When Glenn Frey of The Eagles died in January 2016, someone who ran an unofficial fan site mentioned that he always made time to speak to her whenever they met up after a concert and he would remember conversations they had several years earlier in their last encounter and just carry on from there.
It shows an artist having a genuine relationship with a fan who was more interested talking about the fan than himself.
It is something Rick Wakeman mentions in this documentary, eventually you and your dedicated fans get old together and although not always friends, you have a matey relationship and still glad that they are interested in you.
Music writer Kate Mossman tells her own obsession with the pop group Queen and drummer Roger Taylor which is unusual as all the Queen fans I knew were blokes who admired the fact that they were university graduates. It might also a bit to do with the flamboyant Freddie Mercury.
Mossman gives us a potted history of pop group fans beginning from The Beatles and the hordes of screaming adolescents, which continued with The Bay City Rollers. She does not forget male fans some of whom were into heavy metal but it was too much of a quick zip through.
The early 1980s Antmania or Duran Duran was ignored and in the early 1980s there was a resurgence of young men who were into the modern ska and mod scene and were following bands like Madness, Bad Manners, The Jam, The Specials. What we get is an interview with the singer of The Selecter well known for the one hit, On my radio.
Mossman also does not delve too deep to the dark side of fan obsession, although she admits to stalking Taylor there is also the real life killing of John Lennon by a so called fan. Mossman could also looked at how bands can get the wrong type of following which used to happen in the punk and later ska era. Madness always had a strong fascist following and eventually decided they needed to tackle it head on by making their music more reggae influenced or singing about racist incidents such as Embarrassment.
Of course I would also like to have heard from some of the grown up teenagers who just screamed non stop when they saw their idols back in the day. Why just scream? Could they not put into words how they were feeling?
When I go to a concert there is some applause and a few cheers when the band comes onto the stage. Maybe I should ask my daughter whether she screams incessantly when saw One Direction in concert although I can guess she would reply that she would never stoop so low.