@Tim_Burgess & @rycurran16 - got an interesting point there! I have to admit that I feel like (for want of a better word) a complete charlatan, tweeting my activities - especially when it feels like I'm just 'selling' myself to my followers. Do they want to hear this? - I might be potentially boring them with information they possibly already know or don't care about. But it is part of being a modern musician today, to keep people up to date with what you're doing…and most importantly to spread the word so that the casual tweeter or visitor checking in on you will find out what you're up to.
But there are at least two angles here - following the artist because you want to share their thoughts, and following the artist so you keep up to date with their work.
I'm certainly more reticent than most, but if I don't put this information out online - I don't exist on the Internet. Most of us live our lives satisfying curiosity now with a casual Google, or Twitter check - if there's nothing there, and if it isn't informative, then no-one will know. Some of you will know this and some not, but I am the drummer for Gaz Coombes, and as an example, a recent tour with Gaz saw us astounded that people still didn't know that we were playing live that night their home town, after we'd all felt like we'd sold our souls to tweeting, re-tweeing, Facebooking, linking to Gaz's website, and old-time promoting on our tour. STILL they didn't know, time after time (many didn't even know there was an album out!). So you can see why artists sometimes 'say they are bout to do something, say they are doing it and then say that they've done it'!
'Advertising' to followers doesn't make sense when your followers just like you for who you are and love hearing your thoughts - I can see how switching up from sharing thoughts to a generic promotion would seem like the old concept of 'selling out'. Noel Gallagher's twitter feed is also an example of this. But Tim has always been a good tweeter - a hilarious one! And he's maintained his output. He is one of the few where his thoughts are more interesting and funny than any 'press release' style of information (the Lance Armstrong bike Tweet is one of my favourite ever, possibly).
Part of Twitter is that it is so personal, so 'real-time' - it appears to allow a closeness to the person you're following. Twitter opens things up, but this can mean it opens a bigger window, for good, for bad… We've arrived at a classic moment here, where original followers sense a shift and don't like it - part of what's brilliant about it is that it reduces the barrier between star and fan - but this can be equally problematic !
Ultimately: Don't knock Tim for doing what he should do as a modern day musician - promoting what he's doing and keeping his followers informed. But on the other hand don't knock @rycurran and @SidFishes doing for what they should do - noting what they think is going on - expressing opinions in a democratic online discussion, one not restricted by hierarchical mores - and where truth is everything.
