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Details emerge regarding Rush and Halifax concert promotion scandal

Sun, Dec 11, 2011@11:23AM | comments removed/disabled

[How Halifax's concert scandal played out]

One of the more high-profile omissions from Rush's Time Machine tour itinerary last year was the lack of any Atlantic Canada dates, despite the band expressing a desire to play there. As it turns out, it looks like the band definitely did pursue at least one concert date in Atlantic Canada but were thwarted due to reasons outside their control. An article posted in Halifax's The Coast last week reveals several details regarding a concert promotion scandal which resulted in Rush being prevented from playing a July show at the Halifax Common. From the article:

Last spring, Halifax's now-infamous "concert scandal" broke when city staffer Cathie O'Toole revealed that mayor Peter Kelly and the city's deputy CAO, Wayne Anstey, had improperly extended millions of dollars in loans to concert promoter Harold MacKay's firm, Power Promotional Events, and that the last two of those loans, totalling $400,000, were not repaid. ...

...We can also report that city officials turned down an offer from a promoter who wanted to put Rush on the Common with no financial assistance from the city, because officials instead wanted to go with a Kid Rock concert produced by MacKay, who could not manage to pay Kid Rock's upfront fee without hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans from the government. In the end, however, those loans weren't enough, and Kid Rock cancelled his Halifax show because his upfront fee had not been paid, then went and urged the other musicians coming to Halifax to demand more upfront money from MacKay. ...

...On January 29, 2010, Gillet Entertainment Group, a promotion company in competition with MacKay's Power Promotional Events, contacted city staffer Andrew Whittemore about the potential for putting a Rush concert on the Common on July 17 or 24, 2010. On March 11, GEG confirmed the July 17 date, and said the firm was ready to sell tickets.

In the meanwhile, however, PPE had announced a Halifax Rocks 2010 concert for July 23 and 24, with Kid Rock leading the line-up on the 23rd and Black Eyed Peas the 24th. Evidently, this show trumped the Rush show, and so on March 12, Anstey wrote GEG saying there was no way Rush could play the Common.

"We are not prepared to deliver up the Common site for your show this year," wrote Anstey to GEG. "I hope that this decision does not impair the possibility of future ventures in Halifax."

The Kid Rock show, however, was not a solid go. Just three hours after Anstey wrote GEG to prohibit the Rush show, a person---probably MacKay, although his name is redacted---wrote to Anstey saying that “our plans are close to being final and I would like to meet with you to discuss this and seek your advise on our plans to approach Prov Gov’t.”

The city apparently rejected a Rush concert on the Common from a promoter (GEG) who didn’t even ask for government funding in favour of a Kid Rock show produced by a promoter (MacKay) who couldn’t put it on without government funding. ...

You can read the entire article at this link. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

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