cream72 said:

cream72 said:

Not really, Neil Diamond is playing over in American an everywhre else on his tour, so in Crokeer this saturday for his show it will be mostly Irish.

BUT.

I am over it, I have fingers crossed for an 09 show.

I just want a proper answer, that's all.

riverjones said:

it was in the papers that he & his missus were refused into the royal section of the races for being inappropriately dressed, & they subsequently went on the p.
not the point though.
we need to hear from princes camp on this matter.

'i want the truth'

'you can't handle the truth'

I care, i care a great deal, i just hope he is ok? its been so long since i've seen him live i was at the point of getting butterflies thinking about this concert, i worry that something has happened in his life that isn't good, Prince i hope you are ok and i hope you will let us all know soon why this had to happen

riverjones said:

not sure about the font sweetie...
bit Wolfy on acid..

damn said:

fair enough and i think the fans deserve an answer as to why this was canceled at such short notice but if prince came out and made a statement that he was not well and wouldnt be right in time for the gig, would most on here settle for
that i dont think they would imho

GoldiesParade said:

Oh right so a stadium outside london aint a real stadium right? Croke Park aint a proper venue? What a fucking stupid thing to say...Check it out Croke Park even has its own website...how bout that huh?

I c the TurnItPost over at HQ has been modified, MCD have obviously been in touch! Great to see Prince finally meeting his match and trust me if you read bewteen the lines there is worse to come for Prince when the truth comes out.

unfortunately it will take some time but a trail of evidence is in existance and .....

riverjones said:

Okay yes MCD has been in touch with Housequake to say they had the go ahead to release tickets, fine if this is true why not give a proper statement to the fans
as to why this concert did not go ahead also they said they were informed on the 6th june to cancel the gig yet didnt release this information to the press till the 10th june fair enough it was weekend but why not monday not that it would of made a difference it still would of been canceled also if they are blaming prince what with the bullshit about beyond prince's control, the whole thing just doesnt add up

cream72 said:

MCD announced it on Tuesday morning.

If you don't count the weekend they took a DAY and a HALF to get in touch with all of the official parties (ticketmaster, the police, Croke Park etc.... etc) and make arrangements to refund 50000+ people.

Unfortunatly these people have to be informed before the general public.

A day and a half or even four full days sounds like a fair turn around time to me.

riverjones said:[quote]

sj1600 said:

OK, I have an idea. Its gonna be my birthday soon and if all the 55,000 give me the adverage €100 refund from the tickets as a present I'll book Croke Park (€1m) book P to play ($3m) charter buses and planes (€1m) and throw the rest over the bar for drink.

Oh forgot about the hotels and all the moneys gone, everyone will have to sleep on my couch.

Everyone happy now, cant say I didnt offer

I like many others am gutted not to be going to Dubli on the 16th Maybe this is a shot in the dark, but could be getting his own back on the Fans United Front, just a thought. You know how he like to strike his enermies down.

I think its time to move on now, its cancelled, dont know whos to blame, im thinkin MCD and Prince together. But its not goan be uncancelled.

I'll still go to his gig if he rescedules for next year but im seriously doubting what his plans are now. Anyway I dont have any animosity for the wee dude.

Goldstar said:

You know i was thinking the same thing lol karma is a bitch

Selfishly i a quite glad of the reschedule as i am more likely to be able to make it over in 2009

It took us 10 pages to get our gutter out (icluding me indeed). And look now we are turning....talk about the rescheduale and how to get on another concert next year haha. We just needed some space to get our anger and frustration out. Now, get ready for a new date and another few months to look forward to a great Prince experience haha. (But I´m still pissed) Are we fans and totally adicted or not...?! He IS a lucky, skinny MF with a high voice having us. We DO CARE! He´s 2 fine, no 3 fine, and thats the tripple truth ruth. lol
[Edited 6/12/08 15:32pm]

prisberg said:

I wasn't going to Croke Park although sorely tempted but after last year and
the 02 which more or less bankrupt me, I decided just to keep reading all about it from you orgers. So sorry for your disappointment.

why dont you hire Prince's tribute band instead for one great night in Dublin?
There will be so many of you there in one place and I hear they are wickeeeed!

http://prince.org/msg/12/273286

peppeken said:

Anxiety said:

SquirrelMeat said:

Good point. By "at the back", I meant of the 8 rows. Perhaps an indication of how insular my world is? My bad.

That being said I don't want to hijack this thread with that scenario too much more, but you must have been one of the few who were po'd from losing out because of the decision to hang back. I'm assuming that means the seats you were allocated were up close and you got stuck "at the back" because of the situation (not that that should have been too much of an issue of course being that you would have been somewhere in the first 8 rows, as you point out). So had the seats not have been 'allocated', by your own admission you wouldn't have hung back, but would also have been part of the 'crazed fams' of which you speak, who bum rushed the front. Had you have been allocated seats in the 8th row (the furthest back you could have been), I'm guessing you would have been quite unhappy having just queued up all day. Much like I might have hung back if I had had tickets allocated at the front. It's all about the beach ball.

Obviously I was there too, and he didn't think they were meant to be allocated. Initially he asked if it mattered though; "Every seats a good seat", and pointed out the benefits in audio of the rows further back. The manager of the Apollo said that the allocating of seats was a cock up and that if the fans kicking up a fuss didn't simmer down they'd be asked to leave. To be honest all that is by the by. Whatever the reason for the mix up the point still remains the same, Prince came out, listened to the fans and sorted out the problem. The majority were happy with the result. The few weren't. Those who hung back and those who turned up at the 11th hour and thought all their Christmases had come at once. So I think that suggesting that many missed out because of some 'fams' is a slight misrepresentation.

syble said:

Thank you syble. It was very enlightening to see someone like Prince come out like that and take care of his fans in such a way. It's something you wouldn't really expect of a star who's getting ready to do a show.

Better get back on topic. I burnt another bra today... I just couldn't help myself... Oh hang on, that's not it. Where am I?
[Edited 6/12/08 19:54pm]

I see your points, prisberg. They all make sense. Artists have to sell what they produce and therefore have to play by the rules of the market. Prince does too, but I also think that in many occasions he hasn't. He just flouted them. And despite doing that he still seems to be doing fine [commercially and on other fronts.] Same thing for his relationship with fans - he never really played by the rules and adopted the same techniques and behavior as most artists. He seems fine here too, he still has a following.

I agree that 'the right, correct, polite, ethical and nice thing' for him to do is to present the public with an explanation for the cancellation. I support that. It would also make commercial sense for him to do so, but as I mentioned, he doesn't seem to be over-bothered by fan support and commercial interests, as well as by damage to his image/reputation. With regards to the latter, he has seen and survived worse before.
My point in my previous post is that he is not legally bound to offer an explanation. By law, he doesn't have to.

I agree my Russian embassy comparison sounds far-fetched - although embassies' visa services are a service they provide for a fee - therefore, it's a business too.
I agree it's a sad world we live in if we cannot get an explanation for a visa refusal, but that's what the situation is today. I didn't say I supported this, I was just stating today's realities. [So editors around the world can set their mind at rest with regards to where I stand on this:)]

I agree, he is acting unprofessionally, by today's accepted standards for his sphere of business. He is acting outside of normal boundaries, in his own unique way, maybe not unlike he has done before...

"U might feel I go hard on you here, but only at your oppinion, not on you as person, ok? "
By all means, I'm all for free speech. And these posts around here make me think and rethink, which can't be a bad thing:)

prisberg said:

Poison Prince is still receiving plenty of negative press this morning, not that he cares on anything. These two are from The Irish Times, a high quality broadsheet, I can only imagine what the tabloids are saying...key point is that 55,000 fans are still in the dark, there is no work from him "yet" on the cancellation. details posted here


article 1:
June 13, 2008
Still perplexed by Prince? You’re not the only one
Filed under: Cancelled gigs — Jim Carroll @ 9:28 am
It has been a bad week for Irish gig-goers, as first Prince and then MIA cancelled shows.

On Wednesday, MIA pulled her entire European tour, including a planned date at Dublin’s Tripod. This cancellation was later attributed to her wanting to get her nails done, go shopping and start gardening.

Recent weeks have also seen Santogold, Mystery Jets, Gregory Isaacs, Black Mountain and Animal Collective cancel or postpone Dublin shows, citing everything from illness and missed ferries to “unforeseen circumstances”. The latter is usually taken as promoter-speak for poor ticket sales.

But sorriest of all were the 55,000 Prince fans, after the pop star cancelled his only European show, which had been due to take place in Dublin’s Croke Park next Monday.

Promoters MCD said the cancellation was “due to reasons beyond the control of Prince and MCD Productions”. In an unprecedented move, MCD also cited sales of 55,161 tickets. This quashed most rumours about a poor-selling show.

So why was it cancelled? When the Dublin date was announced in February, it was said in the initial press release to be one of just three European shows in which Prince would perform his greatest hits for the last time.

However, the other shows in Milan and Paris didn’t go ahead. While there were also online rumours of mooted shows in the Netherlands and Denmark, Dublin was the only Prince date in Europe for which tickets went on sale. Was there something different about the Dublin gig that would have made it viable as a one-off show?

If the Italian and French shows weren’t on, why would Prince fly with his band and crew across the Atlantic the week after his 50th birthday to play just one show? It wouldn’t seem to make any financial, logistical or practical sense.

As long ago as March, experienced industry observers in the United States were telling On The Record that they thought it unusual that Prince would play just one show in Europe.

So was the artist really to blame? Early on, some people inferred from the healthy ticket sales and from Prince’s silence that this was the case.

However, in a post on fan site Housequake, it was pointed out that Prince is contractually forbidden from commenting on what happened. So his silence may not in itself be meaningful.

Many of the other allegations on the site made about the reasons for the cancellation were dismissed as false by an MCD spokesperson.

At the time of The Ticket going to press, no statement has been made by Prince or his agents explaining why there will be no purple rain at Croke Park next week.


Article 2:

Prince: not a creep, not a weirdo, not on YouTube (or in Croker)
Brian Boyd on music.

SINCE Tuesday, websites, airwaves and newspapers have been speculating over why Prince's Croke Park gig is not taking place next week. It remains to be seen just who is responsible, but one thing's for sure: the 55,000 ticket holders aren't the first of his fans to question whether the Purple One really deserves their devotion.

The annual Coachella Festival takes place every April in a parched California desert. Coachella is known for getting feuding musicians to reunite - usually for a huge pay cheque. Over the years, The Pixies, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Gang of Four and Kraftwerk have all renounced their "never again" vows in order to play the festival.

The "reformation" acts at this year's festival were Portishead and The Verve, but they aren't all that big in the US, so organisers were left with a major headlining slot to fill.

Brought in at a fee of $4.8 million, Prince had the desired effect (tickets sold out within seconds). However, his Coachella performance may well be remembered for something other than the being the festival's most expensive act ever.

Midway through his set, Prince launched into a very unlikely cover version of Radiohead's Creep . He extended the song by a few minutes, gave it a soul sheen and changed the lyrics from "I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo" to "you're a creep, you're a weirdo".

A friend of Thom Yorke's was at the show and texted the Radiohead man about the song. Anxious to see what Prince had done with Creep , Yorke went to YouTube to view fan footage of the performance. When he found it, however, the video wouldn't play and a message stated that "this video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by NPG Records".

NPG (Prince's own label) had contacted Google/YouTube and told them the Coachella performance of Creep was copyrighted by Prince and couldn't go up on the video-sharing site.

Prince does have form here: he already had most of his clips erased from YouTube, citing "copyright" issues, and has otherwise generally hassled any fans who so much as post a photograph of him on a fan website.

There is now a stand-off between YouTube, Prince and Thom Yorke as to who actually owns the footage. Yorke has been quoted as saying "Tell him to unblock it - it's our song". It appears YouTube didn't know what to do and took the clip down on Prince's request while waiting for someone to come up with a robust legal definition of who owns it.

Meanwhile, Prince fans (and non-fans) have been playing a cat-and-mouse with whoever is responsible for taking down YouTube clips. The Creep footage keeps getting posted and keeps getting blocked. It was available on Pitchfork for a while, but now that too has been removed. If you search for it outside of YouTube, you will find numerous links, but it seems that the clips are taken down within hours.

This sort of tangled legal scenario was never envisaged when the music copyright laws (now hopelessly out of date) were being written. What is clear is that if Prince had recorded the version of Creep he played at Coachella, he would have been in clear breach of copyright laws. You can only get a licence to record a cover if you agree that you won't change the lyrics of the song. This is to stop people putting in unsuitable/ libellous/political lyrical messages into well-known songs. If Prince had wanted to use the line "You're a creep, you're a weirdo" on a recorded version of Creep then he would have had to get advance permission from the song's copyright holders: Radiohead and their publishing company.

Where the law stands on a live, as opposed to a recorded, cover version remains a moot point - there are rights in composition (Radiohead) and rights in performance (Prince), but which outweighs which? If Radiohead want the clip unblocked, the lyric change breach is surely one legal avenue they could explore.

The stupid thing is that Prince's cover of Creep has been described by reviewers as "spine-tingling" and "one of Coachella's best-ever moments".

If you really want to piss Prince off (consider it moral retaliation) hunt down the Creep clip and e-mail it to everyone you know.

riverjones said:

It is nice to see the truth finally coming out. HQ were wrong to put that post up in its original form and I am glad that MCD have been in touch with them.

Absolutely furious, gutted and depressed

Hey all,

Well just like so many of you I did the ticketmaster hour long wait on the phone to get my original tickets, booked flights and hotel for two of us, organised my son, my dog while we were away, took time off work.....
And then the blow yesterday when ticketmaster called to say it was cancelled and refunds would be given. Refunds will not be given for our flights, hotel is charging a cancellation fee...will Prince care...No!
One thing I would say is don't get down that you might lose out on tickets bought on Ebay. We also bought Gold Circle tickets on Ebay and I had an email from the girl I got them from today to say she is sending me my refund of £250.00 by cheque. Not everyone is out there to rip you off. This is so so disappointing and at such short notice. Thousands of us are left with holes in our wallets cos we can't recalim all that is spent. We thought about going to Dublin anyway but would rather save the money for something else - another Prince ticket?? I'd love to say no but if something comes up in the future I know I'll be one of the first phoning for tickets. Do we ever learn!!! I feel for everyone who feels as let down as me. Make the most of next Monday anyway all of you!!

My smiley has gone blue. Very sad.

swanny said:

But they were right weeks ago when they said the show wouldnt go ahead now whoever they got that info from must be in the know ie work in princes team so wasnt that a slight hint that prince was not doing the show, from what ive read from various places which makes a lot of sense, why the hell would prince do a one off show in Dublin.

Also if you believe the promoters after the way they released a half baked statement about being beyond princes and theirs control you must be a fool cause they are trying to blame this on prince now you know what they say those who change the story's are the liars

To all of you who were planning to attend. I'm really sorry to hear about this and totally understand your disappointment. Yes, it's "just a concert" as some folks insist of reminding us BUT it's still something you've looked forward to for months and spent lots of money to attend. So IMO it's perfectly understandable that many of you want to vent your disappointment and frustration at the situation. I hope all of you are able to take these lemons and make lemonade and manage to have a wonderful time in Ireland anyway.

Regarding a reason for cancellation, I fear we will never know who is REALLY at fault here unless MCD succeeds in taking Prince to court and both sides have an opportunity to tell their side of the story. If this does not happen, I wouldn't hold my breath for any public explanation or even acknowledgment of the situation from the NPG camp. P doesn't think he has to explain his actions to anyone especially his fans.

As far as any information coming from any fansites, I'd advise everyone to take THAT with a tablespoon of salt. Even if they say they are getting the information from reliable sources, keep in mind that Prince pulls their strings and uses them to get out HIS version of the story cuz he knows they'll run with it. All I'm saying is just becauce it comes from his camp it doesn't mean that it's not biased OR the COMPLETE truth.

BoySimon said:

Why do people keep bringing up a cancelled concert from almost 20 years ago??? Prince has done 100s of scheduled shows since then and I'm sure he has cancelled less than 10 of those. So I'm really confused why folks are still harping about something that happened in 1991.

Rorywan said:

I know.

We all are.

Poor Rorywan

Bx