By Brian Goslow
Aerosmith has always been a band of the people. Even in their days (and nights) of wild excesses, band members could be found shopping at the Coop in Harvard Square or checking out a new group at The Rat or The Paradise. That common-man attitude served them well in their late 1980s comeback. It also made last year’s crashing of its Aero Force One fan club, then operated by the Lowell-based FansRule Inc., a stunning act of betrayal for longtime fans, some of whom were left holding tickets for cancelled appearances with no way of getting refunds from the bankrupt company.
In stepped Paid Inc. Celebrity Services, a Worcester-based company that also creates e-commerce software and is an online auction collectibles seller with its origins in Rotmans Collectibles.
Aero Force One shares space with Rotmans Furniture. It’s where fan club merchandise and packages are prepared and shipped by their 25 or so employees; a second office is situated in the John Hancock Tower in Boston. Many of Paid Inc’s celebrities are sports stars, including local boxing hero Jose Antonio Rivera, members of the three-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots, and Hockey Hall of Famers Ray Bourque and Cam Neely.
For now, the jury — the longtime fans of Aerosmith who’ve seen their fan club taken over by three different companies in recent years — is still deliberating on Paid Inc.’s long-range staying power. “It is much too early to determine if Paid has improved the fan club,” e-mails Terry, coordinator for the “Don’t Miss an Aero Thing” Yahoo newsgroup, which she calls the largest Aerosmith newsgroup on the Internet. Like many message board participants, she chooses not to reveal her last name or location due to past flaming wars. “[It’s] not too hard to “improve” on how FansRule handled things since they were a complete disaster from Day One which some of us tried to convey to management and the band. But it was not until they went bankrupt that a change was made.”
“The new club really has not done much at all yet,” e-mails David Booth, who runs Aerosmithfans.com from his Richmond, Virginia, base. “Membership prices went up and they had a trip to Boston merely to do some Aerosmith sightseeing, which cost well over $1,000, not including air fare.” That would be last month’s “Behind the Aerosmith Door” tour of the group’s area haunts, that included Longview Farms Studios in Brookfield.
However, Carol Croswell of North Reading, a member of both Aero Force One and the Yahoo Aerosmith group and a fan since 1984, attended last month’s event. “My son and I were treated like royalty during a tour of the Zildjian Cymbal factory, where we met [Aerosmith drummer] Joey Kramer,” she e-mails. “[It’s} An experience that will stay with my son for a long time. He is 11 and said it was the best day of his life.”
The big test for Paid Inc. will come when it has to handle advanced sales for fan club members for the expected Aerosmith tour this fall. “There are still many fans left holding worthless tickets from when the prior club went bankrupt and the new fan club continually dodges any questions about that situation,” Aerosmithfans.com’s Booth says. “That matter is before the bankruptcy courts,” Paid Inc. Vice President Kristen Kuliga responds. “We are being as supportive as we can to do whatever we can to help that process along.”
U2 received plenty of negative publicity when paid-up members weren’t able to snag tickets at the start of their current tour. To avoid creative ticket scalpers from using Aero Force One to snag tickets, Paid Inc. has a policy that anyone found to have more than one membership will have all of them cancelled and access to ticket offers cut off. How they deliver on that promise will play a key role in their longtime relationship.
“If Paid Inc. wants to impress jaded — pardon the pun — Aerosmith fans, their first order of business should be to insist that that band and management ensure priority seating to long-time fans who have proved their loyalty time and time again,” e-mails Debi, a fan of the band since 1975. “We don’t expect the band to serve us hors d’oeuvres on a silver platter, but a little nod to longtime fans without picking our pockets would be nice. How about preferred seating in the first third of the venue for fan club members?”
Another DMAT-Yahoo member, Dawn Tuozzolo of Norwalk, Conn., a member of Aero Force One since 1997 whose has attended 22 Aerosmith shows since 1978, is confident, based on her early dealings with Paid Inc. that they’ll deliver on their promise. “Right away, they made good on getting out our new membership packages and they let members who had left the old fan club come back and keep their seniority,” she says in an e-mail.
Paid Inc. is also working with the remaining members of The Cars, whose bass player and vocalist Ben Orr died in 2000. According to Axl Music, who sponsor Cars guitarist Elliot Easton, the remaining Cars have been in the studio working on a new record that will reportedly be followed by a tour. “At this time we don’t have any knowledge or confirmation of that,” says Kuliga. “Right now, we’ve just been brought on to create a Web site for The Cars to give a place for fans that were fans years ago to come and congregate. I’ve received several e-mails from fans looking forward to having something interactive so that they can feel close to The Cars again.”
In this day and age, almost everyone can be a celebrity overnight. In anticipation of the debut of “The Real Gilligan’s Island” on TBS on June 8, Mary Ann (Mandy Weaver) and Gilligan (Shawn Manning) asked Paid Inc. to create Web sites for them prior to the show’s debut. Whether it has a short shelf life or turns out to have a long run, the duo want to make sure they’re ready to take advantage of any marketing opportunities it provides. Paid Inc. secured them a Snapple commercial and they’ve already begun making promotional appearances throughout the country.
The bottom line is that the power of celebrity seems to trump everything else in the public spotlight. “It does seem to be it’s getting more and more that way,” Kulega says. “Our job is to market the positive element of celebrity, of being a good person on and off the field and that people will like that part of celebrity and embrace them.”
Brian Goslow may be reached at bgoslow@worcestermag.com.
Aerosmith Chronicles [3 CD Box Set]
