An Internet Superstar – Or Just Another Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle?

Sandi Thom’s manager Ian Brown is responding to claims that the singer’s claims about streaming her concerts to 70,000 or more people were greatly exaggerated as part of a PR stunt that has helped the singer’s re-released debut single ‘I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)’ stand poised to take the top spot in this week’s UK singles chart race. “We had every major record company in this piss-stained basement in Tooting. If it was orchestrated we’d have done the gigs from Chelsea, not a flat two doors down from the Halal butchers,” Brown insisted to the Guardian, rejecting the claims. “It was genuinely an innocent little thing to do and people watched it.” A friend of a friend put him in touch with Streaming Tank, a large online company that agreed to handle the hefty bandwidth requirements, while he also contacted the Sunday Times journalist, he said. Another friend, a radio plugger in America, emailed 2,000 radio stations on Thom’s behalf. Although the numbers had since been inflated, Brown said the gigs started off with 600 viewers before hitting 48,000 prior to any press coverage. Read more.