Et tu, Plum?

Further Lessons in Perspective.

Right, so, where were we? Oh, yes. DISPOSSESSED. What a sorry affair that was.

A regrettable situation; an angry band made angrier; calls for retribution; strange fruit before sundown. Hysteria to DEFCON 1; two minutes to midnight; Reds under beds; racists next to bassists.

Wrong-place-wrong-time; a blood-soaked Bacchanalia; scapegoat to sacrificial lamb; Robinson meets Mersault. Guilty by association, innocent by deed; blameless by investigation, responsible by need.

Don’t ask questions; don’t dawdle in doorways; don’t forget we’re the good guys; the glove has to fit.

Full on ochlocracy; long live the crowd; judge, jury and executioner; consolidate the power.

Facts? What about them? Don’t be such a handbrake. What’d Dennis Denuto say? It’s all about the vibe. After all, attention to detail is simply intention to derail. Cuff a bastard before the public forgets. We run on a twenty-four-hour memory these days.

No, no. We deserve better. The defendant deserves a chance, and we owe it to ourselves to make a habit of being righteous in our judgements. It wasn’t too long ago that we were all swept away by the Macarena, was it? Relying upon the collective wisdom of undisciplined minds, who knows what new travesty waits for us around the corner?

My powers of clairvoyance fading, I can only hope that this inevitable calamity manifests itself in continued, broad accusations of career-ruining personality traits via social media. I don’t think I have it in me to survive a Macarena Round II. I've got enough on my plate as it is.

Besides, you can get a grip on these allegations pretty easily if you make an earnest attempt at it. Review the available sources; examine the people or tribes involved; suss the who, the what and the why; gauge the legitimacy. There or there abouts. Bingo bango bongo. Yadda-yadda-yadda. So it goes.

On the other hand, I will never understand the Macarena, nor Matt Okine's stand up career, nor Illy’s fanbase [6], nor Tash Sultana’s facial contortions. It is what we cannot comprehend that scares us the most, and sometimes it is easier to choose not to try.

So, given everything that we know about the incident at the Red Rattler Theatre on July 29 2016, the question is begged: why do those dirty little labels remain? Is Dylan Frost a racist? And if so, what makes us sure enough in our belief as to guiltlessly brand him with the mark of the beast?

Promised drama of Shakespearean proportions, a casual observer with an eye for a comment section might believe that the incident involving Dylan Frost and Thelma Plum represents the third act, the grand finale, where our narratives’ antagonist is finally exposed, pants-around-ankles, smouldering gun in hand. Mr. Frost in the conservatory with the candle stick. Racist. Misogynist. Sodomist [7]. Fucked.

After all, even though the DISPOSSESSED incident unequivocally presented not even the slightest indication of racism, the mere existence of continued allegations should mean that it’s sickeningly abundant where Plum is concerned, right? Where there’s smoke there’s fire and all the rest? [8]

Again, as with all things, I’m not so sure. But I am also not a truth maker, so it’s up to us to investigate. Unbelievably unavailable elsewhere on the internet, we’ll lay down the facts in entirety, and, with the cards down, discuss the implications.

Then, we might be able to overturn the Court of Public Opinion’s verdict, or at least understand the logic behind it. Because, as far as the internet is concerned, Dylan Frost is a racist, and it’s now up to the defendant to prove otherwise.

Unfortunately for him, nobody has ever claimed that the legal system was a fair one, and, in this trial by combat, his champion leaves a lot to be desired. With Lionel Hutz unavailable, the participating advocate barely scraped through University, and proudly picks their nose in the courtroom. Who? You’re looking at them. Mr and / or Mrs. Poppelov. Attorney-at-law [9].

So, yet again, we ask: what actually happened?

FACTS, FACTS, GLORIOUS FACTS

Thelma Plum I: Yeah

On the 2nd of December 2016, Thelma Plum posted a now-deleted status via her personal Facebook account, detailing her interpretation of an incident that occurred earlier that evening, involving herself, Nick Lupi [10], Dylan Frost and Frost’s cousin (the full statement can be found here).

Outside the Lady Hampshire Hotel in Camperdown, Plum alleged that Frost started ‘getting in [Lupi’s] face’, causing Plum to intervene by telling the Sticky Finger’s front man to ‘fuck off’.

In reaction, Plum claims that Frost’s attention shifted, as he ‘started swearing at [her] and spitting’. Following a short break in the hostility, she asserts that Frost ‘started trying to fight [Plum] again’, ‘getting right in [their] faces whilst [they] were trying to leave’.

In ‘hysterics’, Plum and Lupi eventually found refuge in an Uber, with Plum requesting the driver to lock the doors before Frost ‘proceeded to come up to Nick’s side of the car screaming, swearing and again spitting’. Plum contends that she had ‘never felt so unsafe in [her] life’, and that she ‘100% thought [that she] was going to be punched in the face’ if it weren’t for ‘[Frost’s] friend standing in the middle’ whenever ‘he swung’.

Finally, Plum charges that ‘there [are a] countless number of people that have SEEN [Frost] rough up women’, that Frost ‘starts fights because he is bored’ and that there is footage of Frost ‘railing racist abuse at DISPOSSESSED’.

I want to pause briefly to reflect on these three allegations.

We know that the last allegation is untrue [11] and the preceding two trouble me greatly. The penultimate accusation demonstrates a profoundly poor understanding of mental illness, and the first allegation, strewn across the internet, cannot responsibly be regarded as anything other than hearsay. At risk of derailing the momentum of this section, and wanting to lay the facts out in entirety prior to providing opinion, the rest of my thoughts on this matter can be found in the footnotes. Never forget the footnotes. Praise be to footnotes. [12]

In the immediate fallout, Plum blunderbussed follow-up statements and comments across the internet, as individuals who are relentlessly hoarded by packs of rabid bigots, trolls and tosspots tend to do.

Most pertinently, on the 3rd of December, Plum detailed the ‘emotional labour’ that she experienced as a result of ‘speaking out against Dylan’ [13]. Within the post, Plum states that she would have never ‘dragged the band name’ into the public eye prior to the dispute, with the incident seemingly acting as a catalyst for her to challenge the band to take ‘responsibility for [their] front man’s actions instead of playing down/apologising for him’ [14]. She likewise slams the band for their response to DISPOSSESSED’s statements surrounding the incident at the Red Rattler Theatre. [15] Finally, Plum, without explanation, continued to dangerously perpetuate the notion that Frost has ‘a history of violence against women’, as supposedly based upon accounts provided to her privately. The full version can be read here.

Immediately, a few elements are noteworthy across the two statements provided:

Plum mentions race exclusively in regard to the DISPOSSESSED incident, and nothing within her account suggests that race was a motivating factor, or even apparent, within her dispute with Frost.

The argument began as a dispute between Dylan Frost and Nick Lupi, and ended with Frost approaching Lupi’s side of the vehicle. Is it fair to consider Plum as Frost’s sole target within the dispute? Or was she a secondary focus?

If Frost ‘swung’ at Plum, why is it exclusively Frost’s friend who is intervening? What is Lupi’s role within the dispute? It is difficult to imagine Lupi remaining passive if his girlfriend was at risk of violence, especially considering the familiarity of Frost, an individual that Lupi had previously performed with [16].

The alleged threat of violence is mentioned relatively late and receives little consideration within the account, given the gravity of the alleged actions.

A pretty ugly encounter, even with the most generous of pro-Frost interpretations. However, seemingly inevitably, there is always more to consider.

Paige Moore: Yeah Nah

On the 9th of December, Paige Moore, an alleged witness, took to Facebook to provide her own version of the incident in an attempt to ‘shed light on a very one-sided story’. Moore was (and possibly still is) the girlfriend of Frost’s cousin, the fourth individual involved in the dispute as mentioned by Plum. The full account can be found here.

Moore suggests that both herself and her boyfriend only ‘had two drinks each’ (‘making [them] sober’) and states her belief that ‘the other parties included were not’. Relaying her boyfriend’s experience, Moore challenges Plum’s narrative, suggesting that ‘Dylan did not meet Thelma Plum’ prior to the final incident, and that the ‘scene of four people’ maintained a ‘distance between all of them’, placing Frost outside of ‘any kind of reach of Thelma’.

Further questioning Plum’s account, Moore suggests that all involved parties were ‘screaming at each other’ (‘nothing horrible … “fuck you” and such’), before Moore’s ‘boyfriend proceeded to grab Dylan away and tell him to breathe and calm down’.

Walking Frost away from the event, Moore suggests that Lupi and Plum ‘kept yelling things to get a rise out of [Frost]’, such as ‘I’m going to make sure you’re never on Triple J again’ and ‘Your career is going to be over’[17]. Then, Moore states, Lupi approached Frost and threatened ‘to bash him’ if the front man didn’t leave the area. Moore suggests that their party complied, and that as the confrontation deescalated, ‘Thelma burst into hysterical tears’.

Interestingly enough, it seems that she may have got her wish. According to an article released by the Industry Observer on June 19, Sticky Fingers have seemingly been blacklisted from Triple J, despite the fact they released a new single, ‘Kick On’, in mid-April. Censorship in effect.

With Plum and Lupi getting into an Uber shortly afterwards, Moore verifies Plum’s suggestion that Frost ‘did run after’ the vehicle and concedes that he ‘may have spit on the ground’, but stresses that ‘he did not try to get into the vehicle or kick it’.

Ultimately, Moore shies away from ‘trying to claim Dylan as being innocent’, instead maintaining that Plum’s ‘intoxicated’ boyfriend ‘was acting the same way [that] Dylan was’ (‘just as aggressive’) and that ‘Plum should take some responsibility’ for the incident.

Most pertinently, Moore twice emphasises that ‘Dylan never once yelled anything about race, her being a woman, or wanting to fight her. There were no swinging arms [and] no slurs of any kind’.

Oh fuck. This is just confusing now.

It was so much easier when we only had one side of the story.

What? There’s more?

Jesus Christ.

The Australian education system didn’t prepare me for this [18].

Thelma Plum II: Yeah Nah Yeah

Later that day (the 9th of December), Plum posted a response to Moore’s account via her Instagram page. You can view it here.

Within it, Plum dismisses Moore’s testimony as ‘absolute bullshit’ [19] and reiterates several aspects of her original account.

Namely, Plum reinforces that ‘Dylan acted like a violent prick’ and ‘chased the car at full speed with his arm and fist as if he was going to smash the windscreen’ [20].

Otherwise, Plum laments the ‘extent’ of ‘flack, abuse and … defaming’ that she experienced as a result of publishing her account of the events, whilst expressing that she finds reassurance within the fact that she had allegedly ‘been contacted by so many of his past victims including friends and family of his past lovers’, whom she ‘would never out’ as, understandably, she argues that ‘it is their decision to come forward publicly’ [21].

DISPOSSESSED: Footage Released

As discussed within the first part of this series, on the 12th of December, DISPOSSESSED published previously-unseen footage of the alleged incident that took place at the Red Rattle Theatre on the 28th of July.

Whilst it is not directly relevant to an understanding of the incident involving Dylan Frost and Thelma Plum on the 2nd of December, it is useful to recognise its positioning within the greater timeline of events in order to understand the public’s response to the various allegations levelled at Dylan Frost.

Sticky Fingers: Yeah Nah Yeah Nah

On the 16th of April 2018, following their return from hiatus, Sticky Finger’s posted the ‘last’ of several statements addressing the saga’s controversies. Due to the brevity of the relevant section, it is copied in full below. The full Facebook post can be found here.

“Soon after The Dispossessed gig, on the night of December 2, 2016 I got into a verbal mouth off with a friend and his girlfriend. I reacted angrily to something that she said and yelled aggressively back at both of them and I’ve regretted it ever since. I’m sorry that she felt threatened by my behaviour. That is never ok. I’m ashamed I made a woman feel unsafe around me and I never want to put myself or anyone else in that position again. This is something we all feel very strongly about. Violence against women is not ok and it never will be. We absolutely feel for and support women who have been affected by abuse and we should have talked about this sooner.”

AN EXERCISE IN INTERPRETATION: WHERE’S JA?

Well, fuck. Thank the Nazarene that we are done with that. It all got a little dense, didn’t it? Wall-to-wall facts. Eastern Bloc prose. Zero indulgence. A labyrinth of testimony. Nothing in the way of interpretation. No guiding light. No Star of Bethlehem. No Deux Ex Machina.

So, what are we to make of it all?

Before we start, let me make one thing clear: don’t you dare look to me to outsource your fucking opinion. Nor anyone else for that matter. You’re going to be asked to explain it one day and, rightly or wrongly, you’re going to be judged on your explanation, so it’s best that you take full ownership of it. Now and always and forever more. No ifs, no buts, no cutting corners. Have a little independence, for Christ’s sake. [22]

Of course, by you I don’t mean you. I’m talking about the urchins on the BCC. You continue as you are: independently and intellectually curious. The way one should be.

As for what I think? No. I couldn’t. I won’t even entertain the idea. You know I hate sermonising. What would I know anyway? And what does it matter if you’re interested? You insist, you say? Fine. I’ll share. But don’t expect to learn anything. Here goes.

Ultimately, it’s blatantly obvious to me, and hopefully anyone that has an interest in the truth, that there is a distinct difference separating the incidents involving DISPOSSESSED and Plum. With DISPOSSESSED, our Gordian Knot of opposing testimonies was decimated by the footage that emerged, and here, we’re left rudderless and suffocated by the fog of war, with no convenient or overwhelmingly apparent narrative to guide us past the icebergs of convenience.

And so, a quest in interpretation leaves us with two options: subscribe to a cognitively convenient false binary, or accept that the reality of what occurred on the 2nd of December may lie between trench lines, within the treacherous No Man’s Land that fools so dearly fear to tread.

If you opt for the former [23], the rest is simple. Pick a side, stockpile your munitions, wait for the next skirmish, and get to throwing. Can’t decide what tribe to join? Ask a friend, they’ll no doubt have a rumour that you can lean on. Concerned that you don’t even know the poor soul that you’ll meet face-to-face, a bayonet’s length away in the comments section? Pick a pre-packaged insult from below. They’re all the bloody same anyway.

Beer bongs, bucket hats, cheap pingers, Sticky Fingers.

Septum piercings, over-shared feelings, Chekhov’s gun, Thelma Plum.

Bin tang, Bali belly, Straya tatts, felt hats.

Inner West clever, Melbourne’s better, new Bangs, Tumblr gangs.

So it goes. Pick your strawman and make them a martyr. Blow the fuckers off the map. Report their Facebook. Hand out their phone numbers [24]. Contact their workplace. Follow their families.

Destroy them in the name of humanity without showing any yourself. Force them into ghettos and forbid anyone from dealing with them. Kick them off festivals and ban them from public places. Break them down and build them up and make them thank you for the grace of saving them.

Homogenize, integrate and inter-marry. Shave their heads and extinguish their personality. Welcome them to your clone army. Apostasy? Punishable by death. Hypocrisy? That too.

Or, of course, you could always opt for the latter. If you have, congratulations for not being a dipshit and becoming comfortable with not needing to believe that you know everything, nor requiring others to view you in the same light. Welcome to the land of nuance, where normative statements are at a scarcity and idolatry is forbidden. Where you can appreciate people for what they are instead of what they’re not nor what they should be. Scary stuff.

Where you recognise that personality traits are double-edged swords, with an individual’s best quality often being a product of their worst, or vice versa. Where everybody’s fucked, somehow, and perfect is the enemy of real. Where dogma is the enemy of discourse and right and fair and all those silly little words are goals, not standards, that, like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and fairy tales, are discarded when we can cope without them or no longer require the rigidity of their instruction. If you’re only nice because you’re scared of being hit with a stick, are you really a nice person? If to falter is impure, how long can your leaders last?

Fuck. Getting a bit preachy here. Don’t lose the audience, Kurt.

It is there, within the realm of nuance, that the rest of this letter will exist and, as our ticket to ride, our coin for the ferryman, it is important for us to first consider what is consistent across all accounts, and what remains as unclear. From there, it is largely up to you to decide what you think, but I may indulge myself in a few prompting questions.

WHAT WE KNOW

The incident began as a dispute between Lupi and Frost, with Frost turning his attention to Plum following her intervention. This is verified by Plum and Sticky Fingers. Plum also asserts that at the conclusion of the dispute, Frost approached Lupi’s side of the vehicle. There was a degree of verbal tennis between the two parties, with Plum telling Frost to ‘fuck off’ (and ‘ask[ing] him how dare he try to start a fight with Nick after he was so nice to Dylan’). This is verified by Plum and Moore. That Frost was visibly irritated and outwardly aggressive to Lupi and Plum throughout the dispute. This is verified by Plum, Moore and Sticky Fingers. That Frost moved towards the Uber containing Lupi and Plum as they left the scene. This is verified by Plum and Moore. That race was not relevant to the dispute. It was not apparent throughout it, and it was not an obviously motivating factor. This is verified by Plum, Moore and Sticky Fingers. Likewise, we know that Dylan did not demonstrate racist or aggressive behaviour at the DISPOSSESSED concert, as Plum claimed in her immediate reaction. That Plum was left very affected by the incident. This is verified by Plum and Moore, who both maintain that she became ‘hysterical’ following Frost’s actions [25].

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW

The true extent to which Frost acted aggressively towards Plum and Lupi. Plum’s accounts are slightly confused, and are at odds with the accounts provided by both Moore and Sticky Fingers. The extent to which Plum and Lupi acted aggressively towards Frost. Plums account suggests a minor level of titt-for-tatt hostility, but not to the extent as alleged by Moore. The extent to which all parties were inebriated. Moore alleges that Lupi and Plum were drunk, and all parties agree that Frost was under the influence of alcohol.

AND SO?

It is impossible for us to say what truly happened on that night, and it would be both foolish and inequitable to even try. My gut suggests that it was a drunken dispute with mutual misconduct, most closely aligned with Moore’s account, that left Plum rightfully and righteously and hysterically upset, but I am not to know. In such a situation, Plum, a victim of genuine aggression, may have downplayed her own hostility in order to amplify that shown by Frost, and could you blame her? After all, given the rumours that she had heard about Frost in regards to DISPOSSESSED and other women: could she have justified a minor injustice if it translated to retribution for Frost’s perceived greater wrongdoings?

Or, was Frost’s behaviour on the night considered to be worse than it actually was given what Plum had been led to believe about the DISPOSSESSED concert? Did she believe that she was witnessing a trend emerging, and did she feel a genuine responsibility to suffocate the embers of misbehaviour early?

Are any of us, in the moment and ill-treated and upset and under the influence, absolutely above that type of behaviour? I know that I’m not, and I know for sure that you aren’t either. Jesus Christ, (redacted), we have both participated in, and been privy to, some famously fantastic arguments when drunk. I wouldn’t change it for the world, but if placed in front of it and forced to testify, would I have the courage to tell the absolute truth? I’m not so sure.

And so, is a narrative similar to Moore’s account truly unfathomable? Or, given the weight of conflicting evidence, could it even be considered to be a likely scenario?

Ay, there’s the rub: are we to prioritise Plum’s account over Sticky Fingers’? Over Moore’s? Over both? Or vice versa? [26]

Are we even to believe that any party presented the unpolluted truth? Would it even be in their best interest to do so? Are we to demonize one and deify the other? Do we have to choose?

Are we to believe that Plum started with ‘fuck off’ but parked it there? If she didn’t, does drunken, verbal jousting align with her curated public image? The series has been exceptionally costly for Sticky Fingers – do they not have a mandate to minimise the fall-out from the event wherever possible?



In a titt-for-tatt scenario, where does one individual’s culpability begin and the other individual’s end? If it takes two to tango, is walking away and disengaging the only way to truly absolve yourself? Did Plum and Lupi do this?

Are we to believe that Lupi wouldn’t have imposed himself in some manner during an incident, that Plum claims, teetered on the edge of violence? Or was Lupi, as per Moore’s account, a key perpetrator of the confrontation, threatening to ‘bash’ Frost, with the latter reacting to the aggression?

Does it make sense that Lupi would have remained silent in the aftermath of the incident if Frost was truly and exclusively out-of-line? If Plum was blameless in her appraisal of the event, would Lupi’s opinion not have helped to silence the tribal tidal wave of abuse that decimated his girlfriend’s social media accounts for the weeks, months and years following? [27]

Will we ever get the answers to these questions? I don’t think so.

Do the answers even exist in the form in which they once did? Is the uncorrupted truth still available?

Huh? You’re going to have to explain that one, Kurt.

Two years down the track, have the half-truths and untruths; white lies, exaggerations and good intentions become fact in the minds of those who championed them?

Are the personalities involved now too invested to change their version of events? Or is it that they were entirely honest about what they saw, with the differences in accounts being attributable to the unique lenses through which we all view the world?

And so, do we really gain anything from continuing this line of thinking? No, I don’t think so. We could go on and on and question every fact, every little piece of minutiae, until our curtain call, but even then, the situation will never resolve itself. Instead, drama-dissected, facts unprecedentedly presented, I want to focus on one last topic to close out this letter: what are the implications of what we have learnt for the traits that Frost has been stamped with?

Is Dylan Frost a racist? Is he violent against women?

Well then, let’s have a looksee.

HANDLE WITH CARE: EASY, DIRTY LABELS

At risk of repeating myself, to make it overwhelmingly clear:

DISPOSSESSED did not explicitly accuse Frost of acting in a racist manner. They suggested that he, ‘among many others’, ‘grossly shirt front[ed]’ the band. From the available footage, we know this to be false. Frost did not act aggressively or display behaviour consistent with racism.

Thelma Plum did not accuse Frost of racist conduct during their altercation. She did suggest that she had been led to believe that he acted accordingly during the incident with DISPOSSESSED, but we know this to be false .

during their altercation. She did suggest that she had been led to believe that he acted accordingly during the incident with DISPOSSESSED, but we know this to be . Nobody has publicly come forward to suggest that they have personally been the victim of violence or assault at the hands of Frost. Plum suggested that Frost attempted to attack her, but there is reasonable doubt that this actually occurred. It cannot be overstated: unattributed anecdotes and hearsay are not consistent with reliable evidence. Unless somebody can be held accountable for a testimony, the testimony can bear no weight.

And so, what concrete evidence actually exists to suggest that the allegations are true? In the case of R v Dylan Frost (2016), what can the presiding magistrate (Justice Poppelov) rely upon in order to uphold the previous guilty verdict, as handed to him by lower courts? With the appellant pleading for a re-trial, what indisputable proof remains to ensure his due-process-damnation?

Nothing. Nothing of any substance, anyway. From all angles, it seems that the evidence is overwhelmingly in Frost’s favour. He may likely be a coarse individual, prone to drunken disputes for a variety of reasons, but I am not to know or say. Nor is such behaviour, held in contempt by some, consistent with the greater allegations that he has been faced with.

No, as far as the public records show, pertaining to the charges of racism and gender-based violence, the jury has reached a decision: overwhelmingly not guilty. Insufficient evidence. Case dismissed. Get fucked. Next.

But will it be enough? Will the Court of Public Opinion decree accordingly? Can one even appeal to the Court of Public Opinion, or has the damage been done? With the available evidence so clearly pointing in one direction, how was it that the original decision, a gross negligence and a heinous injustice, was arrived at in the first instance? How was it allowed to happen? Who are we to blame?

The answer, I believe, is threefold in that: crucial pieces of evidence emerged at unfortunate times; the bands detractors were desperate to believe; and, perhaps most importantly, the Australian music media was deliberately dishonest or alarmingly amateur in their coverage of the events. We will cover the first two components today, but our appraisal of the music media - our pièce de résistance, our magnum opus, our crowning jewel - will have to wait. After all, we wouldn’t want to make any unsubstantiated claims, would we? As Marcus Aurelius put it: the best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

Always fear the vengeance of a patient man.

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE?

To better understand how this weighty misconception came to be, it’s important that we review the timeline as presented earlier.

July 29th, 2016 – DISPOSSESSED releases their statement following the incident allegedly involving Dylan Frost at Marrickville’s Red Rattler Theatre.

DISPOSSESSED releases their statement following the incident allegedly involving Dylan Frost at Marrickville’s Red Rattler Theatre. December 2nd, 2016 – Thelma Plum releases her initial statement regarding an incident allegedly involving Dylan Frost at Camperdown’s Lady Hampshire Hotel.

Thelma Plum releases her initial statement regarding an incident allegedly involving Dylan Frost at Camperdown’s Lady Hampshire Hotel. December 9th, 2016 - Paige Moore releases her statement challenging Plum’s account of the events that occurred on the night of the 2nd of December, supplanting it with her own.

Paige Moore releases her statement challenging Plum’s account of the events that occurred on the night of the 2nd of December, supplanting it with her own. December 12th, 2016 – DISPOSSESSED releases YouTube footage of the incident that occurred on the night of the 28th of July, absolving Frost of wrongdoing.

DISPOSSESSED releases YouTube footage of the incident that occurred on the night of the 28th of July, absolving Frost of wrongdoing. April 16th, 2018 – Sticky Fingers release a statement about the incidents involving Dylan Frost, DISPOSSESSED and Thelma Plum.

Scanning the above, it’s easy to see how a casual onlooker, mindlessly scrolling their Facebook feed on the 3rd of December, might’ve believed that they were seeing a pattern emerging. As a species we really love a pattern, don’t we? Trends your friend, clustering illusions and all the rest.

DISPOSSSED? Aboriginal.

Racism? Apparently.

Thelma Plum? Aboriginal.

Racism? Why not? [28]

Of course Frost was involved in a dispute with another Aboriginal Australian.

Of course DISPOSSESSED were telling the truth, didn’t you hear what Plum had to say?

Of course Plum wouldn’t lie, didn’t you read about the DISPOSSESSED gig?

Two pretty murky allegations, with one justifying the other and vice versa. Circular reasoning rears its ugly head once again, but, given the public record at the time, how else could you expect the crowd to respond?

They didn’t have anything else to work with until an entire week later, and in the age of social media, the twenty-four-hour news cycle and Flappy Bird, we simply can’t maintain interest in a topic for a period of such eternity. We hear details, we make a judgement, we move on, we stick with it. There’s far too much information entering our heads on an hourly basis to constantly review our positions. You wouldn’t make it past the front door if you did.

Besides, Moore’s testimony was fighting an up-hill battle, wasn’t it? She was now competing against the weight of both DISPOSSESSED and Plum’s accusations, with her low-profile preventing her voice from being heard, and her status as Frost’s cousins-girlfriend preventing it from being taken seriously. Enemies of our enemies never lie, and their friends seldom don’t. How could we even begin to trust her?

But, finally, on the 12th of December 2016, the dam-wall of misinformation broke. The foundations upon which the entire saga was predicated upon, the incident on July 28th, came crashing down. Frost wasn’t shown to be acting in a manner consistent with racism, and, hang on, did Plum even accuse him of doing so herself?

Unfortunately, it was too-little-too-late; history had already been written. Onlookers had already made up their minds and, even then, people weren’t widely aware of the testimonies that painted Frost in a more positive light.

Why’s that?

Well that’s a story for another time. For now, just ask yourself: what motives do companies like Music Feeds have to resolve controversy? If you’re a gossip rag masquerading as legitimate journalism, what drives more clicks: a rabid crowd or a placated one? A calm understanding of a situation doesn’t translate well to engagement metrics, does it? [29]

CONVENIENT CONVERSION: A WILL TO BELIEVE

Thank Christ: our last little section. My fingertips are busted and bruised and red and raw. My brain hurts. I now hate social media and music and the actual media and people, especially people, for being so unquestioningly naïve and simple and ready to believe everything, anything, that falls at their feet in the right packaging. Most of all? I hate myself. What convinced me to bear this cross? Why is this article double the length of its predecessor? Is 211 unique page views really worth it? Will this even move the needle?

Alas, drained and empty, these questions will have to wait. We are not quite there yet. Perseverance is next to godliness. Has High Fantasy taught us nothing? Stephen Bradbury? What would Frodo do? Fall over, no doubt. The fucker was useless. Absolutely and entirely so. But would he rise again? Until the end, and that single quality made him heroic where stronger, more interesting, less whiny characters could not be so.

What the fuck? You’re addled, Kurt.

So, channelling the ever incompetent but single-minded Frodo – or Potter, they’re essentially the same – we finally ask: why was the music public so ready to believe these allegations?

People don’t like Sticky Fingers.

Well, no. That’s not true. A lot of people like Sticky Fingers. In fact, a lot of people like Sticky Fingers with a passion that many other bands can’t replicate. Following their return from hiatus, they sold out a world tour, tens of thousands of tickets, from a single Instagram post. In 2016, they sold out two shows at the Enmore Theatre in under three minutes without the gigs being promoted anywhere apart from the ticketing website where it suddenly appeared, for a moment or two, before slipping back into the void.

The very Instagram post that announced their return received 102,598 likes and 24,717 comments [30]. For perspective, fellow festival fillers, the DMAs, have only 55,300 followers; Client Liaison have 37,900; the Preatures have 32,000; Gang of Youths 60,100; Violent Soho 91,600; and the Dune Rats have 71,500.

In terms of pure follower count, Sticky Fingers (253k) considerably outrank industry giants Angus and Julia Stone (153k), Courtney Barnett (167k) and the Hilltop Hoods (117k), among many others, despite less institutional support or shorter time in the limelight. I mean, Illy or Courtney Barnett or Amy Shark or Gang of Youths or the Thundamentals or San Cisco could release twenty-four minutes of them farting into a microphone and it’d still make Triple J's feature album of the week. Nobody can doubt the fact that Triple J is a radio station that has its chosen darlings, and the Industry Observers recent report unequivocally indicates that Sticky Fingers are not amongst the lucky few.

Despite this, Sticky Fingers were the fourth most streamed Australian artist of 2016 – behind Flume, Sia and the Hilltop Hoods – before overtaking Adelaide’s favourite Hoods in 2017 for the third position, despite not touring or releasing music within that year.

I could go on. Sticky Fingers are massive, and it is a testament to their appeal that they have been able to achieve such heights completely independently, with their long-time label, Sureshaker, resembling a dainty family operation compared to the major label monoliths that dominate the music industries skyline. There’s no big budget, almost no press, no mainstream radio support and mountains of controversy, yet still the band defiantly powers forward as one of Australia’s best-selling acts. Neal Hunt, owner of Sureshaker and the band’s manager, still has a fucking G-mail account. Why bother forking out a whopping sixty dollars a year for a ‘professional’ account? A custom domain? Who’s got the time for that? Who can be arsed? Who even knows how to pull off such a feat?

No, Sticky Fingers’ success is entirely attributable to themselves and themselves only, with their immensely unique aesthetic [31], both sonically and visually, striking a deep chord with people of all backgrounds and nationalities across the globe.

And so, through all of this, I can’t help but sense that an undercurrent of tall-poppy syndrome pervades both the music industry and its wider viewership in regards to the group. From the outside looking in: what is so special about Sticky Fingers? How are they doing more than us, with less? Why do people care? And why do people care that much?

Sticky Fingers have always been unapologetic, uncompromising and unrelenting in everything that they do and, whilst they owe a considerable amount of their popularity to this organic attitude, it’s undeniably incensed a small (yet vocal) section of the Australian music landscape.

Displaying their unrefined and uncensored personalities with frequency, the band has made headlines in the past for unsavoury behaviour and public indiscretions, including but not limited to: Frost’s arrest in 2013 following the band’s performance at Rottofest, Frost’s arrest for driving under the influence and on an expired license in 2014, and the banning of the band from a Wagga Wagga venue in 2014 [32], with their tour diaries from a similar period simply laughing off inter-brand brawls in public spaces. We all know somebody who wouldn’t support artists that behave in such a manner but by-and-large, in an era where rock and roll has lost much of the danger that defined it in times gone by, this conduct has simply added to the group’s mystique. Covering an incredible emotional spectrum within their lyrics, these actions add both colour and texture to their handling of mental illness, substance abuse and feelings of isolation. These are things that many people can relate to. These are things that people can forgive.

Alas, this is the problem. This is the source of the will to believe. The dual-purpose label-maker, fable-maker.

Yes, Frost has had an altercation with security guards at a festival; yes, Frost has been arrested for drink driving; yes, Frost has physically fought with close friends in public; and yes, Frost has had drunken arguments with acquaintances where he probably shouldn’t have, but I can name people that I count as good friends who have done the same and I know that you can too. In fact, I can count such people amongst my sibling’s friends, my friend’s friends, and even my parent’s friends. People who lapse similarly are all around. People who lapse similarly are not necessarily villains and this behaviour isn't considered enough to blacklist somebody from companionship, support or admiration.

It’s certainly not behaviour that one should be proud of, nor behaviour that the average individual would encourage amongst friends, but it’s also not of sufficient intensity or depravity to see it's perpetrator labelled as a monster in any given arbitrary good-guy-bad-guy binary.

More than this, in modern society, where opinions are a dime-a-deca-dozen, there is a compelling need to convince others of one’s individual viewpoint; a pervading “I don’t like this so you can’t either” culture. After all, to be alone in something means that we might be wrong about something, and to be wrong, online and on-record, is an embarrassment akin to petite mort. Being right has become a competition, and when it comes to the Sensitivity Olympics, the professionally outraged represent some sort of Bolt-Phelps-Owens hybrid, doped-to-the-teeth in a manner that not even Russia could imagine. A Frankenstein's Monster of Victory. Nike dressed and Nike blessed. Superhuman in every regard.

And so, when you don’t like a band for their boorish behaviour and are filthy that others do in spite of it, it’s easier to double down than to concede the need to control the world around you.

Alcoholism and aggression are transgressions, but they aren’t corrupting beyond redemption. Racism and gender based violence, on the other hand, are cardinal sins worthy of excommunication. To be publically racist or violent due an individual’s identity is to be worthy of branding as an Other, and to defend an Other, or to fraternise with them, is to risk becoming an Other yourself. You are not to support an Other. You are not to advocate for Others. Other-ship is a ticket to bully. A mandate to forget. They are to be isolated, outcast and forsaken. For now and for ever more. No ifs, no buts: Carthage must be destroyed.

And so, DISPOSSESSED’s and Thelma Plum’s accusations were an evangelist’s wet-dream. A silver bullet, the magic salve, the Final Solution. Justification, validation, confirmation - you saw it coming: of course they’re racists. Of course he’s violent. Now people aren't allowed to support them. Now you can make people choose: do you support Sticky Fingers, or are you anti-racism? Do you support Sticky Fingers, or are you against male-on-female violence? Your call. Just remember, though: anything too forgiving might earn you a one-way ticket to the shadowlands. We all know how we feel about Others, don't we?

There is no recourse either, for the band or their supporters. Why? Racism is unfalsifiable. How do you prove that someone isn't racist? It’s a set of beliefs, and none of us have access to Frost’s psyche (despite what the band’s fans may believe). It’s an allegation that sticks and any response to it is viewed with immense cynicism. Imagine if Frost was to donate $10,000 to an Aboriginal foundation tomorrow? Pandering. If he doesn’t? Racist. Don’t just apologise. Prove it with your actions.

The best bit of it all? Mersault didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral. How much easier is it to convince your peers that someone is racist if they’ve recently been arrested for lashing out at security? For driving a car whilst drunk? For peeing on a balcony and being banned from a venue? These incidents, a supposed Chekhov’s gun, represent the second chapter in the story of Sticky Fingers, with the band’s opponents demanding that Frost’s alleged misconduct towards Dunn-Velasco and Plum represents the final third: hubris the hamartia, pants around ankles, smoking gun in hand, doomed beyond dispute. Frost in the conservatory with the candle stick. It all seems too easy, doesn't it? Beware of convenience.

Of course, we know that I do not agree. Frost is very far from a perfect individual, but he is also not the monster that many want him to be. Or, if he is, we have no reason to believe so. From a casual observer's viewpoint, it seems that he is making earnest attempts to better himself, but the outcome of that process will reveal itself in time, and it is not to be discussed in this chapter.

For now, counter-attack launched, enemy line broken and opposing flanks routed, Kurt von Poppelov needs another rest. To over extend oneself is to stretch one’s supply lines, and to be without supplies is to leave oneself vulnerable for ultimate destruction.

I do not wish to experience such a fate. No, no: there is much more to tackle in this series - the bands hiatus and their return to the limelight, social media fumbles and scuffles, and, of course, the old enemy: our music media – but it will have to wait.

For now, I need rest and all the rest. Man is not a machine, and the abyss will have to look elsewhere.

Besides, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will Hannibal destroy it in one. We’ve got the fuckers on the back-foot now, don’t we? Let's give them a minute to contemplate their doom.

I truly hope you’re enjoying the experience thus far. It’s a hell of a story, isn’t it? We truly are a funny bunch.

Loving you always,

(redacted)