AMATEUR HOUR
U.K. festival promoter loses 65k, house & wife in 2017, tries again and cancels 2018 event 8 days out
HULL, England — Pipe dream festival pronoter from the U.K. drops the ball – again.
English promoter Ian Glenn Wright has let his personal life sprial out of control, he’s lost his house and is going through a divorce.
And guess what – he wants you to help save him.
Or at least he did until about a week ago.
We’re guessing that was … to save him from his own repeated stupid decisions?
Wright put on the first ever Hair Metal Heaven concert in Hull England in 2017.
He promised a “bucket list” full of hairbands – but the bucket wasn’t all the way full come showtime.
In the end acts didn’t get paid (Michael Monroe) and did not perform.
And some were advertised for months (WildSide) and it wasn’t until their set time (day of show) that an announcement was made from the stage they would not appear.
Some online blogger wrote that the WildSide singer was stuck in customs.
That was not true, as Drew Hannah had never even left California. Neither had other members of the band as they had pulled out of the event months earlier.
In addition to the missing acts, countless reports of it being a mammoth clusterfuck filled social media.
So much so, that Wright lost his ass (house and wife as well, or so it is claimed) to the tune of 50,000 British pounds or the equivelant of $ 65,000.00 U.S. dollars.
But clearly Wright didn’t learn a lesson from his 2017 mess.
So he decided to do it all over again this year.
Heavy Metal Hull or Hair Metal Heaven in Hull was slated for September 14th – 16th 2018.
The 3-day event was to be held at “Welly Club Hull” in Hull England.
And once again, he booked D-list hairbands from all over the world to appear.
It’s usually an early warning sign when the graphics on the event posters look like a local band’s flyer. See pile of shit artwork at the top of this page.
Anyway…
Hull is on the East Coast in the center of England with a population of around 250,000.
The city is located 4+ hours from London and 160 kilometers from Manchester.
So Hull is even a drive for the diehard hairband fans who live in the most populated parts of the United Kingdom.
As the last several months played out, there was all the hype of who was coming and sharing their videos on the event’s Facebook page.
But regardless of band logos and youtube clips some fans were heeding a warning of what happened last year.
Then the super delusional fans threw caution to the wind blogging: “I can’t believe I am finally gonna see >insert favorite band here!<”
Well guess what?
Don’t believe it, because nobody saw any of the bands – the entire event was officially canceled.
Editors note, just to be clear – we’re not getting personal with Wright’s life story either.
Nope, not the case.
As Wright himself put it all out there in a crowdfunder campaign last month asking for fans to help him raise thousands of dollars to save his sinking ship.
Wright wrote on September 4th. pushing his crowdfuner campaign: “I just want to say thank you for the support everyone has shown us so far. Ive never felt comfortable with the idea of fundraisers and being so single minded Ive always tried to do everything on my own!”
Single minded and doing everything on your own huh?
Sounds about right.
#Idiot
Then on September 5th Wright shared his crowdfunder and wrote to fans: “Thank you so much to the pledgers who have purchased rewards from our Crowdfunder so far. We are on track to surpass the 5k mark so please keep sharing …”
On track to surpass it when…. in 2029?
And in what looked like an attempt for sympathy, it was Wright and his “team” – who wrote: “We are turning to our loyal fans, friends, associates and businesses to ensure the owner of HMH and his event doesn’t lose anymore money.”
The HMH Team continues with: “Ian Wright – the owner of HMH has lost his house, has sold everything of value that he owns and is going through a divorce. This isn’t how it should be when someone tries to do something of good value for the local community.”
And them: “His life has spiraled out of control. No one should have to suffer this much when trying to do something good for the community. Lets help get him and his festival back on its feet by making this final festival a roaring success. This is the Last Bang!”
One must ask, was this a good idea – especially after what happened last year – or an absolute abomination of an idea?
No wonder his wife left him.
Hair Metal Heaven in Hull sounds a lot like Rock N’ Skull in Illinois or Rock Harvest in Maryland.
Both of which cost fans a pretty penny.
Add to that, those festivals advertised 2-3 dozen acts, of which a fraction of those actually appeared.
Metal Sludge wrote about these events and gave fair warning to the our readers and buyers of tickets, flights and booking their trips.
These guys are (were) pipe dream promoters who went far beyond their knowledge, abilities and wallet depth.
All in hopes of putting on their own fantasy concert.
Wright is a delusional (at best) fanboy, who with his team (likely other fanboy friends) all voted on their favorite bands.
Then started adding names, bands from the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland and beyond.
L.A. Guns, Kip Winger, Killer Dwarfs, Shark Island and Warrior Soul to name a few were all booked to appear this year.
With respect, many on the bill don’t draw more than 100 people to most of their live shows.
And it’s complex enough to get a band of aging rockers 300 miles away from their home base for a show, muchless 13,000 miles.
Fun Fact: A single flight to the U.K. from the U.S. or Canada is upwards of a grand. Multiply that x 4 or 5 band members. Then look over the list of acts to appear and which are worth more than $ 5,000.00 US Dollars?
This event, is (was) simple math.
That clearly the “team” at HMH couldn’t figure out.
Wright dropped the ball in 2017 in a big way.
Now it appears he has dropped it again in 2018, but this time it seems to have bounced back and off his face.
The local Daily Mail UK (Hull Edition) wrote about last year’s inaugural event stating: “A festival organiser says he has been left £50,000 out of pocket after he booked high-profile acts to perform at a heavy metal gig at Hull City Hall. Despite a star-studded international lineup, which included the drummer from Black Sabbath and the guitarist from Lynch Mob, Mr Wright said the infrastructure in place “quickly crumbled”, leading to numerous issues and some criticism from some festival-goers.”
Then on September 6th, just over 24 hours removed from stating the event was on track to surpass the 5k (British Pounds) mark, he canceled the 3-day festival altogether.
Now that the virtual hair plug has been pulled – fans are outraged.
Especially considering there were many questions ongoing.
One online fan posted 10 days out from the event (just days before it canceled): “Is this thing gonna happen?”
To which the promoters forged ahead that everything was a go on September 1st writing: “After our previous statement we are fully aware you all have many questions and concerns regarding the festival. So let me start by saying HMH is most definitely ON for this month.”
Even aftee the crowdfunder had raised less than 300 pounds of the 5,000 they were seeking, they ensured all was fine.
The post even made sure to capitalize the word ON – “HMH is most definitely ON for this month.”
Now that reality has set in, Wright and team wrote about refunds on September 8th: “An update on refunds: Due to the majority of bands requiring partial fees upfront (which were none refundable in event of a cancellation) and the lack of event insurance, we are not able to issue ticket refunds immediately but rest assured we are working on it.”
In short this means, they spent thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars to contract the bands.
Most agency contracts respectfully have a no refund clause in them – when a promoter does what Wright has done.
With respect to the agencies, and bands – they too have to book other shows to coordinate their run.
Add to this flights, hire crew and the list goes on.
So, for all of you who bought tickets, we wish you the best of luck in trying to get your hard earned money back.
Fans from all over Europe and the United States are now adding their 2 cents to the event page on Facebook.
See screen captures below of Hair Metal Heaven Hull statements, apologies and fan reaction.
If it sounds too good to be true, or has a horrible event name – maybe save your money.
