The olden days of HIM

[childindark]

Yeah!!
It's weird.
In 1998 when i bought my first album of him and started to listen to the group, i think i was the only person who knew the band. And nowadays everybody knows it. Thats good!! But as you said they don't listen to the lyrics the just i don't know how to explain.
I don't like such people

tell me about it, I can't stand ppl who doesn't listen to the lyrics of songs...aka...the ppl who actually enjoy "shake your booty" crap...it's just nuts...and I also find it annoying when ppl ask me what music I like and I reply with finnish bands and they look at me like big     and I say HIM and they go: " HIm yeah, HIM are nice" and I sooo know that they only like Join Me cause that's the one song they've heard, apart from the DL album...agh...to me HIM is 80% lyrics and 20% the rest...the ones who never listened to their lyrics and who doesn't feel what the lyrics mean shouldn't be allowed to say they like HIM....but hey...that's just me thinking

[YoursweetSixsixsix]

Yeah!!
It's weird.
In 1998 when i bought my first album of him and started to listen to the group, i think i was the only person who knew the band. And nowadays everybody knows it. Thats good!! But as you said they don't listen to the lyrics the just i don't know how to explain.
I don't like such people

tell me about it, I can't stand ppl who doesn't listen to the lyrics of songs...aka...the ppl who actually enjoy "shake your booty" crap...it's just nuts...and I also find it annoying when ppl ask me what music I like and I reply with finnish bands and they look at me like big     and I say HIM and they go: " HIm yeah, HIM are nice" and I sooo know that they only like Join Me cause that's the one song they've heard, apart from the DL album...agh...to me HIM is 80% lyrics and 20% the rest...the ones who never listened to their lyrics and who doesn't feel what the lyrics mean shouldn't be allowed to say they like HIM....but hey...that's just me thinking

I guess you used the best words to describe what I mean 

[rg_lovecraft]

Ha, I totally remember ordering GLS, ALSN, and The Love Metal archives. Hmm.... The good ol' days. I miss getting all excited when I first heard HIM on the radio back home, but the excitement wore off when they became that seasons fashion trend.

And yes, people have called the heartagram a bamagram to me before. I used to hate Bam with every fiber of my being. Then I realized he's a fan just like me, Valo shared the rights of the heartagram with him, and being a fan he's slapping the heartagram everywhere to get the word out about the band. I met him in an airport in Chicago and asked him about it, and he said "yeah, it's for a great band from Finland called..." and I finished his sentence. lol. He's telling people about the band, and I respect that. Hell I do the same thing with the street team, I'm just not a celebrity, lol.

[wickedgame_666]

yah i got RR for 50ish and i had to take the serial number into my cd store cos it waent on a catalog yet, but we still dont really have that prob in NZ or in my town there still kinda new hear and even now nto many people really dig them compared with the amount of people overseas even auzzie has so many more fans than nz

[MercuryAnne]

And yes, people have called the heartagram a bamagram to me before. I used to hate Bam with every fiber of my being. Then I realized he's a fan just like me, Valo shared the rights of the heartagram with him, and being a fan he's slapping the heartagram everywhere to get the word out about the band. I met him in an airport in Chicago and asked him about it, and he said "yeah, it's for a great band from Finland called..." and I finished his sentence. lol. He's telling people about the band, and I respect that. Hell I do the same thing with the street team, I'm just not a celebrity, lol.

Well I've never heard it called a Bamagram, ha! I'd find that amusing but most people where I live don't even know of the Heartagram...

But I agree with you completely. I do not understand why people hate Bam for helping make HIM known. A lot of people are fans of HIM through Bam (me being one) and that doesn't make us any less of a fan. Bam is just a fan, too. How can someone hate him just for that!!

[cholmesj14]

bam margera definitely ruined HIM.  he carried a heavy influence on the album dark light and that album caused the band to turn their back on their roots.  thank god venus doom kind of resurrected their music from back in 1998 and earlier.  but it was cool before when HIM could still be considered underground because either people loved them or had never heard of them.  then when bam came along, HIM's fanbase increased a lot with a bunch of bam margera wannabes.  i've seen a lot of my friends wear heartagram t-shirts and i'd go up to them and compliment them on their music taste and they would claim that bam invented it.  don't get me wrong bam is awesome in jackass and viva la bam, but he nearly ruined a perfectly good band

[MercuryAnne]

Don't kill me for this: maybe HIM wouldn't have made it into other countries without Bam?s constant advertising of them. I know that here in Australia, we probably never would have got HIM CDs if Bam hadn't started advertising them. So their success was sort of amplified (at least here in Australia).

[PhiLiz]

Two things I would like to refer:

- First, in the Viva Overdrive interview, from 1998, Ville states that he does not want HIM to bem an underground band. The explanation for this is made in a humoristic sense, but the main point is made quite seriously and shows clearly that since the beginning HIM did not wanted to be a cult underground band with a reserved attitude towards the music industry. Of course, this does not mean they needed to make albums just for money, leaving their music quality behind (this is not an appreciative sentence... just talking abstractly).

- Second, HIM never needed Bam to be a quite important Rock band in Europe... HIM's European success is quite prior to any involvement by Bam with the band... I feel that it's important to clarify that the fans HIM won with Bam were mostly outside Europe because the big popularity "explosion" of the band in Europe was with 'Razorblade Romance' and Bam's image was not associated with the band at that time.

[Eric_Taylor]

hehe

[Rasta666]

hehe

please post more productively
thanks

[MercuryAnne]

Second, HIM never needed Bam to be a quite important Rock band in Europe... HIM's European success is quite prior to any involvement by Bam with the band... I feel that it's important to clarify that the fans HIM won with Bam were mostly outside Europe because the big popularity "explosion" of the band in Europe was with 'Razorblade Romance' and Bam's image was not associated with the band at that time.

But that was Europe. I don't know if they would be known here in Australia at all. HIM just toured here and did a sold out show in the city (about an hour and a half from where I live) but their last tour here was hardly recognised.

Maybe they would have have worldwide success without Bam's help but just have achieved it a little later...I guess we'll never know. Either way, I'm just glad I know of them!

[YoursweetSixsixsix]

I'd say they conquered Europe on their own, and Bam just helped them in America and the other countries. He made it easier for them to get famous in America

[kimanh]

Yeah Bam is a big fan like us
But he's better than us because besides buying HIM's stuffs, he also helps them with recording and making videos
And, I see Ville laugh too much when Bam around. Isn't that great?

[PhiLiz]

I don't see how you can measure the "quality" of a fan like that...
If I was a millionaire I would probably be in contact with the band too, and could have the opportunity to do things the "normal" fans cannot.
It's not a question of "better/worst"... it's a question of money and connections that go beyond music itself.