False gigs of late 1998

1998/07/ 04 or 05, Torhout/Werchter festival, Werchter, Belgium

Wild rumors about Sisters appearance in the festival were circulating from the Event Horizon times. By the April it was confirmed that this gig is not to be. However, the organizer of the festival, a good friend of Andrew's, convinced him to play in another Belgian festival -- Eurorock in Neerpelt.

With thanks to Raf Toninato (osm10@siemens.be)

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1998/10 Lebanon/Sudan

German magazine Zillo announced in its September'98 issue that Sisters are going to play in Lebanon with German goth band Dreadful Shadows, relying on false press release of a German record company SPV. Only Dreadful Shadows played to Arabs. Rumors stating Sisters gigs in other countries outside the Western World were probably sparked by the publication and inability and/or unwillingness to distinguish names of distant places, and were all false.

With thanks to Christian Woytisiak of Head and Star and Tobias Dorf (heartwork@wtal.de)

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1998/11/05, Hollywood Palace, Los Angeles, CA, USA

The Los Angeles gig nearly turned out to be a huge disaster for those who rushed and bought the tickets -- luckily enough, the ticket sale phase wasn't ever reached.

As it appears, on September 29 a LA concert organizer Golden Voice announced on its website about the upcoming Sisters gig to be held on November 5 in Los Angeles' Hollywood Palace. The US$25 tickets were supposed to go on sale via Ticketmaster (its website was listing the gig by September 30) on October 3rd, 1 am. Los Angeles Times reprinted this same information on October 1 (I am not aware if this was an ad or an article), Ticketmaster was still keen to confirm the gig on that day. The Sisters reaction also came on October 1st. Here's their Dominion list representative's letter in full:

An overly opportunistic American agent unknown to the band has been attempting to represent the Sisters (implausibly cheaply) to various concert promoters in the USA. An overly optimistic promoter's website has now announced an (implausibly small) event, so BaxCorp and the band's real US agent have simultaneously disturbed Mr Eldritch at a private love-nest near Detroit for a brief discussion of bogus agents and genuine displeasure. Appropriate countermeasures can be expected. Meanwhile, we can confirm that:

The (November 5) Los Angeles concert announced by Golden Voice was never a possibility. It will not take place. Tickets will not be going on sale. At this time, the Sisters have no plans to play in the USA or anywhere else before 1999.

This was the end. Golden Voice removed the information on that same day, Ticketmaster followed on October 2nd; Hollywood Palace's site never mentioned this show (by the time of these events no show was scheduled for November 5th). The quoted letter remains the only (semi)official explanation of what happened from any of the parties involved.

How do things like these happen? Let Sven Togni (togni@pandora.be) explain it to you all:

Promoters don't talk with the artists, from what I know. They talk to the manager and the manager talks with the band. BUT everyone can act like they are the manager of a band !!

Call a promoter, say you're the manager of SoM, and ask them if they wanna put them on a stage. If they accept, ask for a pre-payment, take the money and run as hell.... sounds like a good plan, but I wouldn't recommend anybody.

All I know is that the promoter for the last Belgian concert had his bill together when the Belgian promoter called him to offer SoM. Because of the quality of the band he accepted and made it into a two day event. He told me he never spoke to Andrew.

And while we're on the topic, here's an explanation on how the Ticketmaster site works, brought to you by the way of Lucas Wilk (alpha1@globalserve.net) from TM's employee who wished to remain anonymous:

Changes made on the Ticketmaster Web Site/Database come from way up in the chain. The programmers who post, modify and eliminate upcoming events from these public info sources just follow their orders.

'Where do the orders come from?' you ask.

They come directly from the promoters. Ticketmaster does not decide any of the following: Who, When, How Much, Rules, Technicalities etc. Everything is dictated to us if and when a promoter feels like it. We just sell the tickets and pass on whatever information we have been given on to the customer. We also take the fall for everything that goes wrong.

Of course as the voice of most of the events we sell for, it is our responsibility to 'explain' but we're generally as much in the dark as the public is when it comes to "What the ____ is going on???!!!"

If the Sisters event was posted on the Ticketmaster.Com Site, than one could denote that:

A The event was planned if but only for a fleeting moment
B That we should all know better by now than to hang our hopes on rumor
C The Devil play tricks on the minds of (wo)men
D That Andrew continues to be the good ol' Bastard he's always been

With thanks to davexist@mail.geocities.com, Aghyan Alzuabi (aghyan@itginc.com), David Caldwell (David_Caldwell@indigita.com), Matthew Redman (matt_redman@hotmail.com) and Lucas Wilk (alpha1@globalserve.net)

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1998/11 "De Brielpoort", Deinze, Belgium

The rumor said it that the Sisters will perform in the venue a couple of weeks after Bauhaus. Seems to be no more than a openly false gossip.

With thanks to Wouter Declerck (luc.declerck@innet.be)

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1998/11 UK

"A tour in UK". In goth festivals. 'nuff said.

With thanks to Zac Bordino (zacbordino@hotmail.com)