details of Benicassim cancellation

[Lucy]

Don't know if anyone's interested but they've printed an epic description of events leading up to Moz' no-show at Benicassim on the festival's website. Roughly paraphrased this is what they say happened in a nutshell:-

-6:00 p.m(approx) Sat 7th July- Gary Trew, production chief, camp Moz turns up at the festival to say that due to technical problems with the plane Moz wont be able to make it to perform at his allotted time. At least 2 hours are needed to get the plane back in the air
-Festival organisers meet to see if they can juggle around some of the acts to find Moz a slot to play.
They think about moving forward Lou Reed but out of respect to him and his fans they decide not to.
Ask Belle and Sebastian if they'll play earlier so moz can have their original time spot.. they say no
Ask Las Planetas(acclaimed Spanish band) to move their set forward.. they say no. The band is resting.
As this is all going on they also phone Stanstead to find out more about these pesky "technical problems"
which strangely enough Stanstead cannot confirm.
hmm... the plot thickens
- festival peeps put in a call to Jed Weitzmen at Sanctuary to discuss possible rearrangements. He says that until they can confirm an actual time slot Moz wont be going anywhere. ( so nice to see such a flexible and friendly approach- obviously highly concerned about the feelings of moz' sizeable Spanish fanbase.)
-Finally both Lou Reed and Belle and Sebastian agree to move forward their sets.. Yay! its all on .. a happy ending in sight?
When Jed hears he says "lets go !.. what's a 2 hour delay after 10 years of waiting!"
-But hang on... whats this?.. 10 mins later Gary Trew says Moz wont be coming.. What? more techincal difficulties?!
er..not quite. Phone call from Jed who says "i'm standing beside a very sick man"..."i've had to phone an ambulance"
he then goes on to not explain in any way what is actually wrong with Moz just that he is not fit to fly.
-Festival peeps obviously now at their wits end "what about tomorrow?" they cry in desperation
-Jed says, well.. err.. Moz might have to charge 60,000 euros more.
Festival decline Jed's kind offer. Gary Trew checks the line-up for Sunday and decides he quite fancies Franz Ferdinand's spot for Moz
-Meanwhile Jed's hanging on for them to offer him a little "something" in the way of financial incentive.
- In the end festival organisers decide enough is enough. Its all too much of a head-ache and that after considering all possible changes to stages, time-tables etc.. out of respect for the artists and fans that would be adversely affected they are going to have to give up on the whole thing.
-Lastly at 23:10 Sat. 7th August Jed emails festival organisers
"further to our conversation this afternoon I find myself forced to abandon plans for a performance tomorrow. I appreciate your efforts to find Morrissey a slot on Sunday and I understand this will be completely impossible for you.
I'm deeply sorry that this medical crisis has made it impossible for Morrissey to be with you today." yada yada yada

Well you cant say Benicassim didnt try. Maybe they did finally veto a performance on Sunday but its not as if they were getting much encouragement from Moz' lot. Even Lou Reed was willing to move his set to accomodate him and he was one of the big head-liners and is a general all round musical ledge..

Also- "Medical crisis" requiring an ambulance "very sick man".. and yet, oh he'll be right as rain to peform tomorrow if the price is right
Methinks i hear the sound of cash registers ringing and weighing heavy on his back.
Dont get me wrong i love morrissey ,can't get enough of the bugger
and yet..doesn't it seem that he and his "people" have lost sight of what its all about.
I dont give a shit.. I'm over it. But the spanish are proud, passionate people and they won't forgive him.

 

[Stiofain Padraig O Muirgheasa]

Not for one minute am I doubting what you are saying.
But what huge amount of money is An t-uasal O Muirgheasa earning from Perth or Paisley??
Just a thought.

 

[screw moz's agents-lawyers-sanctuaryaholes.....]

sometimes, when finding out things like this, I feel Morrissey has become a true "crashing bore". "he is sick/man is very sick" but will play the next day for the right price? come on now, that is becoming a bit too common for the good "old" MOZ......that smells like 10 pounds of BULLSHIT in a 5 pound bag.

 

[Stiofain Padraig O Muirgheasa]

yeah he will make so much from paisley and perth.

 

[babe]

I think it is obvious that there are three sides to every story and every man for themselves is going to protect their imagine and try not to come out looking like the bad guy or a loser -- in which case i wouldn't give this too much weight since they lost an artist and ended up disappointing fans -- only god knows the truth and I would imagine it falls somewhere in between.

> Don't know if anyone's interested but they've printed an epic description
> of events leading up to Moz' no-show at Benicassim on the festival's
> website. Roughly paraphrased this is what they say happened in a
> nutshell:-

> -6:00 p.m(approx) Sat 7th July- Gary Trew, production chief, camp Moz
> turns up at the festival to say that due to technical problems with the
> plane Moz wont be able to make it to perform at his allotted time. At
> least 2 hours are needed to get the plane back in the air
> -Festival organisers meet to see if they can juggle around some of the
> acts to find Moz a slot to play.
> They think about moving forward Lou Reed but out of respect to him and his
> fans they decide not to.
> Ask Belle and Sebastian if they'll play earlier so moz can have their
> original time spot.. they say no
> Ask Las Planetas(acclaimed Spanish band) to move their set forward.. they
> say no. The band is resting.
> As this is all going on they also phone Stanstead to find out more about
> these pesky "technical problems"
> which strangely enough Stanstead cannot confirm.
> hmm... the plot thickens
> - festival peeps put in a call to Jed Weitzmen at Sanctuary to discuss
> possible rearrangements. He says that until they can confirm an actual
> time slot Moz wont be going anywhere. ( so nice to see such a flexible and
> friendly approach- obviously highly concerned about the feelings of moz'
> sizeable Spanish fanbase.)
> -Finally both Lou Reed and Belle and Sebastian agree to move forward their
> sets.. Yay! its all on .. a happy ending in sight?
> When Jed hears he says "lets go !.. what's a 2 hour delay after 10
> years of waiting!"
> -But hang on... whats this?.. 10 mins later Gary Trew says Moz wont be
> coming.. What? more techincal difficulties?!
> er..not quite. Phone call from Jed who says "i'm standing beside a
> very sick man"..."i've had to phone an ambulance"
> he then goes on to not explain in any way what is actually wrong with Moz
> just that he is not fit to fly.
> -Festival peeps obviously now at their wits end "what about
> tomorrow?" they cry in desperation
> -Jed says, well.. err.. Moz might have to charge 60,000 euros more.
> Festival decline Jed's kind offer. Gary Trew checks the line-up for Sunday
> and decides he quite fancies Franz Ferdinand's spot for Moz
> -Meanwhile Jed's hanging on for them to offer him a little
> "something" in the way of financial incentive.
> - In the end festival organisers decide enough is enough. Its all too much
> of a head-ache and that after considering all possible changes to stages,
> time-tables etc.. out of respect for the artists and fans that would be
> adversely affected they are going to have to give up on the whole thing.
> -Lastly at 23:10 Sat. 7th August Jed emails festival organisers
> "further to our conversation this afternoon I find myself forced to
> abandon plans for a performance tomorrow. I appreciate your efforts to
> find Morrissey a slot on Sunday and I understand this will be completely
> impossible for you.
> I'm deeply sorry that this medical crisis has made it impossible for
> Morrissey to be with you today." yada yada yada

> Well you cant say Benicassim didnt try. Maybe they did finally veto a
> performance on Sunday but its not as if they were getting much
> encouragement from Moz' lot. Even Lou Reed was willing to move his set to
> accomodate him and he was one of the big head-liners and is a general all
> round musical ledge..

> Also- "Medical crisis" requiring an ambulance "very sick
> man".. and yet, oh he'll be right as rain to peform tomorrow if the
> price is right
> Methinks i hear the sound of cash registers ringing and weighing heavy on
> his back.
> Dont get me wrong i love morrissey ,can't get enough of the bugger
> and yet..doesn't it seem that he and his "people" have lost
> sight of what its all about.
> I dont give a shit.. I'm over it. But the spanish are proud, passionate
> people and they won't forgive him.

 

[oohlala]

Yeah right on!!!! I mean, why would anyone take the time to post such a self indulgent detail of events unless they themselves had something to hide or 'reality' to protect...I bet if the truth were to come out...although at this point who really cares...my guess would be the festival people didn't know how to handle it and missed an opportunity...if they didn't plan on playing the festival why would the morrissey people have all their crew at hand and then just not show??...something's fishy...I bet this isn't exactly what happened!!

 

[world]

I AGREE HERE!!!! THERE WOULD BE ONLY ONE REASON TO EVEN LET ANYONE IN ON DETAILS AND THAT WOULD BE SELF-PROTECTION. ARTISTS CANCEL GIGS ALL THE TIME -- SHIT HAPPENS, C'EST LA VIE!!!! WHY THE PROMOTERS ARE SOOOO PISSED OFF IS BEYOND ME -- THEY SOLD THEIR TICKETS AND MADE MONEY ON THE FESTIVAL WHETHER MORRISSEY PLAYED OR NOT SO WHAT ARE THEY COMPLAINING ABOUT???? ITS NOT AS IF HE WAS THE ONLY ACT THERE!!!! THE BENICASSIM FRONT SEEMS TO BE TAKING THIS A BIT TOO PERSONALLY AND ACTING QUITE CHILDISH. IF MOZ WAS SICK HE WASN'T GOING THE NEXT DAY ANYWAY SO WHO ARE THEY KIDDING WITH THIS PINOCCHIO DETAIL STORY!??

> Yeah right on!!!! I mean, why would anyone take the time to post such a
> self indulgent detail of events unless they themselves had something to
> hide or 'reality' to protect...I bet if the truth were to come
> out...although at this point who really cares...my guess would be the
> festival people didn't know how to handle it and missed an
> opportunity...if they didn't plan on playing the festival why would the
> morrissey people have all their crew at hand and then just not
> show??...something's fishy...I bet this isn't exactly what happened!!

 

[american fan]

The folks at benicassim shouldn't throw stones since they live in glass houses. They still made money for all the tickets sold and festival goers still got a concert. They hold a festival so they can make money and don't any of you tell me otherwise. How dare they say that the morrisey folks were in it for the money or to make more money when that's what they are in it for. Forgive me if I'm wrong but I don't think Moz gets paid for no-showing. The festival still made money either way and I don't see them offering to forgo payment and offer the fesivak goers compensation for not getting what they expected. Benicassim sounds more to me like a dictatorship!