The Pop Corporation

This is a genuinely lovely bit of news and it doesn’t matter if you’ve heard of Bring Me The Horizon or not. Trust us. Keep reading, it’ll be worth it in the end.

What’s going on then? Well, there’s a children’s author called Oliver Sykes. The singer of BMTH is called Oli Sykes. People have been sending a lot of emails to the wrong Sykes, notably, the one who writes books.

The author wrote in the Metro where he detailed a period in his life where he would respond to the flurry of emails which were intended for the singer. He said that he was studying theatre at Lancaster University in 2008 (coinciding with the second LP from the group). He wasn’t aware of them, because he’s more into folk music.

Being a good folkie, he said: “Within a week of it hitting the shelves, that changed. My inbox started piling up with messages – predominantly from teenage girls – desperately trying to contact Oli Sykes. I had about 30 or 40 people telling me how much they loved ‘me’ and ‘my album.’”

That’s all well and funny, but fans would often get in touch talking about their mental health and, being a good head, he would inform these young people that they’d got in touch with the wrong guy, but would also offer sincere sympathy: “I was a student and completely unequipped to help or do anything about it, but I couldn’t just leave them unread – not when they were baring so much of themselves.”

In the beginning, he replied to every single email he received, which is very, very lovely. Eventually, it all got a bit too much and he tried to contact the band and their label directly. Alas, they ignored him. That’s the music biz, eh?

“Initially, I started sending responses to each person saying, ‘Thank you for your message. I’m not actually the Oli Sykes that you want to contact, but I’m really sorry to hear about what you’re going through and I wish you all the best. Here’s a link to the charity, Mind’. I’m someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety – I was an angry boy and have had counselling since I was 10 – so I think I was quite switched on to a lot of the issues these fans were facing. “

When the band released their third album, things mercifully settled down, presumably because the fans themselves had got a little bit older and wiser. Or were using social media instead, making some account manager’s life a misery.

Even with this accidentally close link with the group, the author didn’t find himself loving the BMTH sound: “I had a listen to their first albums and it sounded to me like somebody was pulling the brakes on a bicycle in dire need of some oil. It was an assault on my ears. I don’t think I could sit down with a full album without also coming away with a headache.”

Oliver – if you ever want to write some LP reviews for us, the door is always open. That’s a pure zinger of a take! Here’s a link to the author’s website.