Metal Sludge The Power and the Glory
Skullfest hit with cancellations including; Bang Tango, Jetboy, London, Stonebreed, Benedictum & host Luc Carl
Nebraska — Skullfest is slated for this weekend October 10th and 11th in North Platte Nebraska. However it appears that all the bands that have been advertised will not make it for the event.
Some online chatter among disgruntled fans have several bands rumored to have pulled out or cancelled. The names include Bang Tango, Jetboy, London, Stonebreed and Benedictum.
Metal Sludge reached out to and have now confirmed from Bang Tango’s Lance Eric that they will not appear. The bassist says: “We pulled out 6 weeks ago.”
Nadir D’Priect has also informed Metal Sludge; “London will not be playing. We apologize to everyone.”
Metal Sludge contacted Skullfest’s promoter Arttie Parker who stated the following: “Jetboy cancelled weeks ago and were replaced. Benedictum pulled out because they claimed they couldn’t afford the flights. I have no clue what the stuff about London is.”
Parker continued: “All I can tell you is Jetboy. Bang Tango, London and Benedictum all were paid and contracted through Excite Entertainment Enterprises.”
Elena Hernandez is owner and agent at Excite Entertainment Enterprises. We asked her for a comment in regards to her bands pulling out. Hernandez replied with a 964 word statement which can be read at the very bottom of this posting. In short she says: “The 4 bands ( JetBoy, Bang Tango, London and Benedictum ), all had different reasons for why they were no longer on the bill to perform at the Skull Fest.”
Stonebreed vocalist Carlos Cruz: “As the singer of STONEBREED I would like to say we feel terrible about having to cancel so last minute. We have a issue internally with scheduling conflicts and has NOTHING to do with Skullfest!”
Metal Sludge has also learned the advertised host Luc Carl of Sirius/XM Hairnation will not make the event either. Carl says: “Due to circumstances beyond my control I will not be at skull fest. I was looking forward to visiting my home state and hanging with friends and rockers. As far as I know the headliners are still booked as scheduled and the show will go on; albeit without me. I hold no hard feelings towards the promoters and after 8 weeks of traveling and many shows at SiriusXM I look forward to a weekend at home. Go Huskers.”
The 2 day event is headlined by Lizzy Borden and House of Lords on the Friday along with L.A. Guns and Killer Dwarfs on Saturday. As of press time, all 4 of these acts are still slated to rock Skullfest.
Skullfest posted an official statement to their facebook within the last hour that reads in part: “We are very disappointed that these bands have pulled off the show with zero notice, regardless of what we already did for them. That being said, the show will go on and we still have an incredibly solid line up of great acts for you.” Read the full statement from Skullfest at the bottom of this posting.
Almost a year ago to the date (October 23, 2013) Metal Sludge posted an article HERE on Rock Harvest. The East Coast based music festival saw more than 30 bands fall off their admat over their 3 day event.
Coincidentally 4 of the above 5 noted bands (Jetboy, London, Benedictum & Stonebreed) were slated to appear to Rock Harvest as well, but did not end up playing the event.
Back in August 2009 Rock Gone Wild (Iowa) pulled the plug and hired a lawyer who they named in their press release. “It’s been 5 years and I never got my money back on a weekend VIP package” stated one fan in an online music forum.
A Wisconsin area concert called Rockesha fell short of delivering the goods as well. The concert kicked off with Eric Martin (Mr. Big) who played acoustically. Martin’s set was followed by a statement over the PA system, “The show is over.”
Fans stood stunned as they looked at the stage and the announcement was repeated. The full day at Rockesha included Firehouse, Warrant, Lita Ford and Quiet Riot. None of the bands played after Martin’s short acoustic set as disappointed fans left the venue. Rumor was that the promoter failed to sell enough tickets to pay the band’s contracted monies due day of show – so they all refused to play.
Larger scale festivals like M3 and Rocklahoma have built over years and continue to sell well. And even with some smaller level festivals taking a hard hit, there are some that have continued to thrive. Melodicrock festival just played its fourth year without a hitch and Rock N’ Skull‘s inaugural show this coming November seems to have strong pre-sales.
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Statement from Excite Entertainment Enterprises
To whom this may concern,
I would like to address the issue surrounding the Skull Fest in which 4 of the bands that I represent had to pull out of the Skull Fest, due to unforeseen circumstances. The 4 bands ( JetBoy, Bang Tango, London and Benedictum ) , all had different reasons for why they were no longer on the bill to perform at the Skull Fest. The first band, dropped out early on in the year due to the matter of being double booked on another show that I was not informed of until after I had already booked them.
The second band that had to pull out was unable to perform due to the show being that it was a financial hardship for them to continue to perform, as I was unable to secure a second show for them the day before their scheduled appearance at the skull fest and also there were some routing issues involved. . The 3rd band pulled out for a couple of reasons ,one being one of the players had something come up in which he could not change and thus he was not able to do the show, We tried to salvage the show by trying to get a replacement for him so they could still go on, but it was financially too much money to bring someone on board at this late of notice.
Finally the last band pulled out without my knowledge of them doing so because I was told that one of the members didn’t even know about the show in the first place. I find this surprising when I booked all these bands well over 8 months ago and all were confirmed then that they were going to play. I thought everything at that time was going on as expected and I began receiving deposits and monies to pay the bands several months ago in increments.
After finding out the first band dropped out I told the promoter I would try and find a replacement band and would charge the same amount so no more money had to come out of his pocket. During this time long before the show was scheduled to be, I became very ill to the point of almost losing my life to a very rare autoimmune disease. That being said at that time for almost 4 months I was not able to dedicate time to securing more shows for these bands and also other bands that I represent, due to my severe illness.
Which brings us to this past month. This is when the promoter and I found out that 2 more of the bands would not be able to perform due to the reasons I mentioned above. At this point it would have been very difficult to secure another 2 bands to replace those that dropped out due to time restrictions. Even up until this week, I did try and work with one of the bands to still have them perform but as I said due to family issues and being a financial burden I just couldn’t make it happen. I would like to say that in no way is this any fault of the promoter, nor the bands or even myself, due to the fact that these bands were booked nearly a year ago, things do change unexpectedly and sometimes unavoidable circumstances beyond our control come up and try as I might I just couldn’t change the circumstances for them pulling out in the first place.
There was also a rumor going around as of last night that the deposits and pay received for securing flights and travel arrangements was kept by some of the bands and that they had no intention of returning them. That simply is not true. I received the deposits in increments to book flights and make arrangements for travel costs and had begun doing so well before the date of the show. I purchased refundable tickets for some of the bands and the others chose to make the arrangements themselves, so all the money was fronted to them. Because things changed so quickly I was asked to get back the deposits from the promoter in hopes to bring on some last minute replacements if possible and also to refund money to those fans who purchased advance tickets to come to the show, in case they decided they would want a refund.
Any rumor going on out there that stated the bands kept the deposit or I did is simply a bold faced lie. As I get the deposits back I have been forwarding them to the Promoter and all his money when collected back will be paid back to him in full. He is a great guy to work with and has been nothing but pleasant to work with through out the year and this in no way is his fault. He still has an absolutely great roster of performers scheduled to play and for anyone that may want a refund, I’d think twice because you will definitely be missing out on some stellar entertainment. I wish I could have made things happen and that all these bands could still be on the bill, however, I tried to hold on til the end to make everyone happy and get the bands back on board but it just wasn’t feasible. I hope all you reading this will not slam any of the bands, nor promoter for not being able to have all the original line up listed from the get go, because really, they all have worked very hard to bring North Platte, NB some of the best music around. Any questions please feel free to message me at excite.entertainment.etrprs@gmail.com.
Thanks you for your time
Elena Hernandez- Excite Entertainment Enterprises
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