Who is the Piano Man?

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Intriguing story in the news. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4550069.stm

― Carl Deward, Monday, 16 May 2005 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

billy joel

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 16 May 2005 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I read that story. I think the guy's a bullshitter.

― andy --, Monday, 16 May 2005 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

"The hospital brought in interpreters to see if the mystery patient was from Eastern Europe."

But not anyone who knows about classical music??

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 16 May 2005 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Sean M. Hall

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 16 May 2005 22:13 (twenty-one years ago)

haha

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 16 May 2005 22:16 (twenty-one years ago)

andy OTM

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 01:49 (twenty-one years ago)

On BBC World Service just now:

"And now a story that has tranfixed the newspapers today. A man was found on the East Coast of England -- the windswept East Coast of England -- who..."

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I love how because he can play the piano a bit he's automatically a "virtuoso" - I bet he's pish really

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 08:55 (twenty-one years ago)

reports from the psychiatric compound suggest that the man can play with a dazzling virtuosity almost reminiscent of les dawson

― debden, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 08:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Life imitates sentimental movie plot = media coverage. Jaysis.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks to government cutbacks, the in-house music critics who were a feature of all NHS Hospitals pre-1997 are now mostly working in the private sector

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I want to believe!

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:06 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.avatune.com/pics/101449.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I blame Mike Batt and Vanessa-Mae

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:12 (twenty-one years ago)

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41150000/jpg/_41150375_pianoman203300.jpg http://www.autographseek.com/images/Bruce%20Hornsby.jpg

???

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"The man has not said a word since police picked him up wandering the streets of Sheerness, Kent, in a soaking wet suit and tie on 7 April."

http://www.vanessamae.com/vmh/gallery50/vmaysan50b.jpg

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:17 (twenty-one years ago)

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41150000/jpg/_41150375_pianoman203300.jpg

http://www.emi.com.br/imagem/downloads/00160_ft_002g_Thom%20Yorke%20-%20Maio%20de%202003.jpg

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Mr Shiney McShine

― zappi (joni), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm hoping that if I ever suffer a mental breakdown my virtuosity at Nintendo Game and Watch Donkey Kong will lead to a major news story about it.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Talking about this around the office... why do people think amnesia is somehow romantic?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:56 (twenty-one years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000002I6T.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 09:58 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/sc/posters/web/Picture66.jpg

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:00 (twenty-one years ago)

That's an interesting point Dom. Like Tom, I want to believe, but why? What's so damn wonderful about some poor guy nearly drowning and loosing his memory.

Everyone likes a blank slate I suppose.

― Anna (Anna), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The photo looks a bit like Thom Yorke, who hasn't been seen since appearing in the video for Band Aid 20, playing about on the piano....

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Playing songs off Amnesiac?

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Or the Bends?

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry, I meant he was on the piano for Band Aid 20.

Question: if you find Thom Yorke and he's forgotten who he is, who do you tell him he is?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:33 (twenty-one years ago)

My theory is that Yorke's been driven to a breakdown by the fact that Jonny Greenwood's being working with an orchestra and doing his rubbish sub-Penderecki classical-pap and that everyone now thinks he's the musically talented one in the group...

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:34 (twenty-one years ago)

movie within 5 years.

― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Life imitates sentimental movie plot = media coverage. Jaysis.

movie within 5 years.

Or maybe less - I read a script with PRECISELY this plot device three weeks ago.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Christ, after finding out that he had just swum the channel, Piano Man's already been signed up for the next Olympics...

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41150000/jpg/_41150375_pianoman203300.jpg http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/sport/olympics/images/olympics_sharron.jpg

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, you know that's EXACTLY who I thought he reminded me of!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Who, Sharon Davies?

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

A giant flag?

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

You weren't kidding about the movie...

Hollywood considers film on lost identity 'piano man'

Steven Morris and John Hooper in Rome
Wednesday May 18, 2005
The Guardian

He is still refusing, or unable, to say a word and his identity remains a mystery, but the lost "piano man" yesterday began to attract the attention of Hollywood.
Producers have been making inquiries about the man who, since being found near a beach in Kent more than a month ago, has communicated only via the keyboard of a piano. A film about his story could be on the horizon - though for the moment it lacks an ending.

Staff at the UK charity National Missing Persons Helpline were sifting through more than 400 calls and emails from people suggesting who the man might be or putting forward theories about how he got to the spot on the seafront road in Minster, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, where he was found last month dressed in a dripping wet suit and tie.
Police forces across Europe were also chasing clues. In Rome a street artist, who was in Italy illegally, gave himself up to the authorities to tell them he used to work with the piano man. He said he had performed his mime act to music played by the man, who he claimed was French. The police in Rome informed Interpol.

The piano man, who is in his twenties or thirties, was discovered late at night wearing smart black clothes with the labels removed from them. He was taken to hospital, where he remained silent. When doctors gave him paper and a pencil he drew a detailed picture of a grand piano. When led to a piano he began to skillfully play themes from Swan Lake and from what seemed to be his own compositions.

A range of theories have been put forward about him. One suggests he is a ballet company's repetiteur (coach), a theory that has some force because it is relatively unusual for pianists to play Swan Lake. He could be a concert pianist (his sketch of a piano appeared to be illuminated by spotlight). One theory is that he is an immigrant who has tried to get into the country illegally. Or, he is an autistic savant.

Whatever the true answer, the situation has captured the imagination of people around the world.

Adrian Lowther, spokesman for West Kent Mental Health Trust, which is caring for the man, said he had taken calls about the case from as far afield as Japan, Australia and the US. There had also been a lot of interest from eastern Europe and Scandinavia as the man had pointed to a flag of Sweden when shown an atlas.

Mr Lowther said: "The response has been incredible. We now have to start to go through the leads we have."

One Hollywood producer told the Guardian it was an "amazing" story and said he was making inquiries about obtaining the rights to it. Bard Dorros, of the management and production company Smart Entertainment, said: "The piano man's situation makes us ask so many questions about issues such as the fragility of the human mind, the nature of communication, and the importance, or unimportance, of identity.

"Great stories raise, and often attempt to answer, questions about the nature of the human mind, how it works, who we are. The piano man's story frames that in a mystery - what is at stake is this man's identity."

― Paul Kelly (kelly), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 05:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh lordy.

I bet this guy has pulled this whole thing as a stunt because he really is some dud pianist who wants publicity. I dearly hope not, but it all seems so odd.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 06:02 (twenty-one years ago)

a french street musician?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4557619.stm

― zappi (joni), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 06:39 (twenty-one years ago)

So maybe he had swum the channel after all... Weird that all the labels were removed from his clothes, I can't figure that bit out at all really.

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 06:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, so the whole virtuosity thing was basically mad hype by some tabloids or something. A recent update (which I saw in a Norwegian newspaper, so I won't post a link) says that he's a "fairly talented amateur" and that he had a pretty limited repertoire that he played over and over. Stuff like John Lennon songs etc.

I've decided that no matter what news story the newspaper (or, rather the Illuminati) will tell us in the future, the reality of the situation is that he's the child of Marilyn Monroe and the moon (it's obviously sentient, why else would it have a FACE? Amazing how they manage to cover up something that EVERYONE can see with their own eyes!) and that he's escaped from Area 51, which is in fact in Kent.
I'm still trying to figure out how this ties in with the eye in the pyramid on the dollar bill. Could it be HIS eye?

― Øystein - He who sees the world clearly (Øystein), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 09:11 (twenty-one years ago)

and that he had a pretty limited repertoire that he played over and over.

There is a tavern in the town, in the town.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

We've all apprently been in the mood for a melody.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Sing a song of amnesia.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I wish he had been an accordian virtuoso, or a jews-harp virtuoso, or a wax-paper-and-comb virtuoso. Now THAT'S a movie I'd go see! Can you imagine the scene where the mute mystery man (Adrien Brody?) spots a jews harp, picks it up, and starts twanging plaintively to express his plight? AUTOMATIC OSCAR.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Nick, you're golden.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

"He won't speak. Hasn't said a word since he stepped out of the sea... the sea that nearly swallowed him. But he keeps lighting his farts."

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

WHAT IF HE PLAYED THE MUSICAL SAW!?!!?!?!?

It would be so eeeerie!

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe a sousaphone. The only way he can express his inner pain is by marching around in a field and OOMPAHing.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

what if he played a THEREMIN?? that he brought with him OUT OF THE MURKY DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN??

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

"He won't talk, but he's been doing the hambone for three straight days."

"My god, it's...MORSE CODE! He's hamboning to us in morse code!"

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

This could go on for a while, huh?

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

we haven't even touched the percussion family

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm pretty sure the hambone would count as percussion.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

What about spoons? Are spoons percussion, of utensils? And by that token wouldn't the hambone be considered more in the bone family?

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

we've already had a thread on that

do hambones and/or spoons qualify as percussion instruments?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe he came out of the sea carrying an ANTIQUE VICTROLA and an ORIGINAL 78RPM RECORD:

http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/hambone.jpg

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah. rhythm novelty. Mystery solved.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Notice how the media has given almost no play at all to the Piano Man's hospital roommate, Captain Jack.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

whatever happened to this guy? still a mystery?

― dahlin (dahlin), Thursday, 30 June 2005 10:12 (twenty years ago)

These kind of stories always scare me. ANYONE wandering around not knowing who they are, unable toc ommunicate, and no-one knowing where they come from, is odd and unsettling. The fact that he bashes out Swan Lake when prodded is just plain eerie. Good luck to him tho.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Thursday, 30 June 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

Does anyone apart from me think that he looks like Momus?

― Tech Support Droid (ForestPines), Thursday, 30 June 2005 10:50 (twenty years ago)

Still a mystery, apparently. Wikipedia article

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 30 June 2005 12:13 (twenty years ago)

(if that last Danish claim doesn't change things, that is)

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 30 June 2005 12:16 (twenty years ago)

WHen I 1st saw the photo, I thought he needed an eye patch, yes.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Thursday, 30 June 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

ok.. it's a 20 year old German who said the whole thing was just a stunt.
(i am reading this on tv text.. trying to find an internet link with the story)

― Ludo (Ludo), Monday, 22 August 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4172662.stm

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 22 August 2005 12:53 (twenty years ago)

A cunning stunt by a stunning ...

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)

I FEEL CHEATED!

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 22 August 2005 15:57 (twenty years ago)

Additionally, The Mirror's source claimed that he did not play the piano that well, but "just kept tapping one key continuously".

this is really the worst part.

― Ludo (Ludo), Monday, 22 August 2005 17:18 (twenty years ago)

What do you mean, that was a Morton Feldman piece he was playing there

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Monday, 22 August 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

is it also true that it was a keytar, not a piano?

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Monday, 22 August 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

What do you mean, that was a Morton Feldman piece he was playing there
hehehe.

― Ludo (Ludo), Monday, 22 August 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)

From the Times: 'Friends in the village said that Andreas Grassl spent hours in internet chat rooms where he was known as “Scatman”. He also wrote a column for a local newspaper about pop music. '
he's one of us!

― dahlin (dahlin), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

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