Cancelled/interrupted rock concerts

Cafe Society
1

I would assume that if a lead singer of a rock band suddenly became violently ill or seriously injured just before a concert, they would either refund the ticket price or reschedule that concert for a different day (thus, no need to refund the money).

I’d also guess that if that lead singer sang a three-hour concert, and became injured during the last note of the last encore, no refunds would be given or expected.

But what are the guidelines regarding refunds when the performance starts but doesn’t finish? What if Lady GaGa falls off the stage and is knocked unconscious 45 minutes into the show? 20 minutes? 1 minute?

2

The less time Lady GaGa remains unconscious, the bigger a refund you get.

3

Edited to add an answer germaine to the question: Each contractor has their own rules written into it. I don’t know exactly what they ARE, but they’re there. They’re going to vary according to contractor rather than artist, though, I am guessing.

Sorta related, but…

I got tickets to see a concert by a group I’d never seen and wasn’t that interested in, but I enjoyed my co-workers enough to go along.
Let it be known that I’m rather stick-in-the-butt about artistic professionalism. There is no reason to be drunk, late, or disrespectful of your fans and then excuse it by claiming ‘But I’m an artist! I can do that!’

Whatever.

So, the opening band, Type-O Negative, <which I liked well-enough to listen to> was pretty decent. They went on for a while, then it was apparant there was a problem. They talked amongst themselves a bit, and went on for longer. And longer. And they were getting a little grumpy. At two hours in, LONG after the opening act was supposed to have been started, I was thinking of leaving. If the main band couldn’t be bolloxed to show up on time, I wasn’t interested. My co-workers were taking the ‘But they’re a band! They’re an obnoxious band! This is part of their style!!" Again, whatever. I enjoy plenty of bands aurally that I don’t need to see in person, much the less so friggin’ late.

Finally, the opening band went off, and the lead band came in. I decided to stick around, but I was disgruntled.

And the first thing the singer did was apologize profusely. For something that wasn’t his fault. It seems there had been a bomb threat, several threats, actually, due to the unpopularity of this band with some of the locals.

Did I mention that the only fun part about being in line outside before the show was watching some of the um…religious protesters…hauled off by the cops for throwing things at the fans? It was entertaining.

Apparantly they went as far as to phone in multiple threats against the band, their bus and their equipment. So while Type-O gamely held the stage, the lead band was being searched, their bus, backstage…everything was being sniffed by doggies.

And that band went on to perform the most professional show I think I had ever seen. I liked them so much for their grace and attitude, their apologies and determination to make up for it by playing an hour and a half longer than they were supposed to, to make amends, that I went to see them twice after that. And they were equally professional and entertaining those times, as well.

I guess it serves me right for not expecting such professionalism from a band with a notorious attitude in their music named Marilyn Manson of all things, eh?

Seriously…they’re a great show, and I would recommend them to (almost) anyone.
/respect

4

I would think each band has this stuff figured into their contract, and it probably varies from band to band.

At Red Rocks in 1971, Jethro Tull had to contend with tear gas (well we all did.)
It actually began during the previous set, Livingston Taylor. He had to stop singing because he (and many of us) were coughing. There was basically a riot goin’ on outside the gates. The Jethro Tull set lasted about an hour and a half.

I went to a Springsteen concert at Red Rocks (1981?) and it began raining. The band continued, then the rain just began coming down in buckets, but everyone was having a good time. Springsteen stopped the show and offered to play another show the following week at an indoor venue. The crowd made it clear that they wanted him to continue, and that is exactly what he did, full set.

5

Back in the early 90s, I went to a Warrant/Poison show on free tickets from a radio station. Warrant did their whole set but then Poison didn’t go on because Brett Michaels had some health issue with diabetes or something.

They came back and re-did the show a couple months later.

6

There aren’t any hard and fast rules, really. It all depends on the professionalism and basic decency of the performer. If the performer is a pro and really cares about his/her fans, some effort will be made to schedule a new show or make restitution.

I’ve never been to a show where there was any need to offer a refund or a makeup show, but decades ago, I knew some people who went to a John Cougar Mellencamp show at Madison Square Garden. They said there were some sound problems throughout the show, and that Mellencamp told the crowd midway, “Hold on to your tickets- I owe you another show.” Sure enough, he did another show, free, to make up for the sound problems.

7

There’s a rather famous occurrence from the Metallica/Guns’n’Roses tour in 1992. At the concert where James Hetfield was burned by an onstage pyrotechnic prop, causing Metallica to stop their show, GNR stopped playing due to a combination of poorly tuned equipment (no time to set up properly for GNR after Metallica stopped playing) and an Axl Rose hissy fit involving a sore throat. The 50 000+ audience at the Big O got impatient and a rioterupted.

CBC story.

This YouTube storyin French reports that the wait between bands was 2h10mins, and then GNR played for only 40 minutes. People started burning GNR t-shirts and it degraded from there. There was no refunds for the tickets.

Metallica promised to return soon with a make-up concert later that year, and did at a low cost, but it wasn’t until last year (I think) that GNR came back to Montreal.

ETA: In the French video the woman representing the concert promoter, Donald K Donald, explains that the musicians were wholly responsible for the duration and quality of the show and that DKD would not provide refunds and would simply allow their 25 years of successful concert promotion to speak for itself.

8

Kings of Leon recently interrupted then cancelled a show due to being pooped on:

9

Many years ago, my (previous) band opened for The Silos and Richard Barone at the old 9:30 club. Apparently the Silos had been involved in a car accident and lost some of their gear as a result. IIRC, one of the members was too hurt to play, as well. No matter. The Silos borrowed some of our gear and played a full set as a trio, and it was great.

10

I’ve had a few shows cancelled due to one thing or another. Had backstage passes to see Tull in LA back about 1983 or so wasted because Ian Anderson had a sore throat.

I was AT the U2 show on the Joshua Tree tour where Bono dislocated his arm or somesuch. It was rainy and at RFK Stadium in Washington. I recall seeing him stick his arm in his belt and finish the show that way. Though I believe they did cut a few songs out of the set.

11

I had tickets to see **They Might Be Giants **in Seattle in 2001. The show was scheduled for September 13th.

They couldn’t get out of NYC since all planes were still grounded. They technically “postponed” the shows for awhile, and since it wasn’t actually cancelled we couldn’t get a refund. They FINALLY officially cancelled the show over six months later and I was finally able to get a refund on the tickets.

If you ever watch the TMBG documentary “Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns” it has a scene with the band playing an in-store gig at Tower Records in NYC on the evening of 9/10. There’s no mention of the 9/11 attacks in the doc, but the subtext of watching that clip and knowing how the world is going to change for everybody in the scene in just a few hours after it was filmed is really kind of eerie.

12

I think my father has never forgiven Sly Stone for refusing to go on because the “vibe” wasn’t right… subsequently they ended up having to police a riot in Grant Park in Chicago in 1970…
Talk about holding a grudge LOL…

13

In detail, Kings of Leon walked off after three songs. The audience got their money back. However, there’s a persistant rumor that they chose to walk off after three songs (rather than two, or four or whatever) because their contract stipulated that an interruption after three songs constituted a full performance, for which they’d be paid.

14

I didn’t attend, but there was a Van Halen concert at the former Fiddler’s Green, which is an outdoor venue in Englewood, CO. The date was September 20, 1995, and the Denver area had experienced a freak snowstorm (freakish for that time of year even by mile-high standards, snow and ice were everywhere, power lines were down, etc.) Several thousand fans showed up anyway, and Van Halen put on the show for them. Sammy Hagar reportedly said, “If you m.f.'s are crazy enough to get out in this weather to see us, I guess we’re crazy enough to play for you.”

15

Van Halen (with Sammy) was supposed to head line a show at the Cotton Bowl back in the early 90’s (I think). They couldn’t perform due to Sammy having lost his voice. No refunds were given due to it being a large show with many acts, but they promised to come back to Dallas and play for free.

Around this same time Warrant was just starting to make waves. They came to Dallas and played for free in Dallas Alley. They apparently drew a larger crowd that the city atticipated. Then for some reason safety officials tried to get a fire truck down the packed alley (no, there wasn’t a fire). I remember it being pretty nuts. The city (or possibly Dallas Alley organizers) then banned concerts from the alley.

A year or more later on a week day morning, radio stations started spreading word that Van Halen would be making good on their free performance promise. They were playing in Dallas Alley that afternoon. It was the first show in the alley since Warrant. If they thought it was over crowded for Warrant, they hadn’t seen anything yet. I remember going with a friend. We got to within maybe 150’ feet of the stage (so not super close). About then the crowd surged somehow. We were both literally picked up off our feet and carried in various directions. I didn’t see him again until after the show.

I moved shortly after that, so I have no clue if they still do concerts in Dallas Alley these days.

16

I saw them in Montreal, same tour. Bono played the show with his arm in a sling.
My first big concert. I heard he fell off stage ?

17

I still love the story of Scot Halpin getting up on stage to replace a stuporous Keith Moon at the Cow Palace. RIP, Mr. Halpin.

18

Why does the OP specify rock concerts only? Wouldn’t one expect similar guidelines to be used in other genres?

19

I went to a show where the headliner abruptly withdrew from the tour (I don’t even remember who it was anymore), but instead of cancelling the show, they just didn’t promote it. At all. The opening band was H2O, who I liked, so I went. Along with approximately 49 other people, in a venue that holds about 1500.

It was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. The band started taking requests, tore down a barricade that the venue inexplicably put up, and were generally just awesome about the fact that there was an embarrassingly low turnout. They played a full set and then some. I talked to one of the guys in the band at the merch booth afterwards. He was pissed about the circumstances and thought the show had been terrible. He was very glad to hear that everyone who attended had the exact opposite mindset about it.

20

Yep…

I was at Deer Creek, Noblesville IN hoping to see the Grateful Dead for two nights. …July 2 1995. We had been “on tour” the week preceding and had tickets for the rest of the tour…

The crowd outside the venue broke down the fence and infiltrated the audience.

Show was canceled for 7/3/2010…

I had GD “mail order” tickets…got a refund AND my tickets back from the Grateful Dead , yes, the whole uncanceled ticket! (they “voided” them with a stamp of Jerry on the back.)

My road-mate and I finished the tour all the way to Chicago…so did Jerry…RIP :frowning:

tsfr