So is the feeling that this really isn’t going to be salvaged? I just can’t see either side leaving that much money on the table. I feel like something is still going to be worked out. What’s the vibe in Ireland about all this?
Depends on how you define “big deal”. He’s still well known in country music and his concerts tend to sell out large venues, but no, he’s not as popular as in his heyday in the mid to late 1990’s.
Fun Lovin’ Criminals got a fair bit of airplay in my youth but only one song (which happens to be the only song of theirs I own), Scooby Snacks. As far as I know, they’re a classic example of a one-hit wonder from the 90s. And with a novelty song as well, thanks to all the Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs sampling.
Looks like something may be going ahead.
Press conference in 15mins.
This is the biggest non-story story over here for a while. It’s all the news etc. are talking about.
We’ve had the leader of the country, the parliament, the lord mayor of Dublin and every minor official involved in this mess. The Mexican Ambassador has offered his diplomatic skills and there has been calls to try to get Obama involved, the White House had to tell us to fuck off in a nice way.
Fucking ridiculous. Ultimately there was a signed agreement with the GAA(owners of the stadium), the promoters and locals that the 3 nights was the maximum and that should have been the way it stayed.
To add to the bollocks, the guy that lodged the initial complaint has now come out and said that he did it because a group trying to destroy the GAA from within offered him 15 grand and a new suit for the court appearance to lodge a formal complaint. He’s dropped his complaint and is living in hiding now because of death threats, I shit you not.
They were big here as well as the UK. In fact Huey the singer owned a club here for years and was a fairly familiar face around the city.
Think he’s still involved with DiFontaine’s Pizza.
Well looks like nothing has come out of the press conference. Playing the wide eyed good old boy who just wants to play for his fans. Then play for the 160,000 you have the license to play for. How much does the rig cost that drags your fat ass over the crowd?
Garth was a big deal in Ireland. Screwing over his fans by pulling out of his concerts will leave bad feelings for years to come.
Thats a lot of lost business for that city. All because Garth couldn’t accept having 2 concerts cancelled.
So, let me see if I understand this story correctly. His promoters or whoever it is that handles these things only got licenses for 3 days of concerts, but sold tickets for 5 days anyway? All five sold out. Then he was told at some point, “hey, you’ve only got permits for 3 days, we have an agreement with the neighborhood, we can’t extend it to five, sorry.” At which point Garth Brooks’ people say “Sorry, all five days or I take my ball and go home”? And then the council says, “sorry, we can’t change the agreement for you; we can only handle three days due to our previous promise to the neighborhood.” And so Garth Brooks pulls out.
Was this just a game of brinksmanship? Was Garth assuming that the neighborhood would cave to his demands, and thus getting five days’ worth of sold-out concert revenue vs three, because he thought there was no way in heck they would honor their agreement with the neighbors because of how much economy it was bringing into the country? And then it just turned into a game of egos? Or am I being much too critical of Garth and his people here? It kinda sounds to me like this was their gambit all along, if my summary of events is correct. Get permission for three concerts, sell for five, and assume they’ll expand the permission to five later when they see how much money is coming in?
pulykamell that’s essentially it.
The locals have basically said that they’d accept the 5 concerts now but the license for the extra 2 days have been rejected and there is no way of going back on that apparently.
Either way the extra days were against a standing signed agreement which wasn’t signed for Brooks BTW but has been worked out as a general policy when the stadium was modernised a few years ago. U2 only played there for 2 night FFS!
By the way just to give you an idea of why the residents might not want 5 nights of any gig in Croke have a look at how close they are. This is a stadium in the middle of a residential area just outside the centre of the city.
http://www.100objects.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Croke-Park-Redevelopment-115.jpg
The local residents have been dragged through the mud in a way I suspect wouldn’t have been the case if the stadium were anywhere else in Ireland.
Christ, parliament is involved now.