New Fans - Old Fans

selfvalidation

Ill advised
This isn't a rant, i promise! I just want peoples opinions etc. The other day on Morrissey-solo there was a poll, 'when did you become a Morrissey fan' and someone had commented 'can we kill whoever picked 2006.' I suppose it's quite funny but also a little unfair.

I am 19, I have been a Morrissey fan for about 4 years now. So a lot of people would consider that new. And possibly hate me for it. I have every Smiths/Morrissey album and certainly have my favourites. I will see him for the fourth time in Oxford.

What I wanted to know was this. Would long-time Morrissey fans (10-15 years +) rather that new fans stayed away, therefore not increasing the fanbase, his record sales or his ongoing success (and therefore no new gigs or material etc) and stick to middle of the road rubbish like James Blunt or indie pop garbage like The Kooks. Or would you rather that they did find an interest in Morrissey and check out his back-catalogue, despite not being around when the Smiths were formed?

It seems it's a lose-lose situation. People would complain if all the teenage kids didn't know who Morrissey was, yet would also complain if they became a new fan.

I personally find it more annoying when people of any age say they are huge fans but only own the greatest hits!

What do other people think.

X
 
selfvalidation said:
What I wanted to know was this. Would long-time Morrissey fans (10-15 years +) rather that new fans stayed away, therefore not increasing the fanbase, his record sales or his ongoing success (and therefore no new gigs or material etc) and stick to middle of the road rubbish like James Blunt or indie pop garbage like The Kooks. Or would you rather that they did find an interest in Morrissey and check out his back-catalogue, despite not being around when the Smiths were formed?

I've been a fan for 16+ years.
The Smiths were gone but Morrissey's popularity was much higher when he did his first solo tour in 1991. Look at the venues. Madison Square Garden, Wembley Arena and the like.

I think he really let down a lot of Smiths fans on that tour.
He didn't play any Smiths songs. People had waited for years and were very disappointed. When he came to the Boston area, he played The Tweeter Center, an outdoor venue with a capacity of about 12,000. It was pretty full. When he came back around he booked the Worcester Centrum. About 10,000. The show was moved to a place called The Aud. Rumours were that there had been only a few hundred tickets sold. The tour was cancelled after a show at Madison Square Garden the night before. The claims were fatigue but there is a rumour that the rest of the shows were all very undersold.

I think his aversion to Smiths songs until 1995 hurt his overall audience.

So, how does this relate to your question?

I welcome new fans. He needs them. The more fans there are, the more likely he is to keep putting out records and doing tours. Not only that, it's really stupid to judge someone based on when they became a fan. You can't become a fan until you've heard the songs. Even then, Morrissey can be a bit of an acquired taste. He was for me.

Welcome aboard.
 
I think the more the merrier. I've been a Smiths Moz fan for twenty years now and I hear people discovering him all the time. I really don't care how long someone has been a fan but i do believe it's a joke when someone says they're a fan and has one album.
 
I read an article that said Morrissey was very interested in his new fans. Especially the younger ones. It said he was amazed to find the younger audience interest in him. Don't worry what any fan thinks and read up on his interviews to see the opinion that matters most;)
 
I think newer fans are fantastic. When I was a teenager listening to Morrissey, there were only about a dozen people at my school who knew who he was-- and half of them hated him. When he went on tour in 1991, I wasn't sure who the hell would show up. I imagined the great man singing to a tiny bundle of humanity at the front of the venue and nothing but a sea of empty chairs and crickets behind.

I had the happiest shock of my life when I found myself surrounded by 18,000 other wild-eyed maniacs cheering him on. Most of them were newer fans, I'm guessing, and another huge chunk were trendies who listened to the local radio station (which had the power of making any artist lovable so long as they were "alternative").

I really didn't care. I've always felt that Morrissey, as a pop star, should sell massive amounts of records, and given that, of course he should have loads of people who only know the "hits" (pause for laugh track). It's touching when a sixteen year old doesn't know Johnny Marr from Johnny Bridgewood. In fact, I'm far more relieved to meet a person who likes 50 Cent and Morrissey than one who likes Robert Smith and Morrissey.

Longtime fans are really just passionate fans, and passionate fans, in my experience, get upset when other fans who claim to be equally passionate don't, in fact, care all that much (see Thaxter's post above) or don't understand things they should. On the latter point, I'm not talking about subjective interpretations of music, I'm talking ABCs. Who cares if someone thinks "Meat Is Murder" is really about a latent desire to engage in bestiality, so long as they understand that Morrissey wouldn't-- let's say-- support a society that made women pathetically subservient to men?

This is true of most artists who have a cult following, or bands that are on the fringes of the mainstream. Hardcore fans get defensive when a few loudmouthed fellow-travelers give them a bad name. Nazi punks are the classic example.

Beyond that stuff, I don't think older fans really care when newer ones show up. In 2006, thousands of newly minted fans spending their cash on Morrissey means all of us might get another single, another album, another tour...
 
I actually think a lot of the new fans are better. You've only got to read the main board to see how jaded and bitter some of the old fans are. A lot of them are not even fans anymore, but they just can't let go.
 
I have been a fan since 88 so I guess that makes me an 'old' fan now. However, I do remember queueing up early morning outside the Leicester De Monfort on the Kill Uncle tour and some knob asking me what I was doing there as I had never seen The Smiths. I remember how pissed off I was at this and have never scorned fans who came along later. Jesus, who wants to go to a gig where there's nobody under the age of 40?
 
I'm 20 and became a fan in 2001, never looked back since =)

though i must admit, a few of the younger people do claim to like Morrissey/The Smiths for superficial reasons, if you know what i mean
 
I’ve been a fan since ’85 and love seeing new ones come along who truly ‘get it.’ It’s like a constant re-validation of what I originally felt. Not that there’s any need for it, but it’s still nice to feel backed up by other perspectives.
 
I wasn't lucky (or old) enough to be around when The Smiths were, well...The Smiths; I adore Morrissey solo work but notthing compares to The Smiths.
In a way this makes me much more eager to catch him live anytime I can as I have not had the privilege to follow him from the very beginnings –if that makes any sense at all.

Any time (no matter what set list, no matter if there's an encore or whatever else) I am in the same room with the man I feel blessed.
 
New Fans welcomed

"I welcome new fans. He needs them. The more fans there are, the more likely he is to keep putting out records and doing tours. Not only that, it's really stupid to judge someone based on when they became a fan. You can't become a fan until you've heard the songs. Even then, Morrissey can be a bit of an acquired taste. He was for me."

This comment, and most of the others since it, sum up my view, so the "kill anyone who says 2006" comment seems marginalised really. I think it's great when 'young + old' (horrible phrase, don't ya think?) come together with a common denominator in this way.

At Aly Panic's nites in Leeds I think it's good to chew the fat with someone 20 yrs younger than me (I'm 45) on the finer points of the latest album, or whatever. And their 'passion' is just as sincere, as Aly himself often demonstrates.

I can see where the 'kill' comment might come from - these latter-day, wet behind the ears fans know nothing about my hero, type of view - but it's clear that new fans are 'warmly welcomed' into the fold by the majority of us.

Mike C
 
I can honestly say that this issue has never entered my mind, though I suppose its always slightly surprising to see the number of younger people at Moz gigs. I guess I just figure everyone thats going to turn up is washed up like me.
 
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I started the said poll, just because of curiousity rather than 'I've been a fan longer than you!', there's quite a mix on there. I was 12 when The Smiths split and the first time I saw Morrissey live was 1995, so I'm a newbee really!
 
The downside with SOME old fans is when they turn up to gigs grumbling because they think everything he's done since the Smiths has been shite.
 
I've been a fan for 16 years. I couldn't give a flying f*** if my 2 yr old cat likes himor my great-grandfather's coffin.

More the merrier, its a treasure trove of goodness (with the odd exception)
 
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