Kevin Lyman Reveals Plan to Make Warped Tour a Safer Place

Over the past couple of months, Vans Warped Tour head honcho Kevin Lyman has been under a lot of scrutiny follow a handful of sexual allegations against artists (and a YouTuber) he had tapped to play this year’s tour.

After trying to figure out ways to combat all the hate from fans, or former fans at this rate, of the festival, Lyman began to write a three-part Op-Ed for Alternative Press, addressing the issues.

In the most recent installation, in which he reveals he complete by-passed Op-Ed two, he revealed his plan which he hopes will help prevent all of these types of cases and make the scene a lot more safe for those underage fans attending.

Check out his five point plan below and if you want to help out in any way, shoot Lyman a tweet or something.

1. At this point we are reaching out to many organizations that focus on sexual abuse, cyberbullying, predator awareness and teen suicide to encourage them to come out to Warped Tour this summer. Pick up their information and put it in a safe place, use it if you ever need to.

2. I have started to speak to many artists, managers, labels and other people in our world about shooting a number of PSAs for a soon-to-be-named program. I will ask those who choose to participate to have them on a splash page for anyone trying to enter their sites. It may get repetitive, but at this point, it’s needed.

3. Being In A Band 101: We are not preparing our bands for this world. I am developing a course that any band or artist will be required to attend before they are put on a national tour. This course will be taught by professionals in the field of adolescent behavior, artists who have been there, have possibly had transgressions and how to avoid the mistakes they made, with the possibility that the “scared straight” approach will help with people entering our world. I will be speaking to people all summer to get them onboard. Hopefully, they will agree this course is as important as social media promotion 101—or some other things young bands have to learn.

4. In addition, I am going to reach out to YouTube, Twitter and the management companies who work with young personalities to implement this program in their worlds. At this point, the YouTubers are living in a fantasy world and are paid by these companies to pitch products. Many drop out of high school, gain the illusion of power and then when the real world comes into play, many have no ability on how to handle it.

5. I am looking for an organization or hotline to partner with in the future, one that will encourage you to contact them if you ever feel threatened by anyone within this world we live in. I speak to so many parents who have just given up monitoring or being involved with their kids and the internet, because you are smarter than all of us and we can’t keep up with technology. It is not that we don’t want to; our brains do not process things the way yours does. You can bypass any security setting if you choose, hack into sites, create phantom accounts and personalities. Most parents gave up trying to figure this out. You won: Now you just need to figure out how you can safely manage the online world you so easily navigate. Regardless if it’s online or the real world, there are truly sick people out there who know how to manipulate you and we hear about it everyday. Again, I implore you to be careful.

Martin Scorsese Reportedly Attached to Ramones Film

With the passing of Tommy Ramone last month, news has now surfaced that a film about the iconic punk band is in the works and super-director Martin Scorsese might be behind it.

Billboard is reporting that the owners of the Ramones estate have announced big plans for the band’s legacy which will include the film. Several other projects are also in the works including: a documentary, a theatrical play, a book, reissues, fashion, and “music placement.” Whatever that means.

“The 40th anniversary of the Ramones is coming up in 2016, that’s when the first album came out. So we have a lot of projects leading up to that. We’re looking at a documentary on the Ramones, we just secured a ton of footage, much of which has never been seen before. It came from the Ramones on the road over the years in the Seventies and a little bit in the Eighties,” Jeff Jampol, the manager of the estate explained to Billboard.

“You’ll see a book coming, which is not a biographical book so much, but a story of the band’s formation and those first few records and that craziness that happened. It’ll be a combination of prose, photographs and memorabilia and posters, just kind of documenting the scene,” Jampol said about the book that was mentioned.

“The Ramones were the first punk band and they started the punk movement.”

No other details such as potential release dates, titles, or anything more informative on that matter was revealed. As of now, all we know is that there will be an influx of Ramones things coming your way and a maybe film that hasn’t officially been confirmed yet.