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Fan Lists Himself As a Band's Family Member On Wikipedia To Sneak Backstage (theguardian.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the citation-optional dept.

AmiMoJo writes: A music fan in Melbourne managed to sneak his way backstage at a gig this week by editing a band's Wikipedia page on his phone. David Spargo was attending a show by Australian duo Peking Duk when he had a "lightbulb-above-the-head kind of moment." After editing Peking Duk's Wikipedia entry to list him under "family," he approached a security guard with his ID, saying he was the step-brother of band member Reuben Styles and producing his phone as proof. "I stood out there for five minutes and I started to think this isn't going to work," Spargo told The Guardian. "Then Reuben pops his head out and is like, 'hey bro, come on in.'"

16 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. So it DIDN'T work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So then, it didn't work. After five minutes of laughing they decided to meet the guy who thought it actually would. Then for some reason the Guardian ran a story about it (slow news day?) and for some even more inexplicable reason it ended up on Slashdot.

    1. Re: So it DIDN'T work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Inexplicable? You haven't been on Slashdot for a while then.

    2. Re:So it DIDN'T work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Its about having big balls -- the bold reap rewards.

      We've got a lot of big talkers around here. This guy actually walked the walk instead of just pretending to be bold from the safety of his mom's basement. The band admired the guy's chutzpah and rewarded him for it. That's the lesson here.

    3. Re:So it DIDN'T work by DarkOx · · Score: 3, Funny

      It worked in the sense he got to meet the band!

      I agree though, clearly the pretext itself failed. Obviously Reuben Styles decided he wanted to meet someone audacious enough to edit wikipedia and pretend to be his step-brother. So I say good for both of them.

      Step-brother / brother was a questionable choice. I don't think I have ever met anyone who can't name the siblings and step siblings, paternity claims and such aside.

      On the hand had he claimed to be a second cousin or something. That might fly with some people. I have known a lot of far flung families that are not very close where someone might not be able to name the children of their cousins, especially easy to image if their parent came from a large family or if their aunts or uncles had a large family.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    4. Re:So it DIDN'T work by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm starting to think that the popular 1988 song from Living Colour is more a documentary set to music than a satire unfortunately...

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    5. Re:So it DIDN'T work by TWX · · Score: 2

      Someone further removed wouldn't have had any chance to be let in. Granted, on the face of it this didn't work either (any security guard better not let someone in that's not on the approved list) but someone further removed than direct household member wouldn't be granted access as a matter of course.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    6. Re:So it DIDN'T work by DarkOx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They told me, but then I got cocky and told them how I'd got in.

      Lesson don't drop your pretext before you have met the objective.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    7. Re:So it DIDN'T work by TWX · · Score: 5, Funny

      Its about having big balls -- the bold reap rewards.

      We've got a lot of big talkers around here. This guy actually walked the walk instead of just pretending to be bold from the safety of his mom's basement. The band admired the guy's chutzpah and rewarded him for it. That's the lesson here.

      Heh. I got myself off of a particular telemarketing firm's call list a while back; they were actually a local company pushing "the go green campaign" and I was able to glean enough information out of the caller to figure out the name of the real company. I used that information to find the name of the owner on Linked In and I then used his name to find his contact information, based on some stuff he'd handed out at a trade show or something. I called him at dinner time on his personal phone and we had a little chat about his company calling despite my repeated insistence that they stop; never heard from them after that ever again.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    8. Re:So it DIDN'T work by KGIII · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Bordering on off-topic but tangentially related, I followed the link to the article and, I confess, I read it. I am sorry. I didn't really mean to but there was nothing posted and I'm not a first post kind of guy normally. Anyhow, it led me (by curiosity) to an "interesting" article on transhumanism. It turns out, it's not what I was expecting and I learned something. I mean something other than they're batshit insane.

      http://www.theverge.com/a/tran...

      That, I think, would have made a better article than this. We could actually have an interesting discussion concerning that. It's a long, but not bad, read. I know, 'tis off-topic (and I'll post as me so you can happily mod me as such as I certainly deserve it) but it is kind of interesting. If I weren't so lazy, I'd submit it. Maybe someone else is interested in it? I'm not so good at that summary thing.

      Did I mention they're batshit crazy? They've even got in-fighting and a presidential candidate but it would appear that not many people like him. He has a family and they tolerate him. It's a whole bowl of insanity but it's all very much tech related. It's all about tech, it seems. That and living forever. Oh, and batshit crazy seems to be mandatory. I'd ride around on the bus with him but that's because I'm easily amused. Hell, I'd even donate to his cause to ride around with him if I had time.

      Anyhow, if you're bored and want something really tech related then there's an interesting article. I'd never looked into it but I always thought transhumanism was what those furry and vampire people were into. It turns out they're just people who want to augment their body with tech and, mostly, live forever.

      I guess I'm not sorry for the OT post (if I was sorry, I'd not do it) but yeah, it's a far more interesting subject than someone editing Wikipedia and getting into a back-stage after-party using mostly social engineering and the people who were there actually opting to tolerate it. I expected it to be a not-so-attentive security guard opting to let them through without checking but it turns out that they did and that the band members let them get away with it. It's not really as exciting as it might have been and will teach me to not read the article. In all fairness, I was bored while awaiting some uploads to finish. FTP is still ungodly slow.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    9. Re:So it DIDN'T work by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Funny
      It did work.

      Don't believe me? OK, Just give me five minutes and then check Wikipedia.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    10. Re:So it DIDN'T work by SumDog · · Score: 2

      It doesn't seem clear in the article? Did the guard believe him or did he and the bank members just think it was funny enough to let him in?

      I really hope most of the world realized that anyone can edit Wikipedia at any time.

  2. US President by mrthoughtful · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yea, I tried that and they didn't let me into the White House or call me Mr President.

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    This comment was written with the intention to opt out of advertising.
  3. Ah, memories by Kierthos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Many years ago, a guy got backstage at a Grateful Dead concert by doing a "Pizza for Jerry Garcia" bit. (It helped that he had a couple pizzas.)

    Apocryphally, someone tried a similar gag with Richard Nixon when he was running for President, and the Secret Service was not amused.

    --
    Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
    1. Re:Ah, memories by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

      >> a guy got backstage at a Grateful Dead concert by doing a "Pizza for Jerry Garcia" bit. (It helped that he had a couple pizzas.)

      It also helped that stoners are known to get the munchies. Nixon, not so much.

  4. Mr. Robot by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 2

    This was a stunt they pulled in the show "Mr. Robot" (highly recommended, BTW), except it wasn't to meet a band. They were trying to sneak into a secure corporate facility, and the main character, Elliot, just shows up asking for a tour. Of course he's told they only do that by appointment, so he just says "You should look me up." After the old dufus tour guide checks his tablet and finds a detailed Wikipedia post about the young technical genius entrepreneur worth billions of dollars, he runs after him and offers him the tour.

    Of course that kind of stunt doesn't work when you have actual competent security, but every place has vulnerabilities.

    --
    "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
    --- Jerry Garcia
  5. In other news by skovnymfe · · Score: 2

    In other news, an Australian band has been caught red handed paying news outlets for advertising under the guise of a stupid as fuck news article with no content what so ever. Go kill yourself slashdot. Seriously.