Fans stay ‘Hedley Strong’ despite accusations

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This article was published 16/03/2018 (3100 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nicole Kennedy has been cutting out pink paper hearts in preparation for Saturday’s Hedley concert at Bell MTS Place.

The hearts are emblazoned with “#IStandWithHedley” and direct people to a Change.org petition to reinstate radio airplay for the band that’s been dogged by sexual-abuse allegations and a radio-station boycott of its songs since its cross-country tour began in February.

Kennedy is also making T-shirts that read “Hedley Strong.”

“I’m a very firm believer in ‘you’re innocent until proven guilty,’” she says. “It’s very easy to ruin someone’s life.”

Clearly, Saturday’s concert is not going to be an ordinary stop on an ordinary tour.

Last month, anonymous sexual-misconduct allegations involving the Canadian pop-rock band surfaced on Twitter, some involving girls as young as 14.

The backlash was immediate: Corus Radio, Bell Media and CBC Music pulled Hedley’s music from their radio stations. The band was fired by its management team. Both opening acts — Neon Dreams and Shawn Hook — left the band’s current Cageless tour. Hedley dropped out of the televised portion of the 2018 Juno Awards, held March 25 in Vancouver, and withdrew from the three categories it was nominated in.

The shows, however, would go on, but the allegations kept mounting. About three weeks ago, an Ottawa woman accused frontman Jacob Hoggard of rape. A second woman, from Toronto, accused him of ignoring her ground rules during a sexual encounter.

Hoggard has released statements denying the allegations.

“However, over the past 13 years, I have behaved in a way that objectified women,” he wrote in a statement posted to Twitter on Feb. 28, and apologized for his “careless” behaviour. Hedley announced that it would be going on an indefinite hiatus after the tour wraps in Kelowna, B.C., on March 23.

Kennedy is not the only fan who has decided to stand by the band. The 33-year-old Brandon woman took her mom and her 11-year-old son to the band’s Feb. 16 concert at the Keystone Centre in Brandon, where they met the band. She’s been a fan since she first saw Hoggard on Canadian Idol in 2004.

She believes the radio boycott is both unfair and hypocritical. “There are other artists I like that do get airplay that have been unfortunately charged with crimes,” she says. “As long as they make good music, that’s really why I support them. And they’re Canadian.”

As the #MeToo movement has gained momentum, fan responses to accusations can be varied and complicated. Some can easily separate certain people and their work from their lives. Others feel as though something is being taken away from them. A common cry of frustration: “We can’t watch or listen to anything anymore!” Whose fault that is depends on your perspective.

It makes sense, then, that another byproduct of the #MeToo movement has been renewed discussion about whether it is possible to separate the art from the artist. Can you continue to love a song, a TV show or a movie even if the person who created it has possibly hurt someone?

Kennedy believes it is possible. She points to Michael Jackson — and the child sexual abuse accusations that were levelled against him — as an example. “Love his music, not going to invite him to my kid’s birthday party,” she says. “But if he was still alive, I’d go see him in concert.”

What would make her stop being a fan?

“If (Hedley’s accusers) actually come up with police reports and stuff, I probably wouldn’t be cutting out thousands of pink hearts for a petition,” she says. Still, she’s not sure that would affect her fandom. “I mean, as long as they continued to make really good music and as long as they stay together as a band, I’m going to support them.”

Toni-Dawn McGrath, 23, began listening to Hedley when she was 12. It was 2007, and her mom had returned from a Bon Jovi concert at the MTS Centre with an album by Hedley, who was the opening act. She literally wears her fandom on her sleeve; she has a Hedley tattoo on her shoulder. She’s also met members of the group a couple of times. “They were super nice and respectful,” she says.

When the sexual misconduct allegations began surfacing, McGrath took it hard.

“I was really upset personally, just because they’ve been in my life for so long and I feel like they’ve been there for me, in a way,” she says. “Their music has just helped me through tough times. To hear that people were coming forward with these allegations on Twitter, and just using that as a target to basically destroy someone’s career when there was no evidence behind anything, it hurt me. I was talking to my mom about it — I sent her the posts that Hedley had made. It’s upsetting seeing someone going through this. It’s actually kind of brave that he’s going through with the tour, that they want to go out and do it for their fans and the people that work for them, like the people who put up the stage and whatnot.”

McGrath has empathy for people who are coming forward, but she thinks the anonymous social media posts are unfair and “high-schoolish.”

“Right now, everything is just a Twitter frenzy,” she says. She says she’s been attacked online for posting messages in support of Hedley. “I’ve deleted Twitter because I can’t deal with the harassment and the bullying that has come out of it.” Many former fans also say they’ve been harrassed and bullied for speaking out against the band.

Still, McGrath is unwavering in her support of the group. She will be in the audience Saturday.

“I still support the band, 100 per cent,” she says. “For the amount of myself that is invested into the band and the music, it’ll always be a part of me. I grew up listening to them. That can’t be taken away just because something may or may not have happened. In the future, if something does come out, then maybe my mindset will change. But realistically, there are probably 100 different artists that I listen to who have had allegations or sexual misconduct complaints placed against them.”

Not all of Hedley’s fans feel that way, and in some instances have been requesting refunds with mixed success. Jennifer Myers is a former Hedley fan who successfully negotiated a refund from Ticketmaster for her Winnipeg concert tickets.

“Simply put, I believe the women’s stories that are coming out on Twitter,” she said via email. “Hotel staff that joined the online conversation were convincing. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I couldn’t in good faith attend and support this concert. My kids see the news and ask questions. How would it look to them for me to attend this concert? The two opening acts have bailed on the tour, and Hedley says they will take an indefinite hiatus at the end of the tour. How can this concert not be cancelled yet?”

Only one date on the tour, in Windsor, Ont., was cancelled by the venue amid the allegations. Other concerts have drawn demonstrations. At Wednesday night’s show in Sudbury, Ont., 40 protesters gathered outside of the Sudbury Community Arena carrying signs that read, “We Stand With Survivors” and “If She Was ‘Asking For It,’ Why Couldn’t You?”

For the parents of Hedley’s younger fans, the allegations have opened up difficult conversations. Susie Erajvec Parker is the mom of a 12-year-old son who is a Hedley fan. Although Parker and her family didn’t buy tickets to Saturday’s show, Hedley was her son’s first concert. He was the one who asked his mom if she had heard about what was going on after he saw posts about it on Twitter.

Parker asked him what he thought about it.

“I want him to think critically about what this is,” she says. “He’s aware of other things that have been happening in the news, with Donald Trump saying what he said, and the #MeToo movement. We watched the Oscars with the actors wearing their Time’s Up pins, so we’ve had some conversations about this.”

She says her son asked her if it were possible that the allegations weren’t true. “I said, ‘The two stories that came out are very similar, and it’s possible there might be 20 stories we haven’t heard yet.’ And he said, ‘You know what? That really sucks.’”

Parker says she looks forward to the day when she doesn’t have to have these conversations, but she thinks they are important ones for parents to have.

“Be aware of what they’re aware of,” she says. “It’s always good for kids to ask questions, and we might not have all the answers, but it’s good to have the conversation.”

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @JenZoratti

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