. Like what Threatin did really seemed to get to the writer.

[PaulTMA]

I might be getting mixed up but didn't the guy who started that site used to bother here or NOTBBC back in the day? Someone who was in a band.

[Jockice]

Didn't David Brent do the same thing in his recent film?

[JesusAndYourBush]

Also (prior to the tour of course) would setting all that up actually require as much trouble and effort

Well, he started over 2 years ago so he's had plenty of time to create everything.  That short fake live video with the camera thrashing around in the crowd was posted in July 2016 and he started uploading to his youtube channel that same month.  He's posted songs there, those are real, and he does have some talent as I gather that he plays all the instruments himself.  It wouldn't take much effort to have gradually added to the illusion he's been creating around himself over the course of the last 2 years.  His "fake it 'til you make it" approach (if that's what it was) wasn't working so perhaps organising a tour was a bit premature.

It's a shame he cancelled the rest of the tour because once those articles appeared he'd have surely got a better attendance than at the start of the tour before the story broke.  I don't get the anger he's attracting from some people,  I'm bemused and intrigued by the whole thing,  I don't wish the guy any ill will and hope he can salvage something from this.

[Brundle-Fly]

There shouldn't have been any music either for this concept to work perfectly. He should have booked all these venues and just sat on stage in front of a small desk, quietly typing bullshit into his Apple Mac Book.

[Chriddof]

I mean we all can laugh at the absurdity of the situation but it just felt a bit school boyish to be like "he even made a crappy website hahaha!" rather than just be like "the websites he made were not professional looking, which makes one suspicious none of this real."

Yeah - I also felt the writer exaggerated the poor quality of the sites, by referring to them as looking like "an old Geocities website from back in 1998". They're not exactly brilliant, but neither are they raw HTML with Times New Roman everywhere, clashing patterned backgrounds and "Under Construction" gifs at the bottom of every page.

[Brundle-Fly]

There's defo a Jon Ronson documentary in here somewhere.

Needs really to be in the can now though. Shame he didnt follow him around from the start.

[JesusAndYourBush]

It just occurred to me that if he'd blagged himself the support slot to an already established band things would have turned out so differently.

Some actual live footage!  I Assume that's his wife in front of the stage filming him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzkIhkSQCG0

[alan nagsworth]

I did get a bit annoyed at the tone of the SC article. Mainly calling everything Threatin did crappy or shitty. "Crappy website", "shitty website".

I mean I don't know what the point of those descriptors were. As they were repeated a lot it kinda made the whole article sound a bit childish. I mean we all can laugh at the absurdity of the situation but it just felt a bit school boyish to be like "he even made a crappy website hahaha!" rather than just be like "the websites he made were not professional looking, which makes one suspicious none of this real."

Also seems with all the insults there's some veiled anger from the SC writer. Like what Threatin did really seemed to get to the writer.

Yeah. There are four instances of "lol" in that article and each one irritated me more and more.

[sevendaughters]

SickChirpse is just sub-Vice bollocks, ignore it, IGNORE IT

[Neomod]

So how would the panel play this if they were Jered?

I'd go for "Hands up, yeah I did it. The music industry has a history of artifice and i'm part of that grand tradition"

[Jockice]

To be fair, while that music isn't my bag of rawk at all, it isn't any worse than similar stuff being peddled by other, properly successful bands. There probably would be an audience if he actually worked from the ground up to flog his wares.

In my local paper music journo days I saw literally dozens of bands playing this sort of stuff. None of them made it, even though some of them were very entertaining (and it isn't the sort of stuff I'd listen to voluntarily) so as in most of life 'making it' seems to be down to a combination of having a bit of talent, even more willpower and an awful lot of luck. I mean, why did Def Leppard become huge but Seventh Son or Candy Page didn't?

What's happened here is that Threatin has tried to set up his own hype and has been found out because he didn't get it right. But then major record companies rarely get it right either (a very small percentage of acts they sign and promote actually have any success) and they're professionals with even more money than he seems to have.

Still, at the worst, he's managed to secure himself a place on the next series of Celebrity Big Brother. You what? It's finished? He really is fucked then.

[Jockice]

By the way, another local band I used to deal with were pretty big on a local level but never made it on a national scale. Still, that didn't matter as they were 'big in Canada.' This was in pre-internet days and they did go there at least once so a lot of their fans believed that they actually were big in Canada.

However, I went to Toronto around a decade ago and asked several people if they'd heard of them. Nope. Not one of them had the vaguest knowledge of this 'big'  band. They probably played a few pubs when they visited, came back and made out they were playing stadiums. Mind you, the Canadians I spoke to thought that The Tragically Hip were an enormous band worldwide.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I never read the SickChirpse article, I read this one published on the same day (from the other Threatin thread)...
http://www.metalsucks.net/2018/11/09/l-a-band-threatin-faked-a-fanbase-to-land-a-european-tour-no-one-attended/
...by the time I saw the SickChirpse thread I realised it was repeating the exact same info.

So how would the panel play this if they were Jered?

I'd go for "Hands up, yeah I did it. The music industry has a history of artifice and i'm part of that grand tradition"

Yeah, if he still carries on asserting that the fake stuff is real then he'll blow it, putting his hands up and admitting to the artifice is the only way he'll be able to claw back any shred of credibility and respect at this stage.

[Shaky]

Mind you, the Canadians I spoke to thought that The Tragically Hip were an enormous band worldwide.

Ha, yes. Some 20 years ago I went to Uni with a Canadian who was always amazed we didn't really know who The Hip were. Sadly I'd completely forgotten about them until the singer died of a brain tumour last year.

They weren't actually bad, like.