Last month, the planned five-date U.K. arena tour featuring hard-rocking headliners The Cult with support from freshly reunited ’80s-era contemporaries The Mission and Killing Joke was unceremoniously downsized to smaller venues, presumably over poor tickets sales. Now the tour may have lost one its opening acts, too.
Rumors have circulated in recent days that Killing Joke, displeased with the change in venues, has quit the September tour. The band hasn’t made an official statement, although a scathing note about the tour and, specifically, The Cult (“All their songs suck!”), purportedly written by Jaz Coleman, was posted then removed from the band’s Facebook page.
In part, that note read: “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. As the concert has been downgraded to a venue that we have recently headlined (and sold out) it doesn’t make sense.”
On Tuesday, Wayne Hussey of The Mission took to his band’s website to expound on the tour, writing, “I think the promoters have conceded that Killing Joke ARE puling out of the shows. We have tried to contact the band through their management, agents and promoters and it seems that no one is any the wiser and the band have gone incommunicado.”
Hussey noted that he agreed with some of the points in the purported Killing Joke post (“These are venues that we could easily play on our own,” he notes), and urges the promoters not to replace Killing Joke and instead just let The Mission and The Cult each play longer.
Lastly, Hussey shines some light on the now-deleted Facebook post (which you can read below): “I’ve just heard that the Facebook statement that was allegedly from Jaz wasn’t at all but from a fan that was hanging out with the band recently in Prague who paraphrased some of the comments made by Jaz and the band and took it upon himself to post it online. Apparently KJ are preparing their own statement which we wait for with bated breath and which will also confirm that they are still apparently pulling out of the tour.”
UPDATE: Still no statement from Killing Joke on the dates with The Cult and The Mission, but the band this morning announced a “once in a lifetime” Sept. 8 live appearance at London’s Metropolis Studios for the filming of a DVD. Tickets are priced at £195, or about $300.
The Cult, The Mission, Killing Joke tour dates:
Sept. 11: Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, UK
Sept. 12: Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield, UK
Sept. 14: Manchester Arena, Manchester, UK
Sept. 15: LG Arena, Birmingham, UK
Sept. 16: Wembley Arena, London, UK
Sept. 10: O2 Apollo Manchester, Manchester, UK
Sept. 11: O2 Academy Newcastle, Newcastle, UK
Sept. 12: O2 Academy Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Sept. 15: O2 Academy Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Sept. 16: HMV Hammersmith Apollo, London, UK
Deleted post from Killing Joke’s Facebook page:
The latest from Killing Joke…
The September Gigs are Cancelled.Dear 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.
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 & Greet.
Lastly, all their songs suck! They clearly have no integrity (they refer to their hometown as L.A.).
On a more positive note KJ will be recording in Argentina just after Christmas and Brixton Academy is booked for Spring.
I do believe the band will play a private gig at Metropolis Studios (London) which is of course open to all Gatherers (you are the first to know!).
I hope you are all as relieved as I am!
Black Jester
PS I don’t want your money
PPS Life without KJ is unthinkable!
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- The Cult, The Mission, Killing Joke U.K. arena tour downsized for ‘more intimate experience’
- The Cult announces 20-date North American tour with Against Me!, The Icarus Line
- The Cult, The Mission, Killing Joke team up for 5-date U.K. arena tour this September
- Video: Killing Joke, ‘In Cythera’ — plus stream 5-minute ‘MMXII’ album ‘taster’
- The Mission taking 25th anniversary reunion tour to Mexico, South America this spring
Jaz is Batshiz Crazay as always
Always thought Sister of Mercy or Fields of the Nephelim would have been a better third act for this show anyway. Which I still wouldn’t go to unless a time-machine back to 1985 was included.
It was beneath Killing Joke to open for those groups in the first place but particularly in venues they could sell out on their own. Good for them!
Agreed. While I love classic Mission and the Cult, Killing Joke is a machine that refuses to quit. Jaz and company just keep getting better.
Ask the live nation subhumans what weapon they chose against the wonderful human person with integrity jaz Coleman, and many other past personalities not affiliated with the new world order.
I adore The Cult and getting angry when I hear bands slanging them off, specially Ian Astbury their wonderful singer!!! Killing Joke are good, I like the band, but I feel they’re a bit too arrogant for their own good! And I never liked The Mission at all, they are boring, and The Cult should be much better off playing with fantastic Fields of the Nephilim than with them!!
JC,
After immersion in the subject matter, as astutely addressed on this gentleman’s website, you might actually be the most appropriate artist on the planet with regard to writing prescient songs about the whole mess:
http://questioneverything.typepad.com/