Okay, one last post
before November 17th.* This is me talking. No more
statistics, no more news stories, no more analysing. This is just you
and me chatting over a beer.
A few days ago, I wrote
a post that I thought might interest some of the few people who pass
by this site. Never in a million years did I think that those words
would go as crazy as they did. For those not in the know, cycle back
to November 1st and read a post titled No More Touts.
You see, I wrote that original
post out of anger. I'd seen some of the negativity that surrounded
the whole No More Touts campaign. And it stung. Really, really stung.
Heck, on September 19th 2014, I was an outsider looking
in, a passing music lover who'd seen a good idea and decided to
support it. The fact that the idea spoke to me on so many levels
certainly helped. And here were people picking apart what was being
done. To see so much spite and negativity levelled towards people who
were doing something to change the industry really hurt me. Yet I
know from experience that you can't reason with haters. On top of that, one of my pet hates is to see hatred thrown at people who are just trying to do some good in a world that's already ravaged by darkness (I'm also a firm believer in "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".).
In the original post, I
mentioned that I'd been a part of the “Rage for Christmas #1”
campaign. Like the No More Touts one, it was a grass roots effort
that took off. Even if the song hadn't reached number one and even if
the band hadn't played the show (again, they were under no obligation
to do so but did it out of the goodness of their hearts) the Rage
campaign did something amazing.
It raised over £162,000for Shelter, the UK's homeless charity. Even now people still donate in the Rage campaign's name.
I noticed, while
reading up on the No More Touts campaign, that the people behind it also support a
charity (I've also noticed they've been writing about this too in the
past few days. Hi, guys!). Given to Live makes it possible for people
who are vulnerable or feel excluded to go to live music events. So
far, they've had a lot of success, including the Invictus Games back
in September.
So, if you burrow a
little deeper and don't take everything at face value, you discover a
deeper, more beautiful meaning to this. Even if the band don't play,
this campaign has taken the issue of ticket touts to some of the
biggest powers in the music industry. People are sitting up and
listening. It's making headline news again and again. People know
that there's something going on and revolutions don't start
overnight.
Most of all it's doing
something good by giving others the chance to experience what many of
us take for granted.
The music connects us,
let's not forget that. We're all coming from nothing here and,
through this, the world can be changed for the better.
And I've met a bunch of
awesome and very cool people through it!
“The miracle isn’t
that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”
-John Bingham
*Maybe. There may be
more.
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