How to fake a tour and get caught!

stickyfiddle

This is great. 

My lot did a US tour about 12 years ago. Mostly played to empty-ish rooms, but was a cheap way to get 3 weeks in the USA and good practice as a band. When we got home we got loads of bookings as "just back from their US tour" made us sound bigger than we were...! 

But at no point did we pretend we were already huge, and we certainly didn't spend multiple tens of thousands. And social media hadn't really been invented yet  

dafuzz

Great stuff!

I love Quixotic characters. If I'd had half an inkling about this I'd gladly have gone to Underworld. Alone

LuttiS

The rest of the hired band have been releasing statements and things, they all seem pretty miffed by the whole thing.

LuttiS

https://www.nme.com/news/music/jered-threatin-speaks-out-after-notorious-european-tour-stunt-2402703

Jered has spoken...

ToneControl

BBC  have done a fancy piece on him:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/jered_threatin

Teyeplayer

stickyfiddle said:

My lot did a US tour about 12 years ago. Mostly played to empty-ish rooms, but was a cheap way to get 3 weeks in the USA and good practice as a band. When we got home we got loads of bookings as "just back from their US tour" made us sound bigger than we were...! 

But at no point did we pretend we were already huge

See that’s where you clearly went wrong.
I know of a guy locally who did a similar thing in terms of the ‘heading to the US for gigs’, ‘just back from a US run of shows’, except he played up to it and liked to be a big fish in a very small pond. I was rather amused when it transpired he’d nipped over to play a few random singer-songwriter open mic nights.

Musicwolf

Teyeplayer said:

 I was rather amused when it transpired he’d nipped over to play a few random singer-songwriter open mic nights.

Similar to my two tours of Japan where, alongside the music, I managed to spend some time indulging in my hobby of working in the automotive component supply industry.

not_the_dj

ToneControl said:

BBC  have done a fancy piece on him:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/jered_threatin

He must be loving the attention. Job done I reckon. 

stickyfiddle

Teyeplayer said:

stickyfiddle said:

My lot did a US tour about 12 years ago. Mostly played to empty-ish rooms, but was a cheap way to get 3 weeks in the USA and good practice as a band. When we got home we got loads of bookings as "just back from their US tour" made us sound bigger than we were...! 

But at no point did we pretend we were already huge

See that’s where you clearly went wrong.
I know of a guy locally who did a similar thing in terms of the ‘heading to the US for gigs’, ‘just back from a US run of shows’, except he played up to it and liked to be a big fish in a very small pond. I was rather amused when it transpired he’d nipped over to play a few random singer-songwriter open mic nights.

Yeah, it worked very well for us to get a bit of buzz locally. And a great trip  


As for this guy, he's got the media attention. If only his songs weren't rubbish he'd have a good shot at success

RandallFlagg

octatonic said:

Their music is shit too:

A couple of comments posted on his video made me LOL:

"that mix is drier than my nan's snatch"

"better than Nickelback"

octatonic

RandallFlagg said:

octatonic said:

Their music is shit too:

A couple of comments posted on his video made me LOL:

"that mix is drier than my nan's snatch"

"better than Nickelback"

The internet has transformed society, made us more interconnected than at any point in human history and is generally a good thing, but I will never forgive it for making me aware of this music.

monquixote

I recently read Hannah Fry's book "Hello World" she mentions that there have been experiments done on how songs get popular. Essentially a great song will get popular with the slightest bit of attention, a mediocre song has to get lucky, but you can't make a bad song popular

I guess this proves it.

Haych

Oh my life, this guy is a delusional narcissist. 

The irony is that his ego massaging stunt has probably brought him enough attention that he'll end up with a real tour and the fame he clearly craves to go with it - albeit briefly.

monquixote

Haych said:

Oh my life, this guy is a delusional narcissist. 

The irony is that his ego massaging stunt has probably brought him enough attention that he'll end up with a real tour and the fame he clearly craves to go with it - albeit briefly.

The problem is that he's not good or funny bad, he's just bad bad.

octatonic

He certainly has a lot of merch for sale:

https://www.threatin.com/shop

For the lady in your life:

https://www.threatin.com/product-page/women-s-thong-underwear

Edit: Damn, "sold out".

stickyfiddle

monquixote said:

I recently read Hannah Fry's book "Hello World" she mentions that there have been experiments done on how songs get popular. Essentially a great song will get popular with the slightest bit of attention, a mediocre song has to get lucky, but you can't make a bad song popular

I guess this proves it.

Yep. Same with OK Go (in the mediocre category). Their videos are *awesome*, no doubt about it. But can you hum a single one of their songs, except maybe Get Over It, which was actually from their debut, before they started doing clever vids.

earwighoney

ToneControl said:

BBC  have done a fancy piece on him:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/jered_threatin

Really interesting article.  

IMO, I'd love to see a documentary about the guy directed by Burt Layton who made an excellent documentary by the name of 'The Imposter'

pmbomb

the bloke needs to cover anyone's loss caused by his lies but apart from that the whole thing is hilarious and actually quite fine performance art. I'm a hard rocker to the core but honestly anyone who takes it seriously enough to get animated by this needs a reality check. it's all nonsense anyway!

pmbomb

From the BBC article:

 While the band was backstage taking giddy pre-show selfies, Jon Vyner, The Underworld’s booking manager, was expecting a fairly sizeable crowd for a Thursday night.

The gig had been arranged a month earlier by Threatin’s booking agent, Casey Marshall, from an LA-based company called StageRight Bookings. Marshall had paid the venue’s £780 ($979) hire fee and informed Vyner via email that they’d pre-sold 291 tickets for the evening.

Only £780 quid to book the Underworld. We should do this jammers and tFB bands!

BRISTOL86

pmbomb said:

From the BBC article:

 While the band was backstage taking giddy pre-show selfies, Jon Vyner, The Underworld’s booking manager, was expecting a fairly sizeable crowd for a Thursday night.

The gig had been arranged a month earlier by Threatin’s booking agent, Casey Marshall, from an LA-based company called StageRight Bookings. Marshall had paid the venue’s £780 ($979) hire fee and informed Vyner via email that they’d pre-sold 291 tickets for the evening.

Only £780 quid to book the Underworld. We should do this jammers and tFB bands!

Fret-in?