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Bands with a hardcore fan following

Started by Nice Relaxing Poo, June 16, 2020, 04:25:33 PM

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I'm talking about a group of people who almost have (or actually have) a gang feeling about them. They follow the band around to most gigs and are most likely known to the band themselves.

Two spring to mind:

The Meteors. The have their own security called Kattle Krew who stop people from beating up known ubercunt Paul Fenech. Doesn't so much feel like a snobby group of ardent followers as more like an actual gang of criminals who also happen to be Meteors fans.

New Model Army. I don't know that much about The Family but an old friend of mine who like NMA said that he got the feeling they were quite non-inclusive and snooty about other less fanatical fans.



I'm sure there are plenty of others (Deadheads etc)...

sevendaughters

lol was running here to say New Model Army. I remember they played Preston when I lived there and the venue carpark on the morning of the show looked like a scene from NZ teen drama The Tribe, but adults.

Sin Agog

I went to see The Pop Group at Glastonbury a few years back, and because of the Nietzsche tattoo I got on my shoulder as a young teen (Beyond Good & Evil), THREE separate fundamentalist Pop Groupies came up to me and started showing me pictures of themselves in the '70s and '80s with members of the band, and pictures of their kids wearing band tees etc.  I genuinely had no fucking idea why they were doing this until I remembered that Pop Group song, She is Beyond Good & Evil.  It was completely inexplicable before that.  They were probably just the core of the hardcore, though, as I'm sure there are other bands with far crazier followings.


earl_sleek

Anyone who is still openly a fan of Lostprophets must be pretty hardcore.

Captain Crunch

Quote from: Nice Relaxing Poo on June 16, 2020, 04:25:33 PMNew Model Army.

I don't know, I think you're going back a bit there.  I got into them in about '96 and even then people spoke wistfully about 'The Family'.  I saw them play Chepstow Castle recently and the car park was more company Ford Focus than repurposed Royal Mail van (still with the odd 'Get Me Out' bumper sticker, keeping it real).

I've mentioned both of these before but Tool and Mastodon shows seem to be stuffed with poncey twats who never go to gigs.  Not moving when you need to shift, tutting and moaning at anyone daring to talk or drink or do anything other than stay rooted to the spot making silly orgasm noises.  Proper twats. 

Quote from: Captain Crunch on June 16, 2020, 05:17:50 PM
d Mastodon shows seem to be stuffed with poncey twats who never go to gigs.  Not moving when you need to shift, tutting and moaning at anyone daring to talk or drink or do anything other than stay rooted to the spot making silly orgasm noises.  Proper twats.

I've known plenty of obsessive Tool fans but speaking as a long time Mastodon fan, I've never really noticed the same kind of dedicated borelord following as Tool. Both are proggy and we all know the kind chin stroking cork sniffer music like that attracts but at least Mastodon have a bit of a sense of not taking themselves too seriously.


Brundle-Fly

The Stranglers had a terrifying mob that used to follow them around. Similarly, Sham 69 had the Sham Army. I suspect some of the surviving members of those motley gangs were in Central London at the weekend.

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on June 16, 2020, 06:06:15 PM
The Stranglers had a terrifying mob that used to follow them around. Similarly, Sham 69 had the Sham Army. I suspect some of the surviving members of those motley gangs were in Central London at the weekend.


Ditto The Meteors crew. They had an absolute reek of neo Nazism about them.

bomb_dog

Don't forget them there Juggalos - fans of the Insane Clown Posse

BlodwynPig


Joy Nktonga


alan nagsworth

The memetic shitposting obsession with Death Grips as an online thing means that their fanbase are a raucous braying gaggle of teenage fucking cunts who follow them everywhere and obsess over everything they do. I really like Death Grips a lot, and broadly speaking I think their success is wholly earned, but fuck their fans. I've seen them live twice and both times the crowds were rammed with petulant inconsiderate little shits. I guess this is what happens when most of them might as well be totally anonymous online presences, no sense of community or gig etiquette or anything.

holyzombiejesus

There were a few of those gothy bands that had the hardcore followers who would write the band's name on their green army kit bags and service station signs. The Mission had The Eskimos, Fields of the Nephilim had one, presume the Sisters of Mercy did and I think even Ballaam and the Angel too.

Puce Moment

Quote from: Captain Crunch on June 16, 2020, 05:17:50 PMI don't know, I think you're going back a bit there.  I got into them in about '96 and even then people spoke wistfully about 'The Family'. 

Yeah, I assumed that The Family was rather like The Mission's Eskimos - something that was quite real and organic back in the day, but has largely faded.

There is some good stuff here about the Eskimos:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-16-ca-9472-story.html

QuoteSparky has mixed feelings about the widespread media attention that the crews are receiving in England. "At one time, the Eskimos was really only about 15 people, but the media is convinced there are hundreds," he said. "What happens is a lot of kids who read about the Eskimos go around shouting the name at shows and claiming they are part of it."

momatt

Shed Seven have a fairly insane fanbase, despite most people not caring about them since the 90s.
I went to a gig with a mate a few months ago (sort of as a favour), it was mental and rammed in a pretty big venue.  Felt so strange.

Puce Moment

That reminds me that Cud have quite the fanatical following. I remember it being like that back in the day when I would see them live, but it still seems to have carried on (although I'm not sure the fans follow them round the country anymore).

They were always in the moshpit trying to organise a stage invasion like annoying redcoats trying to get kids to do a conga.

Brundle-Fly

Madness have a large community/Facebook group of hardcore fans. Some of them are quite proprietorial over the band. Always down the front at the lip of the stage as soon as the arena doors open, pitching up their space for the night. A few the older ones are quite sniffy and presumptuous about their fellow fans who they don't consider 'proper Nutty Boys fans'. They call them 'Diviners' because these 'Johnny Come Latelys' probably only own the Divine Madness singles collection and just want to only hear the hits. They don't seem to realise that if it wasn't for these Fez wearing folk, the band wouldn't still be a going concern all these decades on.

kngen

Quote from: Nice Relaxing Poo on June 16, 2020, 04:25:33 PM
New Model Army. I don't know that much about The Family but an old friend of mine who like NMA said that he got the feeling they were quite non-inclusive and snooty about other less fanatical fans.

To the point of violence. An old friend of mine was one of those green kitbag/hitch-around-the-country-following-bands types, and he had nothing good to say about NMA's following (back when they were 'the Militia'). Apparently their little game was to form a kind of human barrier at the front of the stage at NMA gigs, leaving a big gap, and if anyone unsuspectingly wandered into said gap, they steam in and kick the shit out of them - with those bloody big wooden clogs, too, which were de rigeur among those silly sods.

I know the Levellers had a big swathe of dreadlocked Ruperts following them about - can't remember what their name was, something cringe-inducing, no doubt. I remember marvelling at them all singing 'There's only one way of life. and that's your own' without a hint of irony - one big mass of wafty, tiedye breeks, dreadlocks and those weird itchy-looking, multicoloured hooded tops that appear to be made out of rafia.

Sin Agog

I once told a NMA fan that the only exposure I've had to them is them playing in the background as Bob Peck kissed his dead daughter's vibrator in Edge of Darkness.  They were not impressed.


Dreadzone seem to attract some pretty dedicated fans for such a bland band (well, to me- Trancey Dub, for someone like myself who generally likes upfront, attention-grabbing music, was never gonna gel).  I know people who've seen them dozens and dozens of times.

Sin Agog

Quote from: kngen on June 17, 2020, 01:22:37 PM
I know the Levellers had a big swathe of dreadlocked Ruperts following them about - can't remember what their name was, something cringe-inducing, no doubt. I remember marvelling at them all singing 'There's only one way of life. and that's your own' without a hint of irony - one big mass of wafty, tiedye breeks, dreadlocks and those weird itchy-looking, multicoloured hooded tops that appear to be made out of rafia.

They're kinda naff, but I know the guy who did all the animation in that video really well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0S8RNkL5Wg).
He's now a clown, and also a former member of a pre-Cardiacs band, and one of the loveliest people I know.

chveik

it's Radiohead innit. those bloody headheads

buzby

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on June 16, 2020, 09:02:52 PM
There were a few of those gothy bands that had the hardcore followers who would write the band's name on their green army kit bags and service station signs. The Mission had The Eskimos, Fields of the Nephilim had one, presume the Sisters of Mercy did and I think even Ballaam and the Angel too.
The Sisters' hardcore fanbase is the (originally Wakefield-based) God Squad.
New Order have a rather boorish hardcore fanbase, some of whom go right back to the Joy Division era, who similarly were permanently down the front at gigs, known as The Vikings (named by No's roadie Roger Lyons after the theme from the Kirk Douglas film of the same name, which NO used to use as their entrance music). They have their own FAC number, granted by Tony Wilson, and produce thier own commeorative badges for each tour:



(A fucking Triskele and Deaths Head badge - real classy, lads)
After the schism between Hook and the others, I think most of them followed Hook and prop up his gigs with The Light now.

famethrowa

Marillion have their own crowd don't they?

Also Ben Folds, the guy can sell out opera houses all over the world despite not being in the mainstream eye for about 20 years now.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: buzby on June 17, 2020, 01:56:44 PM

New Order have a rather boorish hardcore fanbase,

How did The Vikings respond to World In Motion? Too commercial for their tastes or were they shouting along EN-GER-LAND! at the top of their voices when it was performed at the concerts? Did the band perform it live?

momatt

good grief, there's something completely cringe-inducing about a fanbase giving themselves a name.
That'd put me off almost any band I think.

popcorn

Quote from: famethrowa on June 17, 2020, 02:28:42 PM
Marillion have their own crowd don't they?

Are they called Marillionaires?

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on June 16, 2020, 09:02:52 PM
...and I think even Ballaam and the Angel too.

Balaam & The Angel's fan following was called... and I'm spoilering this to build up anticipation because it's truly the most cringeworthiest fan-following name ever... they were called... get ready for this...
Spoiler alert
The Sperm Bank
[close]
.

momatt

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on June 17, 2020, 04:58:30 PM
Balaam & The Angel's fan following was called... and I'm spoilering this to build up anticipation because it's truly the most cringeworthiest fan-following name ever... they were called... get ready for this...
Spoiler alert
The Sperm Bank
[close]
.

y tho?

#29
Quote from: kngen on June 17, 2020, 01:22:37 PM
To the point of violence. An old friend of mine was one of those green kitbag/hitch-around-the-country-following-bands types, and he had nothing good to say about NMA's following (back when they were 'the Militia'). Apparently their little game was to form a kind of human barrier at the front of the stage at NMA gigs, leaving a big gap, and if anyone unsuspectingly wandered into said gap, they steam in and kick the shit out of them - with those bloody big wooden clogs, too, which were de rigeur among those silly sods.


The band probably thought they were a bunch of cunts but obviously couldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth, so kept quiet about it.