Before the internet, it was reasonably easy to just disappear. Get a fake ID, leave the country with some cash, and you were gone.
These kinds of mysteries can also be found in the world of music; artists who disappear without a trace…and I’m not talking about musicians who retired and then become recluses…there are plenty of those.
We haven’t seen much of Steve Perry since he left Journey…he’s very much alive but isn’t interested in being famous anymore…Syd Barrett tripped out on too much LSD, got fired from Pink Floyd, and was rarely seen by anyone until he died of cancer in 2006…John Deacon of Queen gave up his music career after Freddie Mercury died…we haven’t seen anything of him.
Then there are the musicians who disappeared involuntarily…one day they were here and the next day, they were just gone…and this has happened a lot more than you may realize.
This is episode 43 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and the next of this program is “Missing and Presumed Dead”.
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35:47
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35:47
The History of Ticket Scalping | 42
Getting your hands on a concert ticket can be a difficult (if not impossible) task...beyond the cost (which can be substantial), there are all the hoops one must jump through to secure a ticket.
You must be computer literate, you need to be at your computer, ready to go when the appointed on-sale time arrives, and you must be prepared to jockey for position in the queue with other fans who are not just from your area but who are logging in from around the world.
And then there are the scalpers, the crooks, and the shysters who somehow elbow their way to the front of the line to scoop up hundreds of tickets before you even get a chance to enter your credit card number.
These people—and the tools they employ—cause all kinds of headaches and heartbreak among fans who just want to go to a show. And how they operate often involves tactics that are not exactly legal.
So, who are these people who cheat their way to the
best seats?
And how do they do it?
I’m Alan Cross and this episode 42 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”. This time, our focus is on the tactics, misdeeds,
and crimes of scalpers who prevent you from buying a concert ticket.
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43:19
Grand Theft Music | 41
The music industry isn’t exactly the most moral or law-abiding place, either…if you know where to look, you’ll find crime all over the place.
We’ve tackled this topic before…episode 4 of this podcast dealt with the mysterious disappearance of $200,000 of Led Zeppelin’s money from a hotel safety deposit box…there was the time when Joe Strummer and Topper Headon from the clash were jailed for stealing some pillowcases from a holiday inn…and another episode featured the epically violent theft of two of Lady Gaga’s dogs…
We’re going to build on those stories with more tales of people in the music industry who took things they had no business taking…
I’m Alan Cross and this is episode 41 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…and this time, it’s some wild stories of robbery and theft.
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A Buffet of Musical Murders | 40
On the evening of February 25, 1682, Alessandro Stradella was stabbed to death in a square in genoa, Italy…Stradella was a classical composer of some renown…it appears he was killed by three brothers looking to avenge the honour of their sister…and when the knives were put away, Stradella became the first documented case of the murder of a professional musician.
Fortunately, the purposeful killing of musicians was a rare thing until we got to the 20th century…then came a string of shootings, stabbings, beatings, and strangling’s.
Some of these killings were high-profile—Sam Cook, John Lennon, Tupac, and Biggie, for example, and we still talk about those murders…but what about all the others?
Many have faded from memory because we’ve either moved on, the case didn’t get much attention, or the murder was solved and there’s nothing else to say…but the victims need to be remembered because they were human beings.
This is episode 40 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”…this time, it’s a survey of musicians whose lives were cut short by someone with a gun, a knife, and even torture devices…and wow: there are some wild stories here.
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42:14
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The Insane Story of Louie Louie | 39
This is a show about censorship…wait, wait!...don’t
run away…i know that can be a very touchy subject and once the arguments get started, all the grey areas fade away, everyone ends up in a big fight, and needless to say, the party breaks up.
Let try this from a different angle…there is an area
of study i’m trying to promote called “stupid history”…learning about the past doesn’t have to be about memorizing dates, who fought what wars, who was king or queen or emperor when.
Humans are dumb creatures, and that dumbness is always on display…and this can be really, really funny…if more of this stuff was taught in history classes, we’d have more historians and writers and people curious about the human condition.
Let me give you an idea…instead of going through the details of the war of the roses, include this in a history less…in Britain in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was common knowledge that ground of bits of mummies stolen from tombs in Egypt was good for you…mix in a little chocolate and you have a nice little snack…so yes, cannibalism in powdered form use to be a thing…and this true: it’s why there aren’t many ancient Egyptian mummies around anymore.
Here’s another…Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States when he died in June 1845, his beloved parrot was thrown out of his funeral because the thing kept swearing.
One more…Jack Daniels—yes, the bourbon guy—died of an infected toe…he stubbed it very badly when he kicked a safe to which he’d forgotten the combinations…
See what i mean?...and here on “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry,” talk about some seriously grisly and awful
things…let’s try something a little lighter for a change…
Yes, it is about censorship…but it’s also stupid history…it’s episode 39…and boy, this is one is dumb…it’s the insane true story of The Kingsmen and “Louie Louie”.
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About Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry
Have I got a story for you! Award winning Music Historian and host of the chart topping Ongoing History of New Music Podcast Alan Cross unleashes his next amazing podcast. In every episode Alan Cross takes you inside unbelievable true stories of crime, murder, scandal, strange deaths, unexplainable events, and the general mayhem from the music industry through the decades.There is a lot of bad behavior that needs to be talked about. It’s a one-of-a-kind podcast featuring true crime stories from the world of music.
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