Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Concerning Beatle Bob

Those of you who were at our show at Off Broadway (or our Riverfront Times show last year, or one of the bigger Cicero's shows) know that we have been pretty vocal about our issues with Beatle Bob. It seems like the right time to address it as publically as we can, because it's Christmas and that's what the baby Jesus would want us to do.

So who is Beatle Bob? Anybody from St. Louis probably knows but outsiders do not. He's a goofy looking dude in his late 40's with a mop top who wears a suit and attends at least one (1) rock show every day in town. You can see him dancing in this otherwise unfortunate video from the RFT fest in 2006. People generally like him, because he comes and dances at these shows and usually he's at whatever the biggest show happening in St. Louis is. There's a saying that "if Beatle Bob is there, you're at the right show."

So what's the problem? Well, he always gets into shows free, always shows up late, and always pushes his way past everybody to get to the front right by the stage. This is extra annoying because we always try to make our shows as comfortable as possible for us and for the people that like our band. Sometimes we're fortunate enough to draw larger crowds at our shows and i've seen people get to the front a band or two early to ensure a good spot. This is especially unfair to them, not to mention people that are shorter and can't see over his 6'2" frame.

The other issue is that I have personally seen him steal things from show patrons and from bands. Once, i went to a show, saw him walk to the back of the venue where some kid had set his jacket, drape it over his arm, and walk out. I told people about it and they didn't believe me, until the victim was looking for his coat after the show. At our show at Off Broadway last week, there was a coat on the stage right in front of where i was setting up my pedals. Beetle Bob picked it up from the stage, despite walking in without a coat. He left a few songs into our set and walked out, big puffy jacket in hand.

He also has claimed to work at KDHX (he doesn't) and has talked bands into letting him have a promo copy of their CD for radio airplay. I've seen him do it to Koufax and Bullet Train to Vegas, and attempt it on us and Bring Back the Guns.

This got under my skin for years until I realized how uncomfortable he makes other people and got up the nerve to call him out as much as possible from the stage. I guess this rant is fairly immature and would fall under the category of attempted libel, or at least bad journalism. The only reason I don't care is this: i feel like it needs to be said.

In fact, I've said all of this to his face, not into a microphone from a stage, but face to face at a show (specifically, Robyn Hitchcock and Sean Nelson at Blueberry Hill). His response? Act like he has no idea what I was talking about, and then just walk away unfazed and cheerily talk to somebody else. It was incredible, to be honest. If he was in any way shocked at what I was saying, he would have tried to defend himself, but he didn't because I'm sure this has happened before and his reaction was flawless.

So Beatle Bob is an enigma, and I'm not trying to rally the troops to ostracize him from anything. I just want to explain, in full detail, what our issues are and why we said what we said at that show and will most likely continue saying whenever we see him at shows. Considering he didn't dance at all during our set at Off Broadway and left after 3 songs, this probably won't be a problem in the future.

7 comments:

boandthelocomotive said...

-beatle bob is a diagnosed kleptomaniac.
-he is 54
-he stole an autographed elvis record from a friend
-he does go to a show every night.
-he does not pay
-he is obsessive compulsive
AND
-he's the subject of a semi well budgeted documentary coming out called "Superfan: The Lies, Life and Legend of Beatle Bob"
-www.superfanthemovie.com

the most amazing thing is that he has no car.
until he steals one.

natalie said...

I don't live in STL, so I'm not sure exactly what happened... but I'm so glad you called Beatle Bob out on his shit. I've seen him at a couple of times at Coachella and was disgusted by what I saw and heard about him.

Good on you.

Gentleman Auction House said...

http://www.beatlebobsitdown.com/

awesome said...

$(#*($#()$*(#)$#)

I just found this blog googling around about BB. Did you guys know he attends big music conferences (he doesn't DARE claim to be associated with KDHX after what happened there) and claims to be at some other station that now broadcasts a Spanish language news format out of the East Side? I can't remember the station he claims at the moment, but it has call letters that sound familiar to St. Louisans, similar to KADI or one of those old ones...

Yeah, Beatle Bob, music director of KADI! I walk up and that's what it says on his name tag.

I'll try to find the call letters he uses to tell people about his "radio show." He attends conferences as "music director of KADI" and then shakes hands and gets stacks and stacks of CDs from artists... which we all now he then pawns (though Vintage Vinyl will not let him through the doors anymore!).

Can anyone link me to the famous car accident incident? Where oh where oh where is that article that talks about the car accident and the fake visit to his parents' house?? Where's that story that went through the lies one by one???? I thought it was RFT but it seems not to be...

Like all of you, I've seen BB lift stacks of CDs from unattended merch tables. While the dancing does irk the daylights out of me, you haven't been pissed until you've seen him snag $100 worth of an artists' work while they're playing, or seen him smile at a line of admirers at a music conference, all lining up to get a chance to "get on his show." It's so awful.

I confronted him and his response was similar to the one you note -- he barked out several other STL radio stations to me, claiming they were the REAL station he worked at. KWMU, KDHX, the Lindenwood station... he tried all those, and I was like, "yeah, no, you don't work at any of those." He just kept brazening through it, until finally a musician asked ME to stop, so they could talk to Bob about getting on "his show" and hand him a CD. So sad. Dude could really have a show, but he chooses to just pull this stuff. It's really upsetting to explain to a band after their show that the "Ambassador of St. Louis music" is the reason they won't have CDs to sell at the next gig.

awesome said...

oops, found it.

Beatle Bob attends conferences claiming to be programming and music director for WEW, 770 AM.

I wonder if he oversees Pendzer u Svijet with your host Mensur Hatic??? Or is it more Radio Cucui Hispanic show??

Eric said...

Lol, Beatle Bob, music director of Radio Cucui. Who knew that Beatle Bob was so into NorteƱo music?

kirtipathak said...
This comment has been removed by the author.