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Tips on how to get autographs/meet a band at a concert

Til_Kingdom_Come

By Til_Kingdom_Come
in The World Of Music

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bjaiken

bjaiken

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I use to collect a lot of music autographs. I would recommend going to soundcheck. It's a long shot for a large venue, but it's probably your best shot. I would also wait after the show. Again, a long shot, but I've seen it done many times. The guys from Green Day have gotten rather bad about signing and meeting their fans. Too many sellers and dealers have worn them down, I believe.

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Til_Kingdom_Come

Til_Kingdom_Come

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I use to collect a lot of music autographs. I would recommend going to soundcheck. It's a long shot for a large venue, but it's probably your best shot. I would also wait after the show. Again, a long shot, but I've seen it done many times. The guys from Green Day have gotten rather bad about signing and meeting their fans. Too many sellers and dealers have worn them down, I believe.

 

Green Day are doing a 4pm show before my 7pm show at the same venue, does that mean I'd get a better shot at meeting them at the soundcheck for the 4pm show?! Also, do you think that Green Day just won't meet their fans because they don't want to??

 

Thanks anyway. :)

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Nattatouille

Nattatouille

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Why do you want to meet them so bad anyway? They say you should never meet your heroes, there's good reason for it too.

 

I have had a mixed bag of experiences meeting my heroes. Most of the bands I have met in the early days of their careers are absolutely lovely and so down to earth.

 

Those I have met further in to their careers have become a bit tainted and you feel like a burden meeting them...

 

I would hazard a guess and say meeting Green Day would fall in to the awkward, burden category.

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Mark

Mark

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I have had a mixed bag of experiences meeting my heroes. Most of the bands I have met in the early days of their careers are absolutely lovely and so down to earth.

 

Those I have met further in to their careers have become a bit tainted and you feel like a burden meeting them...

 

I would hazard a guess and say meeting Green Day would fall in to the awkward, burden category.

 

I don't think I'd ever want to meet any of my heroes in the situation where there's a very clear divide between "fan" and "idol", and all you can do is gush about how their music changed your life.

 

Sure, I'd love to talk to Damon Albarn or Alex Turner, but only because they're interesting people. I'd want a proper conversation that consisted of more than just "OMG I love everything you do!"

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Italian Plastic

Italian Plastic

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^yeah

I had a proper conversation with Four Tet, my hero :cheesy: he was playing at this tiiiiny festival here (no security guards etc) and i was actually able to just sit down with him for 20 minutes or so. I started off being all OMG I LOVE YOU but after a while it wears off...

 

going up to your hero and saying "OMG I LOVE YOU", getting a picture/autograph then walking away hardly counts as meeting them really

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Mark

Mark

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^yeah

I had a proper conversation with Four Tet, my hero :cheesy: he was playing at this tiiiiny festival here (no security guards etc) and i was actually able to just sit down with him for 20 minutes or so. I started off being all OMG I LOVE YOU but after a while it wears off...

 

going up to your hero and saying "OMG I LOVE YOU", getting a picture/autograph then walking away hardly counts as meeting them really

 

Rockstars must be told they're loved more than Jose Mourinho gets told when he looks in the mirror.

 

I met Simon off of Basement Jaxx, who were my first favourite band. I told him that his band got me into music, because I didn't think many people would've said that to him.

 

Four Tet, though... pretty fucking cool :cool:

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bjaiken

bjaiken

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I like meeting bands and getting autographs. I try not to ask too much of them so that I'm not disappointed. I don't know - its fun. I met Green Day several years ago, and they were much cooler than they are now (at least from a fans perspective). I don't blame them - they blew up huge. That's how it gets ruined.

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Nattatouille

Nattatouille

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I don't think I'd ever want to meet any of my heroes in the situation where there's a very clear divide between "fan" and "idol", and all you can do is gush about how their music changed your life.

 

Sure, I'd love to talk to Damon Albarn or Alex Turner, but only because they're interesting people. I'd want a proper conversation that consisted of more than just "OMG I love everything you do!"

 

I tend to say I love their music first and see how they react. Some people brush you off and that's when you sort of know it's not really worth hanging around and trying because there's the divide. If they're receptive towards the compliment, I tend to calm down a lot and then be able to have a conversation with them... Or equally a drink.

 

I think that's best though-- that you acknowledge they are a musician and your 'idol' but also acknowledge that, in the end, they are just people too.

 

^yeah

I had a proper conversation with Four Tet, my hero :cheesy: he was playing at this tiiiiny festival here (no security guards etc) and i was actually able to just sit down with him for 20 minutes or so. I started off being all OMG I LOVE YOU but after a while it wears off...

 

going up to your hero and saying "OMG I LOVE YOU", getting a picture/autograph then walking away hardly counts as meeting them really

 

That's so cool :awesome:

 

I find it wears off when your system clicks in to the mentality that it's just another normal person. I also find that it helps if I say I am a little giddy and nervous, it wears off faster.

 

I would say it is more an encounter that way. Meeting someone sort of implies a conversation.

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Mark

Mark

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I tend to say I love their music first and see how they react. Some people brush you off and that's when you sort of know it's not really worth hanging around and trying because there's the divide. If they're receptive towards the compliment, I tend to calm down a lot and then be able to have a conversation with them... Or equally a drink.

 

I think that's best though-- that you acknowledge they are a musician and your 'idol' but also acknowledge that, in the end, they are just people too.

 

Oh yeah, I'd say I love their music, but I wouldn't go over the top and fangirl over them.

 

Where is the best place to actually talk to a hero, though?

 

I saw Kano on the tube, and I saw Sergio Pizzorno in Tesco, but I didn't say anything to either of them. They've got lives outside of music, and if I was them, I'd want to be left alone.

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Corkus

Corkus

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If you see a band member in the mall, at the store, etc., my advice is to ignore them. At their concert or even at someone else's concert is fair game (though that second one varies), but everything else is them having a life.

 

I should share that a friend of mine got into a secret intimate 300-capacity Green Day show a few months ago. They wouldn't even meet fans there. So that's a case of a band just not doing that kind of thing anymore. It's kinda sad, but there's nothing you can do about it.

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Nattatouille

Nattatouille

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Oh yeah, I'd say I love their music, but I wouldn't go over the top and fangirl over them.

 

Where is the best place to actually talk to a hero, though?

 

I saw Kano on the tube, and I saw Sergio Pizzorno in Tesco, but I didn't say anything to either of them. They've got lives outside of music, and if I was them, I'd want to be left alone.

 

I wouldn't talk to them in a scenario like that unless it was by chance. Like you sometimes make random conversation with other members of the public-- so if a scenario like that happened with someone famous then I might talk. Otherwise I wouldn't go out of my way to speak to them.

 

If it is outside a gig (be it theirs or someone else's) I tend to see it as fair game. But even then I wouldn't want to take up too much time or whatever just not to be a pain. I tend to meet more bands through my journalism stuff now though-- and then they view it as a strictly professional thing, as do I, until I say that I'm a fan before it starts and then they seem to warm up to me a lot?

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James.

James.

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If you see a band member in the mall, at the store, etc., my advice is to ignore them. At their concert or even at someone else's concert is fair game (though that second one varies), but everything else is them having a life.

 

Would it be okay to just wave to them or smile at them or something? (provided they were looking the right way of course) I'm sure no celebrity could take offence to a friendly wave or nod.

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Tnspieler1012

Tnspieler1012

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I remember seeing Efrim Menuck smoking a cigarette alone outside a sort of mall complex where they were playing. I was stunned, and just wanted to make sure.

 

Me: Hey, Efrim Menuck?

Efrim: How's it going?

Me: *something awkward and fanboyish before waving and walking away 10 seconds later*

 

I also met my idol who wasn't even touring just teching at a concert. But he was cool to chat and take a picture because I'm one of like 10 people in the world who would even recognize him.

 

The whole autograph business is weird for me. I have a few from waiting around after concerts, but you feel like just another customer in a supermarket. Even at very small venues I've passed up a chance for autographs out of my awkward fear of annoying someone I really respect and remembering what a dick I was every time I listen to them.

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Corkus

Corkus

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Would it be okay to just wave to them or smile at them or something? (provided they were looking the right way of course) I'm sure no celebrity could take offence to a friendly wave or nod.

Certainly. That's actually smart because it could cause them to initiate conversation with you rather than the other way around. And if they look away, then hey, you tried in a non-pestering fashion and there's no shame in that. I waved to Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) at someone else's concert once and he shyed away, but at least that meant I wasn't bugging him.

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Mark

Mark

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I waved at Paloma Faith. She was in her tour bus, I was outside, she was playing the ground floor of the o2 Academy, I'd seen a gig on the upper floor. I then winked and blew her a kiss. She smiled, but it could've gone either way if she'd known I actually don't really like her music that much.

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