Irish Times article places the blame with Prince, see below:



"PRINCE HAS cancelled his Croke Park show next Monday without an explanation for his fans or concert promoters MCD.

Prince's management informed MCD of the decision in the early hours of yesterday. Although rumours had been circulating for days that the notoriously volatile star, who turned 50 this week, was about to cancel, MCD believed the concert was still on as late as Monday afternoon.

Though officially MCD are stating that the cancellation was due to circumstances "beyond the control" of either themselves or Prince, it is understood the decision was down to Prince himself.

MCD is said to be furious with Prince's decision, especially given that the scheduled date is just five days away and the promoter is likely to lose thousands of euro as a result of the cancellation.

MCD said more than 55,000 tickets were sold for the event, which had a capacity of 62,000. The firm said rumours of poor ticket sales were well off the mark.

"The stage was being built, everything was in place for it. The concert was on course to be sold out. It has nothing to do with money or contracts. The guy's just being a superstar. He just didn't want to do it," said one industry source.

MCD will hope to recover the booking deposit from Prince without having to go to litigation, which could take years.

Prince has a reputation for regularly cancelling shows. His only other European shows on the tour, in Paris and Milan, were cancelled several months ago.

Uniquely among major artists, he does not have an official website to offer an explanation to fans.

Long-suffering fans were scathing about his decision on various websites. "People went out of their way for Prince, and we have pretty much been treated like s**t . . . how rude of him and his people." Another wrote: "I'm fed up defending you (Prince). You don't care about anyone but yourself. Just do us a favour and retire," while a third wrote: "There's no way Prince can let down 80,000 fans (sic), but my God, he did."

The cancellation will seriously inconvenience UK fans who were due to travel for the only show in Britain or Ireland that the artist was scheduled to do this year.

Ticket holders, who paid between €66.50 and €125.50, excluding handling fees, can obtain a full refund including booking fee from their Ticketmaster point of purchase from 9am on Friday.

It is not the first time that MCD has been let down by a volatile star. Eminem cancelled his concert at Slane in 2005 citing "exhaustion", and MCD, which claimed losses of €2.1 million from that cancellation, had to make an out of court settlement with three insurance companies as a result.

Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna said they were as mystified about the cancellation as everybody else. "It is a temperamental business and artists and performers are probably the most temperamental," he said. "We're annoyed and disappointed. There is a huge amount of planning that has gone into that . . .There are knock-on effects all the way down and suppliers have to cancel orders and a lot of people who were due to work that night will now have to cancel."

Flo6 said:

REALLY?!!!!! I think he needs a new director of information and PR. Not 2 give a reason for canceling a show with 55 000 wildly expecting crowd, is really a dumb and stupid act. Yes, sure...there might be illness or other serious things that made him cancel. But they should make an official statement. They don´t have 2 tell exactly what, but yes he DO OWE us more information than a statemant from MCD that says nada. This event is actually a big concert event in the whole of europe this summer. The press in most contrys has coverd this event. Again...really silly not 2 release some sort of official information. There will just be a lot of speculations, rumours and bad feelings not doing this correct and proffessionel. He is a superstar - not a guitarplayer with a mouthorgan playing pubs. He choose his proffesion himself and wants 2 make money outta it all. With this choice, also follows presshandeling etc. Yes he is a musical genious and an artist. BUT also a businessman! (Mmmmm felt good to spell out some after yesterdays dissapointment

Who did the Irish Times personally spoke to? This piece squarely puts the blame on Prince without having done the basic reporting job of talking to the people involved [at MCD, etc]. "MCD is said to be" and "one industry source said" don't count.

daibhi said:

Flo6 said:

Prince has a reputation for regularly cancelling shows. ? He does? i thougt that was Amy Winehouse.

remko said:

and Pete Doherty... Coldplay cancelled some shows the other day, I haven't found a linch mob after them yet- just Prince gets that 'lucky' response from his fans.

skipper1958 said:

There is a big difference between cancelling and rescheduling (like Coldplay)

It may look silly and dumb to you for Prince to stay silent, but the cancellation is a business decision, and from a business perspective - and you can add a legal one - I believe he doesn't owe his fans an explanation. On an emotional level, sure, but not on a business/legal one.

The Russian embassy does not have to give any explanation when it refuses an entry visa to an applicant, despite the financial and emotional trauma such a rejection may cause to the applicant. That's because it's a legal/business decision.

Btw, I think it's actually more clever of Prince to remain silent and watch how things develop.

prisberg said:

Some guy/girl taking there hate to youtube

http://www.youtube.com/wa...Dn5FUxSIZ0

I've just had a voicemail message fm TM, stating the Prince concert on the 15th(!!!!) is cancelled. Phew so it looks like Monday is still a go then
Also said therefore I shouldn't turn up to Croke Park....glad thats clear cos I would have done just that,just in case its all been a jest and the little scamps gonna play anyway...purleeeease.

L4OATheOriginal said:

I know, right? Half of the fun of the celebrations in Minny was the chance to get to meet/hang out with other Prince fans.

Yea, don't get me wrong, the London shows were definitely a nice little earner, but i still think he would have made a fair profit of the Dublin show...i appreciate the costs would be high, but a lot of the crew at the London shows were clearly British, and i've got a couple of photos of the plans for the symbol stage from the O2, and it's a real clever design, but simply constructed...literally just scaffolding with the symbol surface made up of lots of simple planes of wood...i watched them take it apart to make way for the Elton John Show during the O2 run (that's when i photographed the plans) it really didn't take them long...who knows, they may have even left it in England!

But I guess my point is that i doubt the money would be the reason for cancelling (at least not on Prince's part)

He knows how to make money, but it also seems that he's not bothered if he loses money either

It's speculation on my part, but i'd like to think Prince is above doing something (or not doing something) just because of the money

(also, this might be of interest to some people: the purple doves dvd has an interview where Prince is talking about cancelling gigs and how he hates to do it, the interview is about 5 years old now, but he gives an example of where he had to cancel a show and it was literally because he'd twisted his ankle in rehearsal ( i'll have to watch the interview again, but i think he may even have broken the ankle)

CosmicDancer said:

To be honest i don't really give a monkeys whose fault it is, its gone, he won't play, it's only a concert and i'm still a fan so life goes on. Lets get over this and move on to Prince's European Tour 2009

To be honest i don't really give a monkeys whose fault it is, its gone, he won't play, it's only a concert and i'm still a fan so life goes on. Lets get over this and move on to Prince's European Tour 2009

i remember a few years ago rod stewart cancelling

a concert in dublin on the day.

he had been on the piss at ascot or some racing event

the day before.

he didn't get the abuse that p is now.

angelcat said:

Ha you don't get it.

This was not a date of a tour cancelled, this was the Prince concert of the year, people flying in from all over the place.

The simple fact of the matter is you DO NOT cancel a gig this big and NOT give a reason,the more I think about it the more stupid this situation get's.
[Edited 6/12/08 11:31am]

angelcat said:

Ha you don't get it.

This was not a date of a tour cancelled, this was the Prince concert of the year, people flying in from all over the place.

The simple fact of the matter is you DO NOT cancel a gig this big and NOT give a reason,the more I think about it the more stupid this situation get's.
[Edited 6/12/08 11:31am]