Gotyettes
Welcome to our website, dedicated to the phenomenon that is Wally De Backer
Gotyettes>Our First Year
In March 2012, 10 ladies, from completely different locations around the globe began to interact with each other on Twitter through their mutual love and appreciation of an Australian musician known to the world as Gotye. Little did they know that this would be the beginning of the most fantastic journey....
Foundations
Blame Joellen. It's her fault, you know? Yes, Joellen or when we are feeling lazy, Jo, was the one responsible for bringing us all together. In February 2012 she began following and tweeting with anyone who happened to mention Gotye on Twitter. Within the space of a couple of weeks, she had managed to get her Twitter account suspended, but had laid the foundations of the craziest friendship any of us thought possible. The ten of us just seemed to hit it off and had so much to say to each other.
Jacqui, Cynthia and Emma had been lucky enough to go along to Gotye shows in Australia, Netherlands and the UK on the then current tour, with Mar and Jo herself planning to go to impending shows in the US. It was obvious from the outset that we were not just casual listeners, but had a really serious appreciation for Gotye's music.
At this point, none of us really knew too much about Wally, maybe with the exception of Jacqui, Shayla, Kaneesha & Chauni, who being Aussies, had known of Wally and his music, and The Basics - who are they? - long before he had ever hit our shores.
As we began sharing our knowledge, and impressing each other with the Gotye encrusted treasures we were finding on the internet, it seemed to spur us on to find out more! Not out of competition with each other, but because we were genuinely interested and amazed by the things we were finding!
We decided that Twitter wasn't the most fantastic place to try and have a conversation between 10 people, and so we decided to create a Facebook group, where we could ramble away in private. Gotyettes was never intended as a name, just a reference to everyone on Twitter one night when Emma was signing off, but the name stuck!
Who would have guessed back then after those first few weeks, what would happen next....
Fame & Follows!
Once we had created our Facebook group, we decided to make a Gotyettes Twitter account too. We began tweeting anything Gotye that we found, links to interviews (we found some crackers!), photos, news as it was happening. Not really expecting anything from it, but steadily our followers began to grow. We dared to send an email to Wally, telling him about us and how we had got together. We each did a little write up about ourselves, and what it was about his music that had captivated us. Off the email went.
One day, Jacqui had told us that Wally was being interviewed live on Australian radio station Triple J, by a well known DJ called the Dr. Triple J had championed Gotye throughout his career, and Gotyettes had tweeted them on several occasions. They were inviting questions for Wally from their listeners, and Jacqui tweeted one in.
This resulted in a phone call and a live conversation on the station between Jacqui & the Dr, who made it known he knew all about the "mad Wally fans" who called themselves the Gotyettes. Jacqui asked him to mention us to Wally later on when he interviewed him.
So, the interview began, and then The Gotyettes were mentioned, live on air to Wally. Wally giggled. We laughed. Our moment of fame! We were absolutely buzzing, now we knew for sure Wally was aware of the Gotyettes!
Later that day, we received a lovely tweet from Wally, apologizing as he hadn't had time to reply to our email, and he began following our Gotyettes account on Twitter. We were elated. We never expected him to reply to our email, let alone follow us!
Then, within minutes, our Twitter account was suspended, for reasons we still do not understand, talk about coming down to earth with a bang!
A way of life!
After a long and painful 2-week Twitter suspension, we were back. We had a mountain of support while we had been suspended from our followers, who had been tweeting asking for our account to be reinstated. No reason for it, but we didn't care, we were back, and thankfully so were all our followers.
The follow from Wally had not gone unnoticed. We were being followed also by Gotye management, and our followers were on the up. Suddenly, people weren't just following us but also asking to join the Gotyettes. This was strange to us, as we were just running this account, under this name, and now the name Gotyettes was popping up in people's profiles, and tweets with "proud to be a Gotyette" and such like were flying in from all directions! We were causing quite a stir, but we decided not to open up the account to more "admins". If people wanted to call themselves Gotyettes, that was absolutely fine by us and we were genuinely flattered!
So, Wally emailed us, as promised in his tweet. We were astounded that he had taken the time to email us back, knowing how busy he was and the amount of emails that must have been filling his inbox each day!
We created a blog, and the website, and a community page on Facebook which was really an extension of our Twitter account. Spoke to each other on a daily basis. Continued to find and share as much information with our followers as we could. Our follower numbers were still growing steadily; we were getting the occasional tweet and retweet from HQ. Wally was interviewed on Triple J again, and Emma's question she tweeted in was asked.
It was also becoming apparent that although we lived all over the world, we were all becoming very close friends. We have had sessions on Google Hangout, Whatsapp messages, and the odd phone call as well as Twitter and Facebook. Gotyettes was fast becoming a huge part of our lives. Could things get any better?
Highs & Lows
Early June 2012, HQ announced a huge World Tour. First came the Amsterdam date. Obviously being from the Netherlands, Cynthia would be going along to this show. Mar decided she would fly in from Spain, and Emma from England, at last some of the Gotyettes would not only be meeting up, but would get to see Wally together.
Gradually more and more dates were being announced, Joellen was going to the Orlando show, Isa was over the moon that a Mexico show had also been announced and so at long last she would get to see Wally for the first time. Jacqui was devastated that there was no Perth show this time around, but after working things out, she was flying over to Melbourne with her sister-in-law for the home coming show.
Mar had decided to also go to the Lisbon & Paris gigs, and Emma was thrilled when the London date was announced for her birthday, and Cynthia was trying to get to that show too. Unfortunately, there were no Russian dates so Elena wouldn't get to see Wally yet, and Kaneesha, Chauni & Shayla were unable to make any of the Australian shows.
While we were busy planning for the shows, we were stopped in our tracks in July when a hoax death report suddenly made its way onto the Internet by way of CNN, reporting that Wally had committed suicide. Immediately we alerted HQ to the hoax and they were quick to dispel the rumour. It did give Tim (Shiel) the opportunity to have some fun with his friend's fake, untimely demise, with visions of unicorns and rainbows!
One of the crew members and Gotyette favourite Tom (Kopecek) had read and commented on one of our blog posts, which surprised us as we didn't expect that Wally or the people around him would have read them....
Once the "rest of the world" shows were over, Wally headed home to Australia. Soon after his return we managed to get another question put to him on the red carpet, at the 2012 Aria Awards (where he swept the board by the way!). A few days later, we got yet another mention to Wally, during a live interview on Triple J by the Dr.
Then the buzz of excitement that was building as our turn at the shows drew nearer! Joellen was first. Well actually, her brother was at the New York show and had met with Wally and some of the band afterwards. Then came Joellen. We all sat glued to our computers waiting for photos and news, and then it came. It was quite fitting that Jo should meet Wally first, as she was the one who had contacted us first via Twitter.
At the Amsterdam show on 10th November, Cynthia, Emma & Mar, along with friends of Cynthia and Mar's parents, met up, and bumped into a couple of our Twitter followers. Wally was recovering from the flu, but still managed to spend a good bit of time with them chatting afterwards. He appeared very pleased with the gifts they had given him, even though he told us later that they had gone missing :(
Two days later on Emma's birthday, they were in London and were joined by Emma's sister and friends. During the show as Wally performed 'Night Drive', Emma phoned Isa in Mexico (this is Isa's favorite track and as she had been so upset about her show being cancelled and arranged the show passes, it just seemed the right thing to do!) and Cynth rang Jacqui in Australia (as she was still waiting patiently for her show, and she is so far away from the rest of us!). If there had been enough phones, all of the Gotyettes would have received that call! It may sound over the top, but it was quite an emotional moment. For a few minutes at least, 5 Gotyettes were there together, listening to Wally belting out this beautiful song. Our new anthem!
Then, a few weeks later it was Jacqui's turn in Melbourne with her sister-in-law. This show was very different to the ones that the other Gotyettes had been too: it was the home show for starters. Then, Gotye played as a 10-piece band, whereas overseas they performed as a 5-piece. Barry Morgan supported Wally at the Australia shows too, which led to more comedy moments! After the show, Jacqui bumped into amongst other people, Barry Morgan, Tim, Tom and of course Wally. Her gift also went down very well!
It was quite obvious that we were known from our activity and interaction with Wally and his crew on Twitter. As well as being amazed by how generous they all were with the time they spent with us, and didn't appear fazed by us grown women giggling like teenagers, the actual shows were as fantastic as ever. But, after all the anticipation, all those months of waiting, the tour was over.
Just the beginning
So, in March 2013, we celebrate our first year anniversary. Looking back the previous 12 months have been unbelievable. We've established ourselves on Twitter as one of the main Gotye fan accounts with well over a 1000 followers, and we appear to be appreciated!
What's kept us going? How have we made all of this happen? Maybe the fact that we have no expectations. We have been completely flabbergasted by everything, we appreciate everything from a retweet from GotyeHQ to an email from Wally, from a follower getting excited because we have favourited a tweet to a mention on the radio!
We are serious about what we do, but we don't take ourselves too seriously if that makes sense? We can sit back and laugh at ourselves when we've been all giddy about Tom mentioning us in a tweet, we can laugh at each other, and listen to each other. Our friendship is genuine, and we have been there for each other at odd moments throughout the year, when someone has needed a shoulder to cry on, or a rant about something. We're not in this for recognition, or for what we can get out of it, we still have the same attitude as we did at the very start. We appreciate Wally and his music, and just want to share that with others and anyone else who is willing to listen.
After all that, what more could there be? Well, who knows. We are grateful to everyone who has supported us, and taken the time to interact with us along the way. We hope, but are not taking for granted, that our following continues to grow, all of us eventually get the opportunity to see Wally peform live and the chance to meet up with him again. Fingers crossed, one day, we will all get to meet each other too.
One thing for sure, even after everything we have accomplished within the space of the past 12 months, we are certain that this is just the beginning!
We had the concept for a new Facebook group called Learnalilpostalot, especially for sharing fans experiences from the tour and invited some of the other fan accounts on Twitter to join us in putting it together. HQ seemed very supportive of this collaboration!
By the end of October, Mar had also made it to her first show of the current tour. She had met up with some others at the Paris show, who we had interacted with on Twitter. After the show she got the chance to speak to Tim & Tom, and of course, Wally.
Then, completely unexpectedly, we hit the magic 1000 followers mark on our Twitter account. Absolutely amazing and truly grateful to each and every one!
Then, a true life disaster! The Mexico show was cancelled. Isa was distraught. We were all absolutely gutted for her, she had been so excited at the prospect of seeing Wally for the first time. She was so upset and she was thinking about emailing Wally to tell him how disappointed she was, and we convinced her that she should. She received a lovely email back, and the offer of a signed Gotye album of her choosing. This softened the blow a little, and again we were all amazed by Wally and his team, and how they really care about the fans.
Then, after all the disappointment, Isa did something that just shows how close we all are as friends. She sent an email to Wally, telling him who was going to which show and asked if it would be possible for us to get the chance to say hello. An email came back, offering us all a place on the guest list and an after show pass. The most amazing gesture, from Isa and Wally.
Everyone tried their best to make arrangements for Isa to make it to the UK show, but in the end family commitments meant that there was no way Isa could make it. The Lisbon show was then cancelled but Cynthia and Mar decided to go to the London show with Emma and her sister.
There were no words to describe how excited we all were, not just at the prospect of the impending shows, and the first meeting of three Gotyettes, but also, the opportunity to meet the man who had drawn us together in the first place.
You put on quite a show!
We were coming up to a really exciting time. We tweeted Wally as the tour was beginning....
We have our Facebook pages, Blog and Website, we've been mentioned on Australian national radio a few times, between us we have been to countless live shows, and we have met Wally and some people around him who are also pretty important to us, and we've also made the world a much smaller place with our new found friends from across the globe. And, each one of us has managed to find ourselves 9 special friends, who we are certain will be friends for life.
After the show, they got to speak to Tim, Tom & Lucas (Taranto) as well as a very quick chat with Wally. Emma was chuffed as The Chap had supported him again, and since seeing them at the Gotye Manchester show earlier in the year, she has become a fan of theirs too! Tom in particular was very sweet and had some lovely things to say!
