When John passed away there was concern by the Bloodliners that their annual gathering would end, but Bob, seeing now a fantastic business opportunity, decided to continue holding the camps either under his guidance or at least with his blessing.
I only attended once while John was still running it, and I didn't experience the whole thing. We only went to a Saturday night concert. The Bloodliners still hold separate events at the same hotel. There are some who post on Crossroads who don't particularly affiliate with the Bloodliners, but because they attend the camp and hang with Bob Shane and the current Trio members they consider themselves to be insiders. Some, in my opinion, bear a resemblance to lap dogs who follow Bob and the Trio around as if they'd been told to "Heel." Most of them are males, but they act like the female fans that we used to call groupies.
When we lived in Denver we got to know two twin brothers who were the extreme example of this type of fan. One of them travelled to Australia once to scour the country for Dave Guard memorabilia. They also spent time in Hawaii pestering Bob Shane's brother for insider stuff. And a long-time friend of ours in Las Vegas offered to sell these twins a pair of Bob Shane's underware that she had purportedly acquired from an evening they'd shared way back when. I'm sure that was a scam but the twins bought into it.
Maybe Mark would remember this better than I, but there was a group of true groupies, females, from the midwest (Minnesota?) who were such avid Brothers Four fans that they ended up moving to Seattle so they could breath the same air we breathed. One of them even changed her name to Michelle because it was the closest name she could pick to Mike (Kirkland.)
On the other hand, there are many KT fans who, like Dave, would travel long distances to come to our shows and were always very respectful. We got to know many of them as good friends, Dave among them. I still keep in touch with many of these folks, and developing these friendships was one of the best things about my travels with both groups.
Oddly, since leaving the Trio, I've met a few people at my solo shows who have become personal "cling-ons." They're folks who just seem to come off as a little too awed by my background, as opposed to folks who just want to get to know us. That's a hard thing to describe without introducing you to them in person, but suffice it to say, we try to keep them at arm's length. Nice enough folks, for the most part, but just a little too...awestruck? Hey, we're just regular folks under those striped shirts and we have always appreciated our fans. Yes even the ones who are somewhat intense - they buy our CDs too.
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