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Gigs & Festivals
Killing Joke frontman criticises The Cult over tour downgrade
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 30 July 2012
So, that previously listed ‘supertour’ featuring alt-rock bands The Cult, The Mission and Killing Joke underwent a serious down-sizing last month in terms of venues – one can only assume after disappointing ticket sales – and now Killing Joke have withdrawn (albeit unofficially) from all updated dates.
Not only that, but KJ frontman Jaz Coleman has blasted touring partners The Cult in a furious Facebook tirade, singling out the punk quartet for extorting fans, lacking all integrity and claiming to be from LA. The Cult are in fact from Bradford, so that last point seems fair.
Initially billed as an arena tour, the outing has since been downgraded to smaller-capacity academies in Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Birmingham and London. So far, so not very good.
Or so thinks Jaz Coleman, who last week addressed this Facebook note (since deleted) to his ‘Gatherers’: “It gives me great pleasure to announce the cancellation of the upcoming gigs with The Cult and The Mission. Frankly, playing at a gig with The Cult never appealed to me in the first place. The only reason we allowed ourselves to be talked into it was to blow both bands off the stage and to steal their respective audiences”.
The statement continues: “As the concert has been downgraded to a venue that we have recently headlined (and sold out) it doesn’t make sense. In addition to this Gatherers would only get to listen to a one hour set. Then there would be a problem with the dressing room and witnessing The Cult charge the fans $200 per head for a meet and greet”.
And (almost) finally: “Lastly, all their songs suck! They clearly have no integrity (they refer to their hometown as LA).
Black Jester
PS I don’t want your money
PPS Life without KJ is unthinkable!”
Anyway. In case you want them, here are the new academy dates, which will in all likelihood still take place with or without (unthinkable as that may be) Killing Joke:
10 Sep: Manchester, Apollo
11 Sep: Newcastle, Academy
12 Sep: Sheffield, Academy
15 Sep: Birmingham, Academy
16 Sep: London, Hammersmith Apollo
UPDATE 1 AUG 2012: Killing Joke have issued a further statement. Read more here.
