Trollheart

Guys, I thought about it and yes that came to mind the rest of the band shouldn't suffer but a) I was never a huge LP fan, like one or two tracks but that's it so it's not like I'm dumping a huge music collection or going against someone I've loved for years and b) I'd have to keep hearing his voice on the record, which is not something I'm prepared to listen to any more.

Anyhow, that's my decision and I've made it. I know some people will think it's a "knee-jerk" reaction but there it is, that's how it affects me and that's how I feel.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Paul Smeenus

Back around 1990 I had a band with my at-the-time GF and a few friends, including a percussionist (congas, bongos, sundry shakers) that we all loved. He always made everybody feel better about themselves, he just had this magnificent spirit that everyone was attracted to. He had a GF and two kids, and was a psychologist for a school for troubled, runaway high school age kids. Anyway, we had the band and we recorded some songs in 1990. By the end of that year my GF finally came to her senses and realized she could do a lot better than me (although we remained friends) and the band broke up.

As the 90's became the 00's the conga guy had really fallen apart. He started drinking heavily, lost his GF, lost his job, my ex was really magnanimous when it came to helping people and she puf him up for a time in a kinda mother-in-law type second little addition on her property, with the understanding that he would get himself back on his feet. She also had her sister and two young kids (around 5-8 I think) living with her.

The guy never got better and in fact was drinking harder. After several months of this, my ex caught that SOB molesting the older daughter, her niece. AFAIK he is still in jail for that, although I think it more likely that he was released as a registered sex offender (or back in jail for re-offending). I dunno, I won't give the guy two shits of my life or interest in any way shape or form.

The reason I bring this up is those recordings. Yes, I still have those recordings and I still occasionally listen to them and I'm still proud of them. But without question I bristle when I hear those congas. But I love the other three people that were in that band (I've completely lost touch with all three of them though, the last I've seen of any of them was in '07 when I took the guitarist to an Over Ths Rhine show in Portland), so I will always cherish those recordings. I just wish I could crawl into them and beat the conga player senseless.

The deleting-the-music aspect of Trollheart's post made me think of that.

__________________
Gentle Giant Catalog Review

The entire Ditty Bops catalog reviewed

Sansa Stark

I really am hating the implications that drug addiction is in anyway connected to paedophilia w/ all the coverage of this trial

I've been an addict since I was 15 yrs old and I've never molested anyone or thought about being a babyfucker like...
I have done some questionable things under the influence but never to someone who wasn't consenting.

like I'm not saying you're saying that Paul but I feel it needs to be addressed being that it's just furthering the stigma on mental illness/addiction which often (really often) go hand and hand. Just ugh

Mojo

The media are reporting his drug use, and they are definitely acknowledging its part in his crimes, but I haven't considered it to be an implication that drug use leads to paedophilia.

The way I've interpreted is that in this case, the use of drugs was important to the enjoyment of his crimes. For example, he injected one of the mothers with heroin during the abuse of her child. I don't think its an implication that the drugs were in any way to blame for his actions, or that he wouldn't have committed the same crimes without them, but that he personally wished for drugs to play a role.

EDIT: It's also been reported that he may have given one of the children meth. Again, just a stand-up bloke by all accounts.

__________________

Last.FM | Echoes and Dust

Sansa Stark

Nah I've read several articles that were like basically "he was sxe then he got hella into drugs then became a paedo"

I've been reading it a lot and it's really offputting

Paul Smeenus

I understand, but just for the record my own addiction to alcohol and drugs went far deeper for a lot more years than the conga guy. I will set the record straight and unequivocally state that substance abuse has utterly no connection to pedophilia. I have no immediate statistics but I'd be willing to conject that a high percentage of pedo's have no substance abuse issues at all.

__________________
Gentle Giant Catalog Review

The entire Ditty Bops catalog reviewed

Sansa Stark

Yeah its more likely that they were victims of abuse themselves

Which makes me really wonder about his parents

the cycle of abuse is a sad ****ed up thing

Mojo

Well I haven't read anything like that, but if thats the case then I definitely see your point. It makes sense that that would get to you.

Drugs obviously play a big role in this, as he allegedly also expressed an interest in "teaching the babies how to take drugs". I haven't seen a source basically blame his drug use for the person he became and the crimes he committed though, if thats what you're getting at.

__________________

Last.FM | Echoes and Dust

Paul Smeenus

The principle role that alcohol played in my example with conga guy is that's what put him in the position with my ex putting his sorry ass up in the first place, living in proximity to her niece and nephew.


*edited to add one of those recordings, for whatever that's worth

__________________
Gentle Giant Catalog Review

The entire Ditty Bops catalog reviewed

Cuthbert

Yeah it's not the sort of thing you'd tell your mate to be honest.

I'm sure they knew about the groupies, doubt they knew about the other stuff.

BTW I read the full details when they leaked about a month ago, horrific. Another thing that's pissed me off is Peaches Geldof posting the names of the mothers on Twatter the stupid pseudo intellectual cunt. Hope she gets charged.