Let's all take Blindboy seriously now...

Strumms

“All I want is to live a boring life, I’ve no interest in fame” is what he said to the Irish Times in an interview

which is complete lies, a level of absolute bollôcks off the scale. That statement is in complete contradiction to his actions, his life.

he spouts his mouth off at any and every opportunity. He seeks and creates minor levels of controversy, intentionally, regularly… He has his own podcast so he doesn’t have to wait to be asked or invited…if a tv station / show invites him and or the other one he’s there, with bells on.

he’s completely interested in fame. The only avenue to legitimately succeed in his chosen profession is by being famous, having notoriety….

if you want a boring life David… ditch the plastic bag, social media, the gigs, podcasts etc 😉. Very achievable…. In an hour you are on the road to nobodyville, disappearing…back to being a regular David…

but i imagine what he does to an extent pays quite well…. And it doesn’t take much work on anyone’s behalf to come to the conclusion that he enjoys getting paid and enjoys the attention of being a talentless little wind up merchant scamp …..

he is very interested in fame…

Sunny Disposition

After seeing an interview with him in the Irish Times I played some of the Rubberbandits songs and prank calls on Youtube, brilliant stuff. The tough Limerick City accent and the vocabulary were used brilliantly.

It's kind of a pity Blind Boy has gone doing somewhat more serious stuff, he was brilliant at that early stage of his career.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121366225#Comment_121366225

Troll account but just to make the point that having social anxiety meaning you’re incapable of television/youtube type jobs is nonsense.

its similar kinda crap my folks used to say about my brother. Oh, he can’t have anxiety sure he hangs out with friends or sure doesn’t he go to work everyday.. yeah, he hangs out with people he’s comfortable with and he goes to work but won’t eat or drink a thing cos he’s too anxious to be in the staff room.

You can have these problems and difficulties in life without being stuck inside away from the world. Blind boy’s anxiety frankly proves the point that mental illness and struggles don’t mean you can’t have a life.

taxAHcruel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121367538#Comment_121367538

I think I know what you mean there. But I suspect I know what he might have meant too. I am always rather suspicious of News Paper articles quoting something from an interview rather than hearing the whole interview in context. But I think you were close to it in your third sentence when you mentioned "Notoriety". In the article he actually makes the distinction between fame and notoriety specifically. And suggests that he prefers the latter over the former. Which tracks.

As you say yourself quite rightly - the currency of anyone in art or entertainment is of course attention. Recognition. Brand. If you do not have those things you do not have a career. So it is as obvious as water is wet that you need people to know who and what you are to have such a career.

So what I suspect here is that he does not mean that when he uses the word "fame". Which is evidenced by his reference in that article to "hierarchy" in the same breath as mentioning "fame". And you are wholly right he is interested in the things that _you personally_ are associating with the word fame. The currency of his career. Rather I suspect he is discussing the trappings that go along with that currency is what he has no interest in. That he means by "fame" something different to you.

Van Morrison has often said the same thing. That of course he wishes his music would get to as many people as possible and he wants to entertain people but he would very much like if the rest of "Fame" and the industry would just go away. "It's just a job you know" he says in both interview and his songs. You can want your product to be famous without you yourself being famous. You can want it of course. But I wonder how few artists or performers ever achieve it. In fact in a couple of interviews some famous people have expressed jealously towards Blindboys "bag" persona for that very reason.

I suspect the article is badly trying to say exactly that. He of course wants the spectacle of "Blindboy" to be successful and known and to sell. He wants the real person behind that spectacle to be a boring unknown however. In the same way George Ivan Morrison would love to live a life entirely untouched by Van Morrison. Or authors who release books under a pseudonym.

Contrast that to people who are after fame for fames sake. Big brother contestants and Tiktokers and the like. I would think that is the distinction being made in the Headline you quoted.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121366274#Comment_121366274

There's an abominable echo from that lads posts.

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121366274#Comment_121366274

I’d rather listen to my father enter my mother than listen to Blindboy. Complete pseudo. Isn’t he meant to be funny though? He does that awful auld surrealist rubbish - “then I did acid with Michael Collins and we played hurling down the Shankill Road while Brush Shiels rolled a fag”

That sort of terrible nonsense.

TheDavester

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121366796#Comment_121366796

He's the exact same as Joe Rogan, both come out with nonsense but BB has the approved twitter opinions so he doesnt get the same **** Rogan does

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121367538#Comment_121367538

Thats generally a great sign you are dealing with a professional attention seeker.

"No interest in fame" while desperately looking for attention at all opportunities.

Say Your Number

https://twitter.com/Rubberbandits/status/1724478189626437638

Aa

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121368831#Comment_121368831

Joe rogan is great though

onrail

I really struggle to get the outpouring of hate for the fella.

I've zero in common with him politically, socially or musically and his surrealist stuff means nothing to me, but I find his podcast genuinely entertaining, and find him fairly humble and self aware.

All I'd say to those that dislike the fella, maybe listen to his podcast over a few weeks, skip the mental health themed or short story ones and see what you think of him then.

Imo, he has a pretty unique way of seeing things, and genuinely loves the podcast. Sure I'll roll my eyes every so often, but the pod is first on my weekly listen list

Ash.J.Williams

Check out the limmy interview, limmy made him look very ordinary 😂😂😂

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121369633#Comment_121369633

....

https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1671254132018102274

Lefty2Guns

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121369685#Comment_121369685

I'm of the same opinion. If you don't like the chap and his personality fair enough, don't listen to him or watch him on the TV.

I generally skip the mental health podcasts and some others but I really enjoy how he tells a story, I find it very interesting and entertaining.

I also love his music podcasts, I've discovered so many artists from the past via his introduction or stories, in particular the birth of House Music. I ended up doing a deep dive on that and have came across so much great music from the 70's and 80's. One of his Spotify Playlists is brilliant, so he has also got a great ear for music.

Another positive I took from it was his encouragement to be creative, I have now taken up creative writing as a hobby and I'm half way through writing a book. I have roped my friends into my book and release a chapter by chapter issue to them and they love it enough that when I meet them for pints they are enquiring about what's going to happen next to the main character.

Sirsok

His fellow RubberBandit recent upload to youtube under the name Bobby Fingers has to be seen to be believed...just astonishing art.

https://youtu.be/VGhcSupkNs8?si=jRPqGrpdcT6tC-Xh

Arghus

Yeah those Bobby Fingers videos are absolutely amazing.

tesla_newbie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121369685#Comment_121369685

His entire shtick is just an endless parade of a stream of consciousness, incredibly tedious

onrail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121374804#Comment_121374804

Yep, there's an element of that in his podcasts (which personally I find entertaining), but if you cared to listen beyond the opening 5 minutes, you'd realise that theres a hell of a lot of thoroughly researched historical and social context to most of his work.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121373585#Comment_121373585

Ah that was class. Some level of effort. Months of work.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121374804#Comment_121374804

Aye, but you bought a Tesla like 👍

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121369685#Comment_121369685

Not a fan of him at all but he annoys abominable dognut so he must be doing something right.

HalloweenJack

He explains that the bag allows him to operate in the public eye and still have a private life. That sounds to me like social anxiety and a way of keeping the public separate from private. He does his best to conceal his true identity so I think him saying he doesn't want fame is genuine.

If you listen to him, he doesn't claim to be an expert on the topics he talks about, just the ones he actually has studied, like art. He regularly has more learned guests on and he'll pick their brains about their specialised fields. He can be quite humble, especially when discussing with someone with more qualifications.

I can recognise that his sense of humour is not for everyone and some disagree with his politics (which I reckon is what really pisses people off about him) but I don't get people getting so wound up about him. There's plenty of public figures out there who are far more obnoxious and genuinely hateful in what they say who are deserving of some of the crap posted in this thread.

Jack Daw

From an interview with him in today's Irish Independent Weekend Magazine.

Q: If you could have a superpower what would it be?

A: This is corny as f**k , but I'd love a magic wand that instantly grants a person deep empathy and compassion for someone else.

What a tosser, nobody even half normal would say something like that, just pathetic virtue signalling.

BTW compassion and empathy are good things but answering a lighthearted question like that with such self important bollocks really gives you a clue about him.

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121383597#Comment_121383597

Afraid of the wand are ye...

tesla_newbie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121376799#Comment_121376799

I’m all for being made fun of with good material but what’s tedious about a Tesla?

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121383635#Comment_121383635

Listening to owners drone on and on about them.

tesla_newbie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121383597#Comment_121383597

Reminds me of the time Ryan Tubridy asked Mary Robinson what it was like to become a grandmother again

” you know Ryan when I see the devestating effect of climate change in Africa, I do wonder what’s in store for her “

Most would have made a light hearted comment about nappies or another grandchild to spoil but for Robbo ,the ideological speak never ends

listermint

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121383644#Comment_121383644

Wahey! 😁

taxAHcruel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121383597#Comment_121383597

So someone does not trot out the same answer(s) many people always give to such a dumb ass question - like being invisible or being able to fly and all that - and this makes them a bad person? Or they give an answer you personally do not like so that makes them a "tosser"? Seems here the problem is you and how you respond with vitriol to others - rather than him in any way. I see nothing wrong with such an answer. And as for him being "half normal" well he is diagnosed as autistic isn't he. So exactly what standards of "Normal" are you demanding he adhere to here? Yours? Demanding an autistic person adhere to some standard of "Normal" you might hold is very ableist and prejudiced indeed. You might wanna check that prejudice and privilege at the door.

As for "virtue signaling" I think the bar of what qualifies for that equally tired term is really dropping if something as inane and innocuous as that answer is qualifying for it. Yet another term losing its utility by people diluting to almost nothing what it actually means. Actually the answer is very much on message for things he says quite often. It is very much within what I would expect him to say given everything I have heard him say before.

Put on the spot during an interview with a silly cliche lazy question - there is nothing wrong with giving at least a slightly out of the ordinary answer that is not equally cliche and tired. What would you actually want him to say really that would be good enough to overcome your likely tendency to hate anything he would say anyway? That he wants to be like Superman when superman disarmed all the nuclear powers? Gag me with a spoon of bloody saccharine and kill me now :)

All that said though - his answer is not entirely original. The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy movie had the idea of a gun that when fired at someone - the target instantly had complete understanding and empathy for the gun holders entire world view. Wonder Woman also had the Lasso of Truth. Nothing "virtue singnaling" about thinking that that would be a damn fine weapon to own to be honest. I could think of a few people I would love to aim it at. And actually because their world view baffles me so much - no matter how much I try to get into the headspace of the seeming nonsense they spew - there are a few people I would like to be shot at by too.

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121383597#Comment_121383597

I bet if someone actually meant this and wrote this post out and brought it to a therapist, and discussed why it enraged them so much, they'd be crying by the end of the session.

And probably on a path to being more content.

To be triggered in this way at the idea of someone advocating for empathy in people is screaming of some form of self-loathing of a sense of having missed out.