YOUR FAVOURITE BAND SUCKS: Summer of Concert Cancellations in Edmonton!
The latest cancellation to plague Edmonton’s summer of 2019 concert schedule is Rob Zombie – who has pulled out of the CHAOS Festival at Kinsmen Park on July 26-27. No word on the reason beyond “unforeseen circumstances.”
His replacement? The Cult.
No shade on The Cult, a dependable British rock band, but they’re not in the same league as Mr. Zombie, generationally or metallically – plus The Cult was just here doing a corporate cannabis concert.
What a rip. Rumour that the event’s other headliner Marilyn Manson had also cancelled was false; the promoter says the legend of shock rock is “confirmed” to close the July 27 night, following The Cult. He’d fucking better be. (Tickets for CHAOS are on sale now.)
This is getting ridiculous. There have been at least half a dozen cancellations or postponements on the area schedule since everyone got so excited about such a bumper crop of announcements in the spring. Fleetwood Mac, Ozzy Osbourne, Kansas, Rodriguez, Morrissey, and The Who come to mind; and outside of Edmonton, Cher postponed at the last minute and then canceled outright in Winnipeg; and the Rolling Stones tour postponed. Most were for “health reasons.”
Morrissey was no surprise. His habit of blowing off shows is legendary.
Fleetwood Mac postponed twice. First they pulled the plug on their show last November hours before showtime, inconveniencing hundreds of fans who’d made the trek from afar to see the “new” version of the band, featuring Neil Finn from Crowded House instead of Lindsey Buckingham. The fans cried blue murder, but it turned out Stevie Nicks was too sick to perform, according to a tweet by Finn. Then, two weeks before the rescheduled show in April they postponed again – citing Stevie’s bout with the flu. She was well enough to perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony shortly thereafter, which is a promising sign they’ll show up at Rogers Place on Nov. 30, more than a year after they were supposed to be here.
On a slightly smaller scale, Kansas quietly cancelled their April show at the Jube due to “circumstances beyond the band’s control” – prompting fans to respond that they didn’t even know they were coming. Dust in the wind indeed. The folk hero (Sixto) Rodriguez booted his entire Canadian tour due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
Ozzy Osbourne, meanwhile, who was supposed to have been here July 9, injured himself at home, and postponed his tour for a year. He’s re-scheduled to play Rogers Place on July 7, 2020. His band Black Sabbath had previously canceled shows at the last minute in 2016. “I can’t believe I have to reschedule more tour dates,” Ozzy said in a statement. “Words cannot express how frustrated, angry and depressed I am not to be able to tour right now.”
As for The Who, first they postponed their April 2019 date in Edmonton, and then totally cancelled the rescheduled Oct. 23 show due to “scheduling conflicts.” That can translate to two things: Low ticket sales, or they got a better gig. Or both.
It was the last straw for huge Who fan and Jr. Gone Wild frontman Mike McDonald (who reviewed the Who for GigCity in 2016). “I figured Roger Daltry was cutting the tour short for health reasons,” he says. “I went on Facebook to see if there was any news, and one of the first things I saw was The Who FB page happily announcing an added date to their Hollywood Bowl stand. So within three minutes I found out they cancelled, and found out why.”
He goes on, “Some will say ‘It’s just business, money talks, and ticket sales so far probably didn’t “wow” them.’ All that is true and right – if you’re soulless. That’s what I believe, anyway. It’s a hard pill to swallow, watching your hero take a page from the bad guy’s book. I don’t know. Seems to me, in my younger days, nobody canceled shows – ever.”
Things were different in Mike’s younger days.
One veteran stage tech has a theory that because so many musicians aren’t making a a mint selling records anymore, the pressure to tour has increased to the breaking point. Concerts are where the money is now. Aging artists suffering under dwindling royalties who want to maintain the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed sometimes promise more than they deliver.
The live music industry is huge. It’s been growing in double digit percentages more or less every year since the Internet ruined record sales. According to an article on DigitalMusicNews, the concert industry is expected to generate $31 billion a year by 2022.
Ticket prices have kept pace. Used to be that $100 seats were rare, now they’re the norm – in the nosebleeds. Front row for a top level act can run into the thousands, depending on which scalper … sorry, authorized Ticketmaster affiliate – you deal with. Artists are also charging comparable sums for “meet ‘n’ greets,” along with top level merch gouging. $40 for a T-shirt?!
Who can blame them? Memo to fans: You stole our music from the Internet – so we’re going to soak you at our live shows. Quid pro quo, Clarice!
Meanwhile, little indie bands all over the land struggle to draw 25 people to their club gigs. At least they almost never cancel their shows due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
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