Roswell Festival Update

[Stephen Swann]

Jon Browne writes:
>
> >>If neither StarRats nor Shmiffdude make it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR in their most
> >>emphatic voices, i.e. "Don't you realize that the people who are
> >>interested in a Roswell festival DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT SHERYL CROW???",
>
> This isn't the case. Everybody and their mum knows about Roswell
> including the dreary corner of the world that is Sheryl Crow and her
> awful fans.
 [...]
> Who _wouldn't_ want to play at a Roswell fest?
> Roswell, the (marketable) phenomenom is as mainstream as anything could
> get!
> It's funny, but people seem to think UFO's, aliens and the X-Files etc.
> are a bit culty and weird, a bit _out there_ man! But it's a totally
> ordinary preoccupation. This is absolutely everyday common currency. Ask
> anyone in the street what Roswell is, betcha at least say 35% of people
> know what was supposed to have happened. In my shop, I deal with people
> every day of the week who think they're *very interesting and unusual

Uh, Jon, don't you run a comic shop?  Using the patrons of your shop
as a sample of the "general populace" is going to give you a really
skewed result.  :-)

"Most" people absolutely and totally don't give a shit about this
stuff (heck, I only give a damn about it because it would get Hawkwind
in front of a decently large U.S. audience).  The promoter they hired
is going to fuck it up, because the limited audience that would be
interested in the event for the s/f (call it paranormal if you must)
connection are typically not going to be fans of dance club music.

I am tempted to to copy the "Science Fiction in Rock Music" FAQ to the
promoter of this event.  It has a sizable Hawkwind entry (penned by
me) and an *enormous* Hawkwind footnote, added independantly by Mike
Holmes.  It quite rightly names Hawkwind the all-time consensus champs
of s/f oriented rock.  Such an official looking document, DOWNLOADED
HOT off the INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY, just might have enough buzz to
make even an obvious dimwit like him sit up and take notice.

Grumble.

Steve
swann at panix.com