#terrible influence tour australia

[moadej]

I love Dan and Phil

[terribleinfluence-tour]

We've put together a time zone guide for the Australian and New Zealand TIT Shows, so that everyone is able to track what time M+G and the shows start!

If you are wanting to know what time the show will start in your time zone, most shows have an expected start of 8pm. To find this time in your zone, add 3 hours :)! We apologise that we are not able to include every time zone in this guide, but attached to this post is a world clock site in which you can look up your time zone and add the dates you are wanting to track + it also comes in a mobile app!

https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/ We are so excited for the AU/NZ leg of Terrible Influence, and are so keen to bring you any tour content that pops up along the way!💜💙

[leftthehouseonce]

On the vline bus in rural Australia wearing my “dnp made me GAY” t-shirt… the driver was not very impressed ;-;

[danandphilplay]

last US tour date! wow time is going by fast

[thinking-emoji]

RNZ interview mirror - the original file is exactly 700 kb too big for tumblr so I had to compress it slightly 🙃

Transcript under the cut!

YouTube megastars Dan and Phil will be coming to Aotearoa next week with a live show full of scandalous stories. For those who don't know them, these two Brits invented being internet famous. Coming to stardom in 2009, the pair have amassed a media empire with over 40 million combined followers, 2 billion views on YouTube, as well as a handful of best-selling books. Dan and Phil went on hiatus in 2018, with each coming out as gay soon after. This is their first tour together since then. The show is called Terrible Influence and it's coming to Auckland's Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre next Thursday, the 19th of December. I caught up with Dan and Phil earlier on the line from Australia.

DnP: Hello.

(Interviewer laughs)

D: Sorry, was that a weird stereo hello there? That must have been disturbing.

I: That's exactly how I wanted you to answer the call.

P: Yes, that's how we speak all the time. D: We share one braincell.

I: You speak in unison.

P: Yes. (laughs)

I: Because you two have lived together for quite some time, haven't you? D: We have. I: Not only working together for many years.

D: Yeah, like imagine like being really fed up with your co-worker and then you want to come home and you want to be like, God, this guy, I can't stand him. Like, what are we doing here, people?

P: Then he's in your house.

I: How long have you lived together for?

D: Errr, fourteen- P: No. D: No, thirteen- twel- P: Twelve years. I want to say twelve years. D: Twelve years, but it feels like 2000. Do you know what I mean? P: Time is not real. We don't know what's going on. D: At this point, we're like, you know, when you go to a zoo and there's two elderly tortoises that are about 400 years old. P: Yeah. D: That's how we feel. P: Yeah.

I: I'm glad that you've decided to, you know, take air travel to get to New Zealand.

D: It's literally the furthest place from home we could ever. So we get some tweets from people that are like, Dan and Phil, thank you for coming to New Zealand because, by golly, you've travelled a bit of a way. But hey, we're happy to be there. New Zealand is a beautiful country. P: Yes. D: And so are the people.

P: Whenever I come to New Zealand, I just want to move to New Zealand. I'm like, why am I in London when I could be in this beautiful, verdant land?

D: A lot of people do abandon for New Zealand and we understand why.

I: Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad that you do understand that. And it's your first big tour back since coming out in 2018. D: It is. I: The show is kind of a little bit like a gossip session. Is that right? Setting some things straight?

D: Absolutely. We're people that have been on the internet for a very long time and people have talked a lot of smack about us over the years, as a lot of people do with anyone with a lot of followers. And we're like, you know what? We all deserve to look back at our past. We all deserve to be roasted for the things that we did and said. That includes us being embarrassing and what our audience were like when they were all teenagers on the internet. But if we have a bit of a therapy session slash Catholic confession, we can end it with a bit of a hug and a pat on the back and go, it's okay. We survived. Here we are now in 2024. So it's like a roast and a healing session at the same time.

I: That must be quite an interesting thing because, you know, you both grew up on the internet and made so much content. You have this huge following that you've built. And so many people work really hard to kind of erase their former selves online. And that's probably something that you cannot do.

D: Oh, no. I would love to. It's too late. P: That's the thing as well. Sometimes our audience know us better than we know ourselves because they watch these videos so much. I never watch my videos back ever. So they'll come up to us at a meet and greet like, remember that thing you did in 2014? I'm like, no. D: No, I don't. P: I don't know what I said or did. D: But Phil, you love this ice cream flavour. P: Yeah. Speaking of ice cream, I'm excited for the Hokey Pokey ice cream. That was the thing I remember in New Zealand. I: It is good.

D: Yeah. Someone said, hey, you're excited to have it again. I was like, what was that? P: We don't have that. D: Don't you remember the time that you had it? P: No. D: Here, I've got this photo on my phone. P: Yeah. I'm going to have some more when I get there for sure.

D: That is not the main reason why we made the travel, but it will help with the jet lag.

P: It's 80% of the reason, I'll be honest.

I: Why is the show called Terrible Influence?

D: I think there's this idea that everyone on the internet, all these creators, all these TikTokers and podcasters are just horrible people that are trying to sell you some kind of crypto scam. And the truth is 90% of them are. And the question that we're asking is, were we terrible? What did we do to all these young people that watch it? Maybe the other question is, what did they do to us? Is what we do inherently bad? Is it a two-way street? Well, maybe we can answer that question and along the way just giggle so much that we kind of forgive and forget.

I: I'm sure you have a pretty good idea of the extent of your influence. But being in high school in New Zealand when Dan and Phil were first starting out, it was almost like a code word. (Dan laughs) It was how weirdos, kind of, identified with each other.

P: I think we've always been happy to kind of have representation for the slightly alternative people of the world.

D: Yeah, we like to joke that it's for the goths, the girls, the gays and the geeks. Any type of person that feels like on any level, they may not be completely mainstream. They may not be vanilla. They might feel other in any kind of way. We have an audience and we look out now because you understand when all these people were 14, it kind of looked like they were all teenagers. Now that they're all adults, some people are coming up to us, they're like, hi, Dan and Phil, meet my child. (laughs) But all these people have been in such different journeys in life. But it's knowing that, you know, back in the day, there was a place where no matter what kind of person they are, they felt like, you know what? Here in this comment section with these guys, I can just be myself and that makes me happy. I think whether that is something that we did do intentionally or it's an accidental byproduct of our influence, we'll take it.

P: And a lot of them have grown up with us as well. That's the lovely thing. So we're meeting people now that are just much older, but they're still watching the videos because we've- we've grown up and they've grown up as well.

I: Absolutely. And you took this hiatus, you know, from the internet. How long was that hiatus for and what was the impetus for it? And for coming back?

D: It was five dark years. P: Five years. D: And there was no Dan and Phil in the world until one day, like Jesus, we returned and here we are now.

P: We did. I think it's always a good thing to kind of have a moment where you're like, what's going on in life? Have a reset. And and I think we're kind of back now.

D: You know, like when everyone, you know, there was a pandemic and then they were like, you know what? My relationship, my job, you have decided it's not for me. I think we were trendsetters there. We did that early, voluntarily style, because we'd been going nonstop since 2009. And I was like, I just need to hit the brakes and look around for a little bit. And then I came back and I was like, hi, guys, I'm gay now. And they were like, ah, yes, that makes sense. But sometimes you have to hit the brake in life in order to take the space, look around you, take stock of things, make decisions. And ultimately, when you come back, it'll be healthier and happier.

P: And we didn't know this Dan and Phil thing- Like when we came back, we're like, do you guys still want these videos? And then, like, the reaction has been incredible, like, so many people watching the gaming channel. D: To the extent people thought Dan and Phil, you need to go on a tour right now. You need to get your butts all the way to Auckland (laughs) because I've been waiting for you to come back and we need to have a good night together. P: Yeah.

I: Yeah. And get out from behind the screen and kind of just interact face to face. You two are hugely into gaming and it's been quite a good pivot from YouTube to kind of try and be more successful, I guess. It's incredible how popular you are on these platforms. Can you tell me a little bit more about how that works and how you kind of make a career out of this?

D: Well, Phil's been doing it so long that he did it before YouTube could even monetize videos. He was doing it purely out of boredom and passion for the craft. P: Yeah. D: That's terrifying.

P: I'm a YouTube dinosaur. But I think with the gaming, we've got a Sims series, which we've got- how many episodes now? Like- D: Oh a hundred or so. P: A hundred episodes. And I think people follow along the journey with us playing the games. And it's like, I guess it's like when you were a little kid and you're watching your big brother play a video game. It's kind of that thing. You're just like watching along, having the bants. So I think what the people come to our videos for is more of the personality and us having a laugh rather than getting really into gaming.

D: Yeah! I mean, gaming is just the topic. It's like any type of TV or radio talk or commentary show, it could be about football, it could be about music and pop culture or the news, you just want to see people that you relate to, that you find entertaining, doing something that you find interesting and then you pair it together, and for lots of people they go: yeah! This is what i want to see P: Yeah.

I: Phil, how have you noticed the kind of gaming culture change over time, and was that something you're a little bit hesitant about, you know coming out as gay in that kind of domain, because we know generally that - you know, over the last decade-

D: The gamers are the worst demographic in the world absolutely- I: Things have changed. D: We’ve been on the internet since the ancient times and it's hard to say, like in a way obviously the internet these days, it feels like it's more terrible than ever, but in a sense it is a lot less toxic and a lot more wholesome and inclusive than it used to be.

P: Yeah, I'd say coming out on the internet is always going to be a scary thing, when you're saying that and being kind of vulnerable in front of so many people. Thankfully we've got such a great audience that the reaction was incredible, I would say.

D: And i think that what's great about the internet is that people can find their own communities, so even within spaces that you might think, oh they're dominated by this type of person – any subculture, any type of person that feels like, I want this space for myself – you can find it. If you want to order you know a ping pong club for girls with ginger hair called Susan that drink wine on a Tuesday, you can start that discord server, people will love it.

I: And I think it's nice to have those pocket on the internet where people can feel safe and can kind of commune together. You will be playing the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, on December the 19th. What about people who didn't grow up watching you, who think you might be quite funny right now. Like what could you say to them if you want them to come to your show?

P: I'd say, well luckily for you we have got a whole section of the start of the show which is the complete history of Dan and Phil in five minutes, so if you might have just slightly known who we are and be like, what's going on with these guys? We're going to catch you up in no time.

D: A lot of people drag their boyfriends, their sisters, sometimes like that mum that you need to drive you so you can have a couple of cocktails to the show, and we're like we need something for these people, we're going to catch them up, we're going to get them on our side, and if we have a spot- there's like a grumpy dad folding his arms in row three, I'm like, I'm going to crack you P: but- D: My mission for the night is you're going to be belly laughing by the end. P: They're always smiling at the end though. That's the thing, we do. We do crack them.

I: Oh and this will be your last show before a well deserved Christmas break, then back into the new year. What will Christmas look like for both of you?

P: I mean we're going to try and get home for Christmas. D: Yeah, yeah the question is, can we get back from Auckland on the 21st of December? P: Twenty- yeah. I think it's gonna be a challenge to get all the way home, but then I'm probably just gonna be asleep on my mum's sofa with jet lag, hoping to drink a lot of cocktails. D: I'm gonna slip into a nice coma.

I: I'm really glad to hear you are back together again.

D: Oh, well thank you! We really, really appreciate it and we're so excited for the show, so thank you New Zealand. P: Nice speaking to you!

@dnp-described

[fuckingmeteors]

I have tried to make a transcript of the Radio Adelaide interview! There are a few places where I'm not quite sure what they're saying (especially when they speak over each other), so if anyone is willing to take a look at it, I would gladly welcome corrections! (Also I hope the formatting isn't too shit. If it is, I apologize.)

[introduction]

Host/Interviewer:

I spoke with Dan and Phil, who are on their Terrible Influence tour at the moment. I think they’re in Sydney right now, even though I had to call them on the phone via England [laughter]. They’re gonna be on at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre next week, Monday the 16th of December. And these guys, they’re British Internet Youtube radio hosts, they’re critics of games, they’re book authors, Dan and Phil, they’re currently in Australia having their Terrible Influence tour which lands in Adelaide at the entertainment Centre next week and they’re attempting to “take back what the internet took from them”!

So, it’s allegedly a screamingly hilarious live stage show. I have no doubt that it is hilarious. They’re “older, gayer and Phil’s gone blonde” evidently, and nothing is off limits. Now I was brought to their, uh, to the attention of them by some younger folk, who asked me to ask them certain questions, throw some sort of slightly strange questions at them, and I haven’t got time to include all of those questions and also I had a call after the interview from one of the duo suggesting that “oh, you might get trolled if you ask a question like that and people misinterpret it”, because I was asking, uh… I believe they’ve become a couple, I’m not sure if they’ve gotten married, but they may have gotten married or they may just be, like, going steady, but they’re a terrific pair of comic lads, in the vein of Kenny Everett, sort of. They don’t have a TV show as such, they were both youtubers, which means that they had a little bit of youtube shows, and then they started guesting on each other’s show, and then they eventually started doing stuff together. Very interesting lads. And I just really want to play the interview now.

[interview starts playing]

Dan: And I’ve got a mullet now that I’m in Australia because apparently that’s what people do. (?) Australians have more fun and I wanted to appropriate a little bit of the culture while we’re here doing the show.

Phil: I think it’s more of a micro-mullet, Dan, though, you know, you haven’t gotten to full mullet, it’s more of a micro-mullet.

D: It’s a mullet without the T, it’s just a mull-è.

I: Mull-è hahaha, all right! Just with that sort of…

P: Yeah, without the T, yeah!

I: That sort of hard E at the end.

P: Yes.

I: How has your tour been going so far, gentlemen?

D: It’s been amazing to be in Australia, no offense, we loved having a great time in America, but we’re very happy to be in Australia. Although, I know it’s summer, why is it so hot? Nowhere on Earth should be this warm.

I: You haven’t reached Adelaide yet, have you?

D: No, God, don’t tell me it’s warmer!

I: Yes, Yes, we’re in the middle of a very dry, arid area, very isolated, a long way from anywhere, but there’s only about maybe thirty of forty tickets left at your gig here?

D: We’re happy for the people of Adelaide, they’re, you know, they’re out here, in that dry, arid desert, and there’s nothing to do but come to the Dan and Phil show, and we love them for that, they’re all making responsible financial decisions, so we’re very grateful for all the people that are coming to the show.

P: And if there’s forty people listening, come hang out with us, it’s gonna be a fun time!

D: Yeah, what else are you doing on that night?

P: We’re gonna be pumping the aircon out.

D: Yeah, just come to have somewhere cool to sit in the theatre, you know what I mean?

I: Are you collecting things from your hangouts that you’re gonna discuss at the next show? Like before a show, if people hang out with you, give you a piece of art, or a little letter, a note, something like that, do you then discuss it in front of the (?)

D: Oh, a big trendy thing these days, yeah Taylor Swift had started this trend of the bracelets that people, that have things on (?), so people would make these bracelets that say “Dan” or “Phil” in beads, and the other day someone gave me a bracelet that said “vegemite" on it.

I: Hahaha

D: And I was like “what the heck?” and they said, “you don’t understand, this is incredibly culturally important, so I was like “okay, thank you, I will cherish the vegemite bracelet”.

P: I got one that said “koala daddy”, I’m not sure what that meant, but (?)

D: (?)

I: Koala daddy?

P: Yep, I think that’s what they were calling me!

I: Have you actually dipped your tongue into any vegemite as yet?

P: Uh, I would have to say it was one of the most horrific experiences of my life, I’m sorry! [Dan laughter in the background]

D: What, Phil, you don’t like a yeast-based condiment?

P: No.

D: How dare you?

P: Dan loved it, though. (?)

D: I’m just a yeasty kind of guy.

I: Yeah, it’s kind of up there with marmite, isn’t it?

D: It is, but I only eat sweet things, so I couldn’t handle it, but Dan was eating a second portion of toast this morning, and loved it.

I: Yeah, it’s good for you!

P: And last time we were in Adelaide we did a vlog where we explored the town, didn’t we? We got Tim Tams, we did a Tim Tam Slam.

D: Yeah. The national sport.

I: The national sport, sucking coffee through a Tim Tam.

D: Yeah, yeah.

P: I can get down with that.

I: Oh yeah, it’s a lot of fun to do! You realise that our Premier is the one who started the ball rolling with the social media ban for under sixteen-year-olds? You’re lucky that you’re here now at this stage of your career rather than at the beginning of your career, because there’s a lot of young people who have grown with you, who will be able to come and see your show!

D: Yeah, absolutely.

I: Are you relying on them sort of moving forward with you?

D: People have been with us for a long time and people tell us some things that are very disturbing.

P: Yeah, we’ve had some people meet us that are like, “I’ve watched you ten years ago, still watching you now, and I’ve got a whole child now!” and it’s like, what, what is happening!

I: Hahaha!

P: Time isn’t real!

I: It’s kind of a historic moment, you’re probably the first English lads to have linked in to youtube, and the Internet, and gone off the way that you have.

D: Nah(?), we were just… well, we come from an early generation, Phil has been doing it for so long that you couldn’t even make a career off youtube yet, there was no monetization, he was just doing it out of boredom, that’s how terrifying it is.

P: Yeah, I’m a youtube dinosaur, so yeah, I think definitely(?) I was one of the first ones to do it, but it’s crazy that we’re still doing it now, 15 years later.

I: It’s basically become a career for you, hasn’t it?

D: Absolutely, and none of it was planned, it’s been a constant runaway train since day one, and the emergency brake stopped a long time ago.

I: What kind of experiences are you getting to have in your down time while you’re in Australia this time around?

D: Well, I wanted to go to the beach, and then Phil said there’s a high chance you’re gonna get eaten by a shark, and I was like, “a high chance? I don’t know about that” and then we asked a guy and he was like “oh no, they’re out there, I see them every week”; so… [laughter]

P: I am hoping to look into the eyes of a wombat and have an emotional connection.

D: A  Deep spiritual moment? Okay.

P: My favourite animal.

I: A wombat?

P: Yeah, I love a wombat!

D: Underrated.

I: Do you like the hairy-nosed wombat, or just the plain old brown one?

P: I’m not sure of the difference, maybe I should find that out, maybe that’s gonna be my quest.

D: (?) Make a decision.

I: Yeah, if you come face to face or nose to nose with a hairy-nosed wombat, he’s more likely to roll over and let you cuddle his tummy. The other ones have got a (?) and they’re a little bit more aggressive.

D: Okay. Sounds like me.

I: [laughter]. Have the audiences been laughing at all the right spots so far?

D: Definitely, and they’ve been laughing at all the inappropriate spots where they’re not supposed to, as well. But we’ll take it. You either have an audience that laughs all the time even at the inappropriate moments, or a quiet one. And I don’t want a quiet one.

P: Also, a good thing about our show is that we kind of give everyone a recap of everything that’s happened in the last fifteen years, so if you’re like, “oh, I used to watch Dan and Phil a while ago”, you can still come along and you’ll get right up to speed.

D: Oh, we know that people are dragging their husbands, their mothers, their older sisters to the show, and these people are like, “what the heck is going on?”, so don’t worry, we cover the base.

I: Sounds good to me! I hope you have a fantastic time in Adelaide, and you continue to enjoy yourselves.

D: Thank you!

I: Ride the wave, don’t worry about sharks.

P: Excellent, well, yeah, we’re looking forward to it. Thanks, nice to speak to you!

I: You too, cheers lads! Dan and Phil…

P: Cheers!

D: Bye!

I: They’ll be at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre next Monday, uh, coming. On the 16th. So, if you are keen to see them do their thing live on stage, go and join the masses that have already bought their tickets, get in while you can.

[astradyke]

you've gotta be starving for it

[AO3 LINK]

Strange isn’t helpful. Dan has lived with himself for thirty-three years, and has been in therapy for several of those. He should know the precise words for something like this. It’s a very clunky feeling, is all he can identify. Like heaves and heaves of asphalt filling up a pavement square. Like a body fresh from the burn of quicksand. He’s spilling into something, and he’s entirely too large to heave himself out of it. It’s a sudden, useless feeling that should not inhabit his body after a satisfying orgasm. But, historically, Dan has felt a lot of unhelpful things after an orgasm. (there is a matter unresolved, sleeping in the underbelly of daniel howell's mind. after the terrible influence tour, and a haircut done in australia, that something begins to unravel. in other words: daniel howell, and the wild beast of gender.)

new fic just dropped! thank you as always to @bassband for all the help brainstorming & editing this piece. i hope you all like it <3

[cemeterygrace]

AND WE HAVE NO PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE????

PRAY TELL SISTER DANIEL IN DOCS????????????

[phanfictioncatalogue]

2024 Era (3) Masterlist

part one, part two

alpaca (ao3) - ShiwiSins (IetjeSiobhan)

Summary: It’s just a joke, a bit of fun, this lack of explicit confirmation they have going on, except for the fact that right now, it feels less like a joke and more like he still has to flinch away from some of the touches he wants.

Or: They're in Sydney when they decide to come out.

Bear Mask (ao3) - VendettaWound

Summary: While Dan does think Phil's Freddy Fazbear costume is ridiculous, he also finds it very endearing.

breakfast (florida edition) (ao3) - blossomsphan

Summary: dan orders "grains and fresh fruit".

clay dog (ao3) - ShiwiSins (IetjeSiobhan)

Summary: “We could get married while we’re here,” he finds himself saying. “Australia would be a nice place for it. We could honeymoon in Iceland, after the tour.”

haircut (ao3) - ShiwiSins (IetjeSiobhan)

Summary: Dan gets a new haircut. Phil approves.

Holidays and Other Seismic Activities (ao3) - PyroStormIsBae

Summary: When Phil was unconscious Dan wanted to wrap him in his arms, tell him, I’ll be your blood flow, your diagnosis, I’ll be your hedonism. You are the greatest consequence to ever happen to me. But Phil didn’t happen to people. He didn’t inflict himself. He wouldn’t know how to cause damage if it ground itself into his ribs. Not like the earthquake that was Dan Howell.

Or: Daniel Howell never really learned how to relax. (Set during their vacation to Turkey)

Ineffable (ao3) - philsbignaturals

Summary: In which Phil gets real horny for Dan in the Howley outfit

make me feel (ao3) - blossomsphan

Summary: dan discovers a new use for his walk-in closet

Mine (ao3) - CloudyPhan

Summary: dan reminisces on his life so far in a quiet moment on the tour bus (mine by the 1975)

Mini Christmas (ao3) - cosmic_angel_writes

Summary: Dan and Phil’s mini Christmas

2024

moments of envy (ao3) - starlightphil (adreaminthedark)

Summary: Dan’s never wanted anything as badly as he’s wanted Phil, so of course he’s had his moments of envy over the years. A ficlet written for anonymous on Tumblr who asked: "Dan trying to deliberately make Phil jealous (for whatever reason) and then immediately regretting it?"

no but seriously imagine it (ao3) - natigail

Summary: It has been 15 years since Dan and Phil met. They wake up on the Terrible Influence tour bus in Las Vegas on their anniversary with plans to see My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy later that day.

no machine (ao3) - blossomsphan

Summary: dip and pip return home after the american leg of the tit tour. just a soft, loving fluffy thing <3

room service (ao3) - possumdnp

Summary: Those tall British guys staying in room 304 are so strange. They seem to have decorated their whole hotel room for Halloween. And why is one of them now talking in a fake American accent?

(An outside POV from the perspective of the poor hotel staff member who has to deal with Dan and Phil while they’re filming Spooky Week videos.)

sappy (ai3) - imstillemO

Summary: they fuck on the tour bus. that is all it is, with hints of sentimentality.

somebody said you’re an owl (ao3) - possumdnp

Summary: Phil hears an owl outside the house. (Or does he?)

A fic about relaxing summer nights and birdwatching with the person you love.

Still With You (ao3) - singlelogbridges

Summary: On holiday, pent up emotions from Phil's recent hospital stay surface.

[goldenpinof]

danielhowell and amazingphil: we are coming to heal your inner child and take back what the internet took from us DAN AND PHIL TERRIBLE INFLUENCE TOUR TICKETS ON SALE NOW! danandphiltour.com coming to: USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, U.K, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Denmark + Poland (additional info about tickets and new shows can be found on the site) Produced by @/sarahhhftw Directed by @/murrydeaves Poster art by @/divine.gnosis Sound by @/luke_shadrick CRT Programming by @/blesselska

[phandomausnz]

SELLING DAN AND PHIL MEET AND GREET FOR TERRIBLE INFLUENCE TOUR FOR SYDNEY, AUS NIGHT 2

Hi! Cutiejea here. Long time no speak.

Reactivating my fan account to announce that I'm selling my dan and phil meet & greet ticket for Sydney Australia.

Its for Night 2 (Dec 10) and will transfer the ticket via Ticketmaster.

Selling for $300 AUD (FIRM). If you're interested, feel free to dm my main @cutiejea.

[terribleinfluence-tour]

terrible influence preshow sydney night 1!!

[radlymona]

Several British people have responded to that Tumblr to inform you, in depth, with legal and historical references, why you are confidently and completely incorrectly talking absolute nonsense about British culture. No, it’s not the same just because Australia is also an Anglophone country. Would you blindly claim France and the Ivory Coast have exactly the same cultural contexts? Take the loss gracefully.

I do not take anons who go on another person's tumblr and woefully misinterpret what I say as an "in-depth" reply to me.

Now considering, the weird amount of people who have zeroed in on this matter (like seriously of all things??) you would think I would have posted a poorly written thesis on the country's political party system.

What I actually said: There was and still is a severe bullying problem at British elite schooling institutions. Man, what an incorrect statement. Since you want references, there are many, many, many, many news articles that refrence this culture of bullying and abuse. They often have to write very covertly and include it as part of a bigger picture of terrible elite boarding school culture. Which is quite frankly, what JKR is commentating on as a whole. It also doesn't take a genius to know that bullying is still likely being underreported/glossed over/downplayed, especially when you consider the importance of boarding schools -> prestige universities -> prestige role in society, pipeline. I.e. you'd rather not be kicked out of old alumni groups, for the prestige and doorways it opens, by spilling the school's secrets on the front page news.

Now, when I mentioned hazing/fagging (and as I went on to explain in a second response that no one has responded to), I so obviously meant that with such severe practices still in place in the 1970s (even if the general public was turning against them), the equivalent of magical pantsing would not be seen as particularly severe or abnormal. At least nowhere near to the extent that it's been painted as.

And for god's sake, anybody could have commented on such a basic fact about what goes on in the British schooling system. You don't have to live there to know about the elite boarding culture (we have a very similar boys' school culture, because gee I wonder what influenced it?). I mentioned being from Australia because it kept brought up as if we were on two different planets, rather than two very culturally close countries. And I'm sorry, as long as the literal king of england is touring the country and we're having a revitalised national debate about our sovereignty and the potential republicanism, I do not give af about making a few broad comments about very a similar culture. As long as Australian senators (who represent our population) are forced to make a fucking oaths to a monarchy on the other side of the planet, I'm well within my rights to make a few broad comments.

[beatricebat]

I wrote a bunch of headcanons about Attack on Titan characters as modern wrestlers. This is the last full one.

Currently making his way to the ring is…

Reiner Braun

Background

Ex-college football player. Missed the draft due to an off-season injury. Got offered a WWE tryout a year later.

The Golden Boy

Oh, Reiner. Poor Reiner. You know how I said Eren got given all the ring time and mentorship he wanted to develop? Reiner…did not.

Reiner already had a lot of things that you can’t teach when he joined - the size, the looks, the athleticism, and the charisma. He’s even pretty good at cutting promos - I’m gonna HC him as having been captain of the debate team in high school and college too, because canon Reiner is a lot smarter than people give him credit for.

ANYWAY, the point is: Reiner came in as almost the complete package, but no one ever helped him develop that last 10% to make him a real star.

I also think Reiner was hired a couple of years before Eren and Jean. I briefly alluded to some Zeke drama before, and I feel like Reiner was probably Zeke’s on-screen bodyguard while the off-screen drama was happening. Even though it had nothing to do with him, it’s coloured his reputation in the eyes of his management, so they’re always reluctant to push him.

Reiner still gets a lot of big storylines, and he’s the go-to first challenger for the title whenever a new champion arises.

Reiner secretly dreams of leaving WWE and doing a tour of Japan and going on to the indies. He always gets pressured into re-signing another WWE contract by his mother, who is also his manager (fuck you, Karina).

Reiner also has a huge love of joshi wrestling. Most people who know this assume Reiner is just into Japanese women, but it’s not that at all. Someone once explained how much joshi influenced the rest of wrestling, and showed him a Manami Toyota match, and Reiner was hooked.

(Also I think that ‘someone’ was Sasha Banks. I feel a bit weird about that because I haven’t really had my AU AOT wrestlers interact with any real wrestlers apart from this - like there’s references and influences, but I haven’t actually pulled anyone real fully into it. That said, Sasha/Mercedes is a big weeb in real life who does love AOT too, so I hope she wouldn’t mind me making her best friends with Reiner in my little headcanons. Anyway - Reiner and Sasha bonded over joshi, they were great pals, and Reiner misses her terribly now she’s left WWE.)

Reiner wrestles as Oggy Prince. It’s a terrible name, based on people trying to come up with something around ‘golden boy’ and royalty because of his real name and his looks. People have gotten used to it now though. They started with ‘Augustus’ which was obviously awful, then it was ‘Auggie’ as a shortened version, then ‘Oggy’ as the easy-to-spell one.

Reiner is now insanely over in Australia, because they can do the Oggy Oggy Oggy/oi-oi-oi chant for him. It’s spread a little bit to the US too, but has really caught on big in the UK. It always cheers Reiner up to hear it, especially if he’s overseas and missing home.

Reiner wears long trunks which are yellow and red and kinda looked like the Armoured.

Reiner’s signature moves are German suplexes, because obviously the guy who looks like Brock Lesnar has to adopt Lesnar’s move set too.

Reiner’s finishing move is a gorilla press powerslam. As a trainee, Reiner got given a vague King Kong theme because Ymir kept calling him a gorilla, and that also fit his name. The gorilla press powerslam is the only thing that survived that. It’s called the Crown Jewel. (In my AU, the sports washing Saudi PPV isn’t called something else, it just doesn’t exist.)

[hgghgfd]

American Music Press, Issue #22

Interviewed by Marc Gander Sent by zorg@alois.icon.palo-alto.med.va.gov

Whenever I see Nick Cave perform live I cannot help but equate him to some crazed Southern evangelist. His appearance, tall and wiry with a penchant for black suits and his mannerisms, arms and eyes raised heavenward as if delivering a sermon, add credence to this analogy and it appears that it is not entirely accidental on Cave's behalf that such a comparison should be drawn. He has a well documented fascination with with both the bible and the South which he admits 'got a bit out of hand at one period.' The U.S., however, both South and North, has not reciprocated this fascination and, although Cave has an extremely loyal and devoted following here, he has never achieved widespread popularity. Cave is undeniably irritated by this atheistic sub-continent's refusal to heed his calling and, although he exhibits an unyielding faith in his work he is also exasperated by the masses' failure to realize his genius.

"We've just gone out on our own so many times," Cave explains, "and it's just been the same situation time after time and, eventually we just said, 'fuck it we're it not gonna do that anymore, we won't tour America anymore,' basically that was our decision when the Lollapalooza thing came up, which was a significantly different situation, and we decided that we'd do that, I mean I'm only interested in doing something if there's some development there or at least it's different from the last time we did it and that wasn't happening in America at all." At this point Cave's voice changes, from a matter of fact tone he takes an air of disgust and indignation, his slight Australian accent becoming more pronounced. "We kept releasing a record, we kept doing the same gigs, same amount of people and it was just...," he trails off, searching for the right words, "very repetitious," he concludes, but his intonation betrays the fact that that his feelings are actually somewhat stronger. This seeming lack of progress is understandably frustrating for Cave, but to write-off his fans in an entire country and refuse to perform for them simply because there are not enough of them seems a little callous, never the less, playing the Lollapalooza festival will give Cave the exposure that he seeks. Whether America's Live 105 [a San Francisco radio station -EW] kids will take his brand of twisted blues to their hearts remains to be seen, however. His music, after all, is a far cry from the Seattle Grunge sound of British indie pop which comprises the majority of the 'alternative scene' today and it is not instantly accessible, but Cave has always been more interested in being innovative and original than in commerciability.

Cave's musical career began in the late '70s in his native Australia where he fronted The Boys Next Door, a fairly mediocre punk-pop band. The Boys Next Door released an album Door Door (notable for the song 'Shivers,' which features in the excellent Dogs in Space movie.) After the release of Door Door, they promptly changed their name to the Birthday Party (after the Harold Pinter play) and began to play some of the most raucous and influential music to come out of the post-punk scene in the early-eighties. I asked Cave what prompted this dramatic change of direction.

"Well, you're quite right about The Boys Next Door,' Cave says, "but in fact, The Boys Next Door were a little more than a standard post-punk group - we just put out a really bad record. In fact we were a lot more direct and a lot more aggressive than that record makes us out to be. We were just saddled with a complete dickhead who did the production on the record and turned into the kind of powerpop record, which was what he wanted us to do and we were young enough and stupid enough to allow that to happen. But, having said that, we were a terrible band as well and writing a lot of crappy songs. We were very influenced by a lot of English and American groups that kind of filtered over to Australia. And, I think what happened was, we eventually left Australia and went to England and lived there for a while, and saw what these groups were really like and got rid of our frustration for other bands and started to create our own kind of music, as an alternative to that kind of music."

He goes on to say, "Anything that came from England was kind of very mysterious to us and seemed to be imbued with this incredible power and it was really getting over to England and seeing what it was like first hand, and how disappointed we were with it and how disappointed we were with England as a country. We thought it was going to be kind of, the answer to all our prayers and all of our problems. Consequently we ended up making very angry music, we were just pissed off about everything."

The Birthday Party released two excellent LPs, Prayers on Fire and Junk Yard, before splitting up in 1983. Soon after Cave formed the Bad Seeds and released the debut album From Her to Eternity. Since then Cave has been nothing, if not industrious, releasing a total of nine albums, a book of poetry (King Ink Black Spring Press), a novel (And the Ass Saw the Angel - Harper Collins) and has contributed to the soundtracks of, and acted in, several movies; notably Wim Wender's Wings of Desire and, more recently, the Australian Ghosts of the Civil Dead, in which Cave plays a prisoner. I mention to Cave that I have not seen Ghost playing, even at the art cinemas here, and it is not available on video either. This seems strange for a film which received critical acclaim both in Australia and Europe, Cave's appearance alone would, one would think, guarantee an audience. 'It's never been screened there [America],' Cave says. 'Probably because it doesn't have happy ending.'

It is odd that Ghosts was not screened here, when Romper Stomper, an Australian film about Skinheads, which is undeniably violent and controversial, recently enjoyed moderate success, on a limited release in the US. 'I think Ghosts blows Romper Stomper out of the water really,' Cave says. 'I mean Romper Stomper is kind of enjoyable, I guess, I never thought it was a particularly good movie. Ghosts of the Civil Dead is a truly brutal movie and I don't know why [it hasn't been released.] It's very anti-American, it's very un-American in a way, possibly that had something to do with it. I don't think people could find anyone who was willing to show it, really it's not even that violent, it's just the point that it is trying to make as a film is quite a brutal observation of the world and the way power works.'

Cave also had a hand in writing the screenplay for Ghosts, 'it went through about eight different drafts and I worked on the first three or so,' he says. 'I don't know if I did it particularly well, I think I helped invent some of the characters and some of the scenes of mine, but at the same time, I was not as involved in the film as the producer and the director, who did a lot more research on the film than I did. So basically, my contribution was more in character development and stuff like that, I would say. It's by no means my script, I enjoyed doing it. When I wrote that script I was kind of practicing to write my novel really.'

Cave's novel is something very close to his heart, he even goes so far to say that, in the future, he could foresee himself giving up music in favor of writing. Not surprisingly, when you listen to Cave's lyrics it is obvious that he has a deep love for language. His novel And the Ass Saw the Angel is very intelligent, incredibly twisted and very dark. It is not by any means easy reading; the premise is that of a deaf-mute, born of inbred, hill-billy parents living amongst a strange religious cult in the American deep south. He is slowly sinking in quicksand and as he sinks he is remembering his short and brutal life. To find out more you will have to buy the book, but suffice to say it is not something that will put you in a happy, uplifted mood. Keep a dictionary handy too, as Cave's vocabulary is phenomenally expansive.

Cave says of And the Ass.... 'I think the book that inspired that book the most was the Bible, particularly in the rhythms of the language and the way words are used and so on, definitely it was the Bible, which I read a lot... it's a very exciting book for me. I think that particularly the New Testament, and the life of Christ, is an amazing and mysterious story, very beautiful, very seductive.' Although writing is something that Cave is tending to do more of he is not, at present, writing a new novel. 'I want to write another one,' he says, 'I'm just gonna need to find the time to do it really. I would just have to put a stop to all this music stuff for a while, for a considerable amount of time which I don't necessarily think is a bad idea, it's just very difficult to do that at the moment.'

At present, music remains Cave's primary artistic outlet, 'I really enjoy making records,' he enthuses. 'I love writing songs and I enjoy the fact that I'm getting better at it and I can see that it is actually leading somewhere and I don't really want to terminate that until I see where it ends up.'

Cave's pen-ultimate studio album, Henry's Dream was an epic. A collection of short stories set to music, at times haunting and at times savage it was, also arguably his most commercial record to date. Cave, however, was not entirely happy with the way Henry's Dream turned out, 'I just don't like the production on it, that's all. I think the songs are great and the initial concept of the record, if it had of been the way we wanted it to be, it would have been a masterpiece. As it is it's just a good rock record, y'know, and that's not what we wanted it to be. I wanted to make an extremely violent aggressive record basically only using acoustic instruments. A really nasty, brutal record. Unfortunately we got a producer who wasn't really compatible with that train of thought and who, I thought, turned it into a rock record and that was the last thing we wanted to make.'

Hot on the heels of Henry's Dream Cave released Live Seeds, a collection of songs recorded live in Europe and Australia throughout 1993. Live Seeds features many of the songs from Henry's Dream and was, perhaps, an attempt by Cave to make available recordings of the songs on Henry's Dream without the 'rock' production. Live Seeds is an excellent live album and includes the best version of The Mercy Seat in my opinion, which Cave has yet released.

Nick Cave's latest album Let Love In, is somewhat of a return to his earlier style, 'production wise Let Love In is great,' says Cave, 'It's not the record we wanted to make with Henry's Dream, we didn't try to make that record again, it's a completely different sort of record, it's very good. It's got a very full production on it, but I'm just keeping the ideas I had for Henry's Dream in the back of my head, and I'll make that record one day properly.'

'I'm quite happy with my life at the moment,' Cave tells me and this is reflected in Let Love In, which is thematically, one of the most positive records he has released. Part of the reason is his marriage, which he gushingly describes as 'good,' and his young son, for whom he wrote the song Papa Won't Leave You, Henry on Henry's Dream. He also recently overcame an eight year addiction to heroin, I asked him if 'cleaning up' had affected his creative processes.

'Well, I don't know,' he replies, 'I can't really tell, when I was taking a lot of drugs I didn't look back at what I did, I just pressed on and took drugs and wrote,' he pauses, 'I don't know, I can't remember!' Well, drugs will do that to you, so remember kids - just say no! [Yes, he really wrote that in the article :-) EW]

The Lollapalooza tour embarks this month and will be at the Shoreline Amphitheater [Mountain View, CA- EW] on the 27th and 28th of August. [Nick played a show at the Warfield, SF on 26 August- EW] Whether this will afford Cave with the recognition he desires and deserves remains to be seen. It seems that in this topsy-turvy world of rock and roll intelligence and originality are generally usurped by a pretty face and a catchy three chord tune. Cave will be backed by his band, the Bad Seeds, on the tour although his longtime guitarist (and the leading force behind German noise merchants Einstuerzenden Neubauten) Blixa Bargeld will be unavailable for some concerts (possibly due to his long running problem with ingrowing cheeks) and will be replaced by Gallon Drunk's James Johnson. If you can't make it to Lollapalooza but want to get a feel for life on the road with Nick Cave, you can always rent a copy of Uli M. Schuppel's film The Road to God Knows Where, which documents Cave's 1990 tour of America. The film is shot in B & W and shows the harsh reality of life on the road, with no attempt to add glitz and glamour, 'I thought it was good, it was a really funny film you know,' Cave says, 'I thought it was a pretty accurate account of what life on the road on that tour was like, I mean, all [of our] tours aren't like that. I'd just come out of clinic for a start when I did that tour, so I was just sitting there terrified by everything, basically and everyone else was on their best behavior, y'know, but at the same time it was kind of interesting,' he goes on to say, 'It's a boring film, I like the idea that the audience who watches that has to sit through a couple of hours of what it's like for us.'

He isn't kidding when he says it is boring, direction is very minimal, in fact, most of the time one gets the impression that somebody left a camera running accidentally in the corner of a room, so I would only recommend it to very devoted fans, though some marketing genius did splice 5 full color videos at the end of the movie so it's worth renting just for that reason, for a straight live performance Live at the Paradiso, filmed in Australia and Europe on his 1991 tour, is a better bet.

After the Lollapalooza tour Cave is planning to do the soundtrack for a film called Jungle of Love, which he describes as 'a sort of violent melodrama set in Papua New Guinea.' [This was later titled 'To Have and To Hold'] He is also hoping to get more acting parts, 'I would really like to do more of that [acting]' he say, 'I get a lot of scripts but I haven't found anything that I am prepared to be involved in... I'm not in a situation where I have to grasp at roles, if something I like comes along I'll do it, but until then I'd just as soon wait.'

Whichever avenue Cave eventually decides to pursue, whether it be music, films or writing it is certain that he will inject his own humorously twisted style and brutal intelligence into that field. His ability to traverse many artistic genres and his unwillingness to compromise has kept him on the cutting edge in everything that he attempts and has afforded him with a longevity seldom seen in 'indie' music circles. Hopefully playing the Lollapalooza festival will increase his popularity in the U.S. enough to encourage him to tour here again, if not it will be our loss as he is one of the most vital and important entertainers currently performing.

[andrewlloydwebber]

@jampharos asked what i would do to fix the 25th anniversary phantom production at royal albert hall.

hal prince did not direct phantom 25, but it was heavily based on his direction. i don't know why this was the case, it appears to not be a scheduling conflict, but instead probably to save money on royalties. instead, they got laurence connor, notorious hack director of the hit musical bad cinderella, to impose his own vision on it. laurence was formerly resident director of phantom west end, where he was quite controversial for introducing "the music of the night is a literal music lesson" and "christine considers suicide before all i ask of you", ideas that would carry over into his UK tour premiering the following year. this is the same production that would later be presented across north america, and in australia and vienna. i am not opposed to non replicas on paper, but i would rather the producers start from scratch when choosing a creative team, instead of hiring former associates and assistants of the original creative team. this weird half-baked, hal prince-lite production did not work for me.

the insistence of hiring 3 LND cast members and also introducing LND-reminiscent blocking choices, like a rough and aggressive jerk of a raoul, christine's vanity facing the audience, belty and non-ballerina meg, sierra directed to play a much more passive and phantom-preferring christine than she would later play on broadway... barf

the venue!!!!! sorry, i know that the royal albert hall is a prestigious venue that holds 5,554 people which meant more people could go in person. BUT this meant that her majesty's theatre, where the musical had actually played for 25 years, was closed! also, the limitations of the venue meant that the set consisted of ugly LED projection screens, 2 staircases, a few select actual replica furniture like the managers table and chair, the organ, a random couch not designed by maria, and a non crashing chandelier also not designed by maria and not looking anything like the palais garnier chandelier. so no mirror bride, no il muto bed, no hannibal elephant, no GOLDEN ANGEL, no DRAPES and physical backdrops, no ornate masquerade staircase, the mirror is another LED screen, and did i mention that the CHANDELIER DOES NOT RISE OR FALL. the mysterious, shadowy, suggestive, jewel box world that maria created is all replaced with garish LED screens. not many people realize that while phantom does have elaborate and ornate set pieces, they're using sparingly. you'll have one or two big set pieces, then drapes and backdrops and lighting allow your brain to fill in the rest of the manager's office or graveyard or rooftop. it's not always literal. meanwhile the uk restaged tour fills the phantom's lair with a bunch of random crap reminiscent of the london production of LND. so i guess the phantom 25 sets are minimalist, but the stupid ugly LED screens take you out of the moment every single time.

hadley fraser had no right to play raoul. sorry!!! i know he's a talented musical theatre actor, but he was never in the show before this and it seems like his casting was influenced by his friendship with ramin karimloo (red flag). so he didn't have a hal prince-direction basis to draw his portrayal from and instead had to learn from the hack director. i'm sure he saw LND london too. this guy literally was afraid he was going to forget the lyrics and all his misinformed stans think it's funny. sorry but he was so aggressive and grouchy and eye-rolly, he tried and failed to give raoul an arc, this post is already too long but i could write another post on how annoying and terrible his raoul is. please, all of his fans should know better.

to summarize: if it had to take place at a larger venue, it should have been one equipped to have a proper production. the cast should have been completely different and drawn more on international cast members besides sierra. and laurence connor should have stayed far, far away.

the phantom 2004 movie >>> 25th anniversary concert

at least the 2004 movie tried to do its own thing and wasn’t a cheapened bastardization of Hal prince’s vision