BS: The piano man.

Subject: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 16 May 05 - 04:39 AM

Do you know him?

A man has been found wandering in Kent, UK, by the police. The above link tells the story. He has not uttered a word since being found early April, and is in a highly distressed state. But he is amazing authorities with his musicianship.

He is currently being cared for in a secure mental health institution. They think he may be eastern european, and the area in Kent he was found in, could back up this theory. But they are appealing for anyone who knows him to come forward and help. The missing persons tel number is at the bottom of the link.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: The Shambles
Date: 16 May 05 - 06:44 PM

This is a music related thread. Perhaps some anonymous volunteer will move it upstairs?

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Kaleea
Date: 16 May 05 - 11:39 PM

This is quite interesting. Surely someone will recognise him. It would be quite easy for an experienced Piano teacher to recognise the literature he plays. Obviously he is accustomed to playing a grand piano, which points to being a performer. I good university prof of piano, classical radio DJ, or an affectionado of classical piano Music who keeps up with the latest recordings would probably recognize the young man's interpretative style. If a recording artist, the pic should be sent out to all the classical style radio stations possible. Even victims of amnesia, senile dementia & alzheimer's disease usually retain their Music knowledge, and this will likely bring back his memory if it is lost. I'll send out good thoughts for him.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 17 May 05 - 03:50 AM

If reports are true that he has labels cut out of his clothes and was wet, possibly an attempted suicide who doesn't want to be identified? The piano drawing the papers showed reminded me of the autistic boy who draws buildings. Strange no one has recognised him if he is UK resident.

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 05 - 03:55 AM

Or a would-be immigrant who doesn't want his origins known for fear of being sent back?

Surely we should be welcoming talented people into the country, not making it this difficult for them.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,thread starter
Date: 17 May 05 - 04:57 AM

I wasn't too sure where to put this request, and did feel bad about the BS tag, with hindsight I wish I had put it above the line.

Roger his drawing also made me think of the autistic boy's buildings drawings. I don't know if this has been aired on UK TV or not. I hope it has a happy outcome.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 05 - 05:07 AM

It was on UK TV news last night with a better picture of him, also on BBC Radio 4 news.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 05 - 06:01 AM

Watch out for his miraculous recovery when he is inevitably granted asylum status.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,thread starter
Date: 17 May 05 - 06:04 AM

Yes, I definitely should have put it above the line. Could someone with the know how please move it.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 May 05 - 09:00 AM

I wonder why the BBC couldn't manage an identifiable photograph?

Re: "Watch out for his miraculous recovery when he is inevitably granted asylum status."

I doubt if any person could keep up a false front for the experienced staff of a mental hospital for three months. I don't doubt that there is something seriously wrong with him.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 05 - 09:03 AM

There is a newer photo now circulating, but apparently he is so traumatised it had to be taken from a distance 'paparazzi style', as people getting too close to him causes him distress.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 05 - 09:55 AM

Mayhap he's just recovering from a handfasting!

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 05 - 10:23 AM

Mayhap he is faking it to obtain an english pssport

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,Bainbo
Date: 17 May 05 - 10:28 AM

Blimey! I work in British journalism, and I didn't think you could get any more cynical than us lot. I can't decide whether or not to be pleased to have been proved wrong. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 17 May 05 - 11:28 AM

Sounds a bit like "The Volunteer Organist".

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,cartoon fan
Date: 17 May 05 - 12:19 PM

I know how to cure him instantly.

I've watched "Tom & Jerry" cartoons..

amnesia victims just need a cartoon violence sudden wallop to the head !!!


maybe one of the guys here will volunteer to help out

http://207.103.108.99/thread.cfm?threadid=81088&messages=58

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,robomatic
Date: 17 May 05 - 11:33 PM

It's like the mystery of Kaspar Hauser, only with a piano!

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 05 - 11:56 PM

I heard a story about this on All Things Considered this evening. The social worker says that he has no background in music at all. They're trying to get the guy a piano.

Why don't they get him a piano and a pianist at the same time? Let the pianist play, listen, communicate with The Piano Man in the way musicians do (we all know there is a lot of unspoken humor in music, for example). Find someone who is conversant in a broad array of musical types and see what can be narrowed down. But don't keep him in the dark with non-musicians all around him.

I worked as a volunteer in a recreation program for mentally retarded and emotionally disturbed kids and adults. I did this for several years while I was in college, but then, as college students do, I went away after graduation. I returned a year or two later on a Saturday to visit the group, only to find that while the participants were the same, there was a whole new set of paid staff and all new volunteers. The place was rather dead that afternoon. I asked "why don't you have Frank play the piano? That always perks up the group." They didn't know what I was talking about. Somehow they'd missed transmitting the information that Frank was a music savant. I had them open the room with the piano and let Frank in and he was thrilled to get to play and everyone gathered around. He was so non-communicative in every other area that he couldn't even speak up to tell them of this gift of his.

There are many gifted pianists in the world, not all of them are know by regional orchestras. But maybe some sharp-eared volunteer somewhere will catch on that one of their flock has gone astray. Good luck to him in the meantime.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,Nellie Clatt
Date: 18 May 05 - 04:44 AM

He is a very clever illegal immigrant, he has removed all labels from his clothes and is refusing to speak [ pretending he doesn't understand ]
When he has got the sympathy of the entire country [ as he surely heading towards ] and he feels secure in his position he will turn out to a different person.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 18 May 05 - 04:50 AM

I agree. He was clever enough to remove the obviously foreign labels from all his clothing before starting his mentally ill act. Another freeloader my taxes will have to pay for. We are suckers in this country.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 18 May 05 - 04:57 AM

A large dose of sodium pentathol would get the truth out of him.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 18 May 05 - 05:37 AM

GUEST, you are right in all likelihood, except that his torn labels ar not "obviously" foreign - we could only say that if we had them to hand. As it is, we can be suspicious, that's all. But while I agree with your suspicions, I say "let's consider him innocent until proven guilty". Sooner or later something will come to light, I cannot imagine otherwise, unless he has exterminated everyone who has ever known him.

So far, I remain mystified and suspicious.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,Jos
Date: 18 May 05 - 06:13 AM

Previous guest,

If he was allowed to come into the country openly without all this subterfuge he could earn a living and contribute to society. He could be paying taxes, and not costing us anything.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 18 May 05 - 08:58 AM

Maybe he could have done if he was honest about it.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,freda
Date: 18 May 05 - 09:23 AM

We had a situation recently in Australia when a mentally ill woman was considered to be feigning her illness to avoid deportation. She was put in immigration detention and the guards thought she was putting it on. As it happened she was an Australian citizen, diagnosed schizophrenic, but was detained 10 months before authorities were forced by advocates to investigate her background and publicise her case. Once she was recognised, her family came forward. She had been on the missing persons list and was an Australian citizen.

Cornelia Rau

Resentment towards "illegals" caused authorities to put this woman in isolation, and deprive her of treatment.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 May 05 - 09:43 AM

He's Lord Lucan.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 18 May 05 - 10:16 AM

He has just been identified by a Pole living in Italy as a French street musician called Steven Villa Masson.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 May 05 - 10:19 AM

Odd to see such bitter resentment from a group of people whose common denominator is music. He apparently has a great musical gift. That doesn't come from nowhere, it implies a sophisticated eduation, and great musical talent generally isn't seen as the final clue in profiling axe murderers.

Relax, sit back, and let the story unfold.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,The Shambles
Date: 18 May 05 - 10:44 AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4557619.stm

Health workers caring for the "Piano Man" could not confirm reports he had been identified as French street musician Steven Villa Masson.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:36 AM

If he is a foreigner with no residency rights (yet) it will make a refreshing change to have someone come in who actually brings something (in the form of his gift) so I for one will welcome him.

In fact I'll even welcome him despite the fact that he may be French.

cheers, Terry

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 05 - 04:25 AM

Is folk the last bastion of the xenophobe? Oops thread drift.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: akenaton
Date: 19 May 05 - 04:30 AM

No!   Politics is!!....Ake

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 19 May 05 - 05:06 AM

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 19 May 05 - 05:44 AM

Get real, he's a con man.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:01 AM

Why would anyone cut all the labels out of their clothes, unless they were trying to hide their identity? Sounds like another scrounger to me.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:33 AM

There's talk of making a movie around this - it's a bit reminiscent of the situation in one excellent recent film, "Ladies in Lavender".

I gather they've stopped him playing the piano with the idea thatta this will force him to find other ways of communicating. That sounds pretty brutal and simplistic to me.

I note that in the picture in the press he appears to be carrying a music score, suggesting that he's able to read music as well as play it.
..................................

It strange the way some people are so eager to avoid being "taken in" that they rush to judgement on the basis of a couple of headlines.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 05 - 07:29 AM

Guest at 03:36 AM

I suspect that many (even most) incomers, legal or not, have something to offer given half a chance.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 19 May 05 - 09:09 AM

And a lot to gain also.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: The Shambles
Date: 19 May 05 - 09:16 AM

It strange the way some people are so eager to avoid being "taken in" that they rush to judgement on the basis of a couple of headlines.

Nothing strange about people on our forum now rushing to pass judgement on their fellows - as all this judgement has been encouraged to become the only game in town. It may not be strange - but perhaps it is more than a little sad?

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 05 - 10:03 AM

Oh, good, let's torture the guy. Keep him away from the music that is clearly a gift in order to force him to communicate in some other less intellectual way. Is anyone Listening to the music? Are they getting any clues from his choices of composers, pieces, periods? Geez. You have some information and you truncate it. Now that's thinking [not]!

I must say, I'm impressed by the level of this "con job" that some of you are visualizing. Imagine, becoming so proficient on a musical instrument that people consider you concert-calibre, just to pull a fast one to get into a country. Now who can top this one?

(Oh, and by the way, don't start looking inside many of my clothes for tags, either. They come out if they cause itching, and others were removed by the department stores before they were sold to the discount outlets or the thrift stores where I bought them.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,"M"
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:25 PM

Here is a possibility that no-one here has considered yet: If someone was working on a covert operation, they might have fake identity or maybe nothing to identify them, in case they were intercepted and the operation went wrong. Or the operator (or someone else) may arrange things to look as though they were an "illegal immigrant", with all identifying labels removed. This man is described as young and physically fit. Maybe he was working on something that went wrong. Maybe he was left for dead in the sea or left to appear like a suicide or attempted suicide. His training may have been to reveal nothing, however traumatized.

Under these circumstances, anyone who recognizes him is not likely to come forward to identify him - at least not publicly. The public may never be told the full story. Maybe it is already known who he is and there is a waiting game going on for someone to reveal themselves by claiming him.

Just a possibility, you understand. Whatever the truth, I say "poor young man."

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST,jOhn
Date: 19 May 05 - 03:58 PM

it's Billy Joel, i suprised nobody realised yet!

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 05 - 04:56 PM

Sounds like the goofy plot of that Ludlum novel The Bourne Identity.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 May 05 - 06:26 PM

Well, I'm with holding judgment for now......but I'm awfully curious!

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Dave Masterson
Date: 20 May 05 - 03:47 AM

He was found wandering on the Isle of Sheppey - that's enough to traumatise anyone!

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: mindblaster
Date: 20 May 05 - 04:43 AM

He pulled the same stroke 6 years ago in Canada - cut off labels 'n all. It was a scam to get residency.

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 20 May 05 - 04:48 AM

From ABC News yesterday:

"Social workers said a tip from a Polish mime living in Italy, who said the man is a French street musician, proved false. Dariusz Dydymski had said he was "99 percent certain" the pianist was named Steven Villa Massone, but Massone was found living in Nice, France.

"I found out this morning when I saw in the Italian papers that he had said that man was me," The Independent newspaper quoted Massone as saying. "I didn't understand what had happened and suddenly I had lots of calls asking if I was the pianist."

etc etc.

The mystery continues

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: GUEST
Date: 20 May 05 - 09:19 AM

he's a 19th Century abductee, finally returned by space aliens

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: open mike
Date: 20 May 05 - 12:44 PM

mind blaster...can you substantiate the canada rumour??
(He pulled the same stroke 6 years ago in Canada - cut off labels 'n all. It was a scam to get residency.)

and what was his name found to be THEN?

Subject: RE: BS: The piano man.
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 20 May 05 - 07:03 PM

Maybe he's is not a space alien abductee but a space alien. It would probably make people happy to discover he's an alient of some sort. Pehaps he's an illegal alien from another planet who wants assylum on Earth. Could be. That would explain cutting out the labels on his clothes AND the wet suit. He splashed down of course. We just haven't found his capsule.