tencrush | There was WANK?? Oh, Gareth...

Gareth!Wank hooray! Bless him, some wank ensued onna OG (yeah, doctorwhoforum, whatever) about Gareth at Orgee. If you don't know, he flashed his todger at Disgracelands and had his bare arse whipped by fangirls. All perfectly acceptable behaviour in my book, but then my book is kept on a special shelf, I must admit.

Now the wank was about a few things, one of which was inappropriate fan behaviour. Personally, I don't think any one fan has the right to accuse any other of inappropriate behaviour unless those involved are in the same room as each other, so I think the point is pretty moot. And, it was obviously THAT kind of gig, so, you know, whatever. I agree with the fangirl around whom the controversy arose (the one brandishing the whip) in as much as I think asking someone if they're up for a whipping, when it's obviouly THAT kind of party is probably FAR MORE APPROPRIATE behaviour than following the poor boy around every time he goes outside for a fag. Especially if you don't smoke, you know what I'm saying?

The other point being made, though, was one of inappropriate celebrity behaviour, and that, I think, is a slightly more tricky one. Is it inappropriate for Gareth to behave in this way? Well, let's start off considering the fact that Gareth spends his professional time hanging out with the likes of John Barrowman, a man whose inappropriate and sometimes downright sleazy behaviour is all to often excused by his somewhat frightening and rabid fanbase because he's A)gay and B)an actor. You can say what you like about Barrowman, but he's certainly not the best role model in that respect. Just sayin', flame away.

The thing about Gareth, though, is that he exhibits this sleazy drunken side of his personality ONLY at the appropriate time, or at what he FEELS is the appropriate time. Yeah, sure, he's got a foul mouth at conventions as well, but he's a 27-year-old guy, I don't know any 27-year-olds who DON'T have a foul mouth, to be perfectly honest with you. Some say he's treading a fine line and should watch himself, though, and the reason some people feel that way is pretty simple, and it's precisely THE SAME REASON, I reckon, that Gareth acts the way he does at his gigs. You see, Gareth has become surprisingly successful at his chosen career of acting, let's just call it Career A, but Career A has also brought him a certain contingent of very enthusiastic fans (to come back to my Blur analogy, yeah, it's all Britpop with me, get used to it, Gareth has attracted a metaphorical fan contingent of Smash Hits reading 12-year-olds alongside the music loving indie kids). Now that fanbase is a great thing for him, and he's obviously more than happy to indulge them, but, on the other hand, Gareth also likes to dabble in his sideline musical career, let's just call that Career B. And the problem he has with Career B, is that the audience for Career B is now almost entirely made up of fans he has acquired with Career A. Now that's not a HUGE problem, but for someone like Gareth, who dabbles in Career B with a bunch of mates from his Newport posse, the possibility of losing any credibility he had with Career B is actually a very real one if nobody takes Career B seriously on its own merits. And with that screaming Career A contingent always present in Career B, I think Gareth probably feels there is an acute danger of losing credibility WITH HIS PEERS because of it. Which brings me back to my Blur analogy, because I think a very large part of the way Gareth behaves when it comes to Career B comes forth from either a conscious or subconsious desire to scare off the undesirable contingent from Career A. Not that he finds a part of his fanbase to be undesirable, certainly not when it comes to Career A, but he probably does feel there's a certain element of squeeing fangirls that Career B could and probably should do without (and I'm not talking about the sort of fangirl that the wank was about, I'm talking about the ones who follow him around on his fag breaks). Graham Coxon did pretty much the same thing when Blur went poptastic by being a hugely unpleasant drunk in the most public situations he could manage to engineer, and he successfully managed to scare off the teenybopper contingent of Blur fans to the extent that they started idolising Damon and pretty much Damon only (Alex James had by this time also, probably subconsiously, managed to achieve the same thing by coming across as hugely sexually threatening, even to twelve-year-olds). So much for Blur, don't worry, I'm done.

So what am I getting at? Well, like someone onna OG said, he's treading a fine line PRECISELY BECAUSE the audience boundaries are, at the moment, so blurred between his two chosen Careers. The poster felt he was in danger of putting off fans of Career A by his behaviour in B, and that's a very real possibility, but I think it's pretty unlikely that he will tone his behaviour down until those two audiences start to diverge into two distinct entities. If he loses some fans in Career A along the way, I think that's a risk he's willing to take. He's well aware that he's got a huge following ALL OVER THE WORLD and the actual percentage of people who will be put off by his off-putting behaviour IN PERSON, IN CARDIFF is actually pretty small, and he knows it. So, do I think Gareth behaves acceptably? Yeah, for a guy who's in a band who plays gigs with a bunch of other bands, all of whom are his mates and all of whom drink and toke and fuck around and do all the rest of it, sure, it's perfectly acceptable behaviour. Is it going to put some fans off him? Sure, a few, but he can afford to lose them. Should he give a flying fuck? No, in the same way that he shouldn't give a flying fuck if I say on the internets that I think he eats too many pies. He's young, he's got his whole life ahead of him, he can do whatever the fuck he wants. Will it stop me saying he eats too many pies? No way, Jose.

(Quick disclaimer, though, I say Gareth eats too many pies a lot, and I DO mean it, but I say it only because I think he doesn't have anyone else saying it at the moment, and I know he reads the internet and if he catches a pie reference, then maybe he'll notice that he comes off quite chubby on camera and he should look into why that is the case, because he is not actually chubby in real life. I'd still happily fuck him until he breaks, but I think SOMEONE needs to be telling the boy a few truths and I think NOBODY is, because that SOMEBODY is probably the same SOMEBODY who should be updating his CV and that certainly ain't happening at any great speed. I LOVE GARETH. TRUFAX, SRSLY.)

Anyway, the wank's over now, it was fun while it lasted, and only went to prove that there's wank everywhere. And Gareth? You caused wank. You have officially MADE IT, dude. Congrats. Have a beer on me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mellacita.livejournal.com

And Gareth? You caused wank. You have officially MADE IT, dude. Congrats.

True dat.

Though I imagine he has caused his share of private wan...sorry, that never gets old.

From:

tencrush

Though I imagine he has caused his share of private wan...

I hear ya, sister.

From:

shighola.livejournal.com

hear, hear! well said.
i especially agree about the pies. seriously, why so bloated friend?

From:

bandgeek01.livejournal.com

Did I miss something somewhere?

But I agree with you in all aspects of what you said.

Nicole

From:

tencrush

Like I said, there was some fannish wank on doctorwhoforum which seems to have harshed a few people's buzzes around and about. Nothing major. These things always blow over.

There was WANK?? Oh, Gareth...

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