Famous Concerts or Tours That Never Happened.

Examples:

Joy Division opening for Buzzcocks
Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Street Survivors" tour
Cocteau Twins at Coachella
Sly Stone's 2008 comeback tour
the Pet Shop Boys' "gay package tour" Wotalpalava (with Sinead O'Connor, Soft Cell, Magnetic Fields and Rufus Wainwright)

More?

Stone Roses at Glastonbury

Michael Jackson's series of shows in London, 2010

The Grateful Dead at Altamont

Nirvana's last UK tour

I bought tickets for that Field Day festival in NYC that never happened

Lady Gaga & Kanye - Fame Kills tour
Beastie Boys & Rage Against the Machine - Rhyme & Reason tour

UK Love Parade 2001 - Newcastle, Police Refused to grant a license iirc

Led Zeppelin 2008 world tour

Lollapalooza 2004

velvet underground us reunion tour. i think they had even booked dates before cale and reed's relationship dissolved (again).

2007 Rage Against The Machine/Wu Tang Clan tour

oops i meant 1997 with that last one

i was reading a review of the original Woodstock recently and apparently at the time the organizers were very confident that they were going to do it again in 1970

Smashing Pumpkins, Grant Park Chicago, 1998.

http://www.vintagemaineimages.com/media/images/450/75/22201.JPG

Maybe not as famous, but Damon and Naomi released that fake live album life at san sebastian that never happened.

There's a lot more famous fake live albums than that one!

This is usually the first one that springs to mind:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rAcZc7-UNNY/TUjSXq435MI/AAAAAAAAAV8/VBXUvgikv58/s1600/lep%2Bzep%2Badvertise074.jpg

Oh, um, that's 1980.

wait a second, I saw that Wu Tang / RATM show. why was that listed, did it get cancelled midway through or something?

Daft Punk have been the victims of loads of fake tour dates, does that kind of thing count?

Throbbing Gristle at ATP, 2004

3/4 of a Beatles reunion on SNL--Harrison was there, Lennon & McCartney couldn't catch a cab to 30 Rock.

wait a second, I saw that Wu Tang / RATM show. why was that listed, did it get cancelled midway through or something?

― Stormy Davis, Saturday, November 12, 2011 12:34 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

i thought Wu Tang dropped off the whole tour and were replaced on the bill by The Roots but yeah i guess they did do a few shows? my bad

yeah, Wu Tang was definitely there at the Chicago (actually "Tinley Park") show. I hadn't heard that about them being replaced by The Roots, interesting; I wonder how many shows they did

Famous tour that partially happened: Monster Magnet/Hole/Marilyn Manson "Beautiful Monsters" campaign of '99 (advertised as "The Concert Your Parents Don't Want You To See!"). Went for like ten dates before Manson fell off an amp stack during his set, breaking his ankle and leading to the cancellation of three or four shows, which created a convenient out for Courtney & co. to leave the tour. I was at the first date on the resumed tour (the Summit in Houston, Oscar Night '99) and, due to ticket returns, me and my friends were able to trade in our crappy reserved seat tix for pit tix at the customer service desk.

The Monks in Vietnam.

interesting, my friend was just telling me about how she bought tix to that Hole tour just to see Hole, and when they bailed out, instead of opting to trade it in, she went and saw Marilyn Manson anyway w/ her friends, and basically didn't like it.

ha, "The Concert Your Parents Don't Want You To See!"

Wasn't there a Zappa show once that was ended before it started, for whatever reason, when a guy dressed in a penis outfit walked onto the stage with a sign that read "you have just been screwed by Frank Zappa"?

there was that concert with The Gathering in Colorado back in 1999 where they pulled up outside, looked at the sign, and drove off and didn't play....

John Fahey's last tour. I bought a ticket for his Toronto show, saw it was cancelled, got a refund, read his obit, cried buckets.

Quite a few Guns n' Roses shows, no? The ones where Axl just stayed in his hotel room, very possibly having a full-scale anxiety attack or maybe just watching TV and eating Doritos.

Phish 7/29/93 Pier Six Concert Pavillion, Baltimore, MD
Only cancelled Phish show, due to lack of ticket sales.

Is that venue huge or something? That seems so weird - they were playing biggish theaters and selling them out in D.C. at that time.

Nico plays the Edith Piaf and Nana Mouskouri Songbooks.

Pier Six is not especially huge, although it's right across the water from pier five, where you can see and hear shows pretty well for free, so maybe the hippies were betting on that?

I think they oversaturated the market, as they had played Wolf Trap a few nights before.

http://www.vintagemaineimages.com/media/images/450/75/22201.JPG

Can someone explain why this concert was famous?

there was that concert with The Gathering in Colorado back in 1999 where they pulled up outside, looked at the sign, and drove off and didn't play....

What did they see in the sign?

Can someone explain why this concert was famous?

Elvis died on August 16th 1977.

jesus fucking christ, tuomas

How did Encyclopedia Finn know that some dude was lying?

The Monks in Vietnam.

― The Man With The Flavored Toothpick (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, November 12, 2011 2:50 PM

Wait, I don't get the Gathering thing either.

What did they see in the sign?

― Tuomas, Sunday, November 13, 2011 11:42 AM Bookmark

This whole story provoked a huge war that was actually documented on the message boards at www.ssmt-reviews.com. Dude's original review is here (and he claims it was the inspiration for their later song, "The Colorado Incident"): http://www.ssmt-reviews.com/live/gathering.htm .

The Gathering's claim used to be on the internet but I can no longer find it. However, their website here has a fragment of their claim: http://www.gathering.nl/tour/past-shows/. If you scroll down to the date of the show, 7/23/1999, they claim the show was cancelled and never booked.

Their claim was that the show was advertised but never booked, and that despite it, they attempted to make the drive in their tour van from California to Colorado to not disappoint their fans. That's something I find a bit dubious -- shows advertised without official booking happen, but bands usually pull out of it if they haven't signed any agreement first, and I'd think if they attempted to go there, they'd want something in writing so they didn't get stiffed.

In any case, they do not deny that they made the trip, and they claim after the trip they were all feeling sick, and that they got out, entered the building to try and find out who was in charge, and that there was nobody there in charge, and after many attempts to locate said person, they gave up and left.

Ch3dsey disputes this, saying he physically saw the van pull up, saw the band get out, look at the sign, and drive off. And that someone was in charge, and that they never entered the building. He said he made peace with the drummer later and that they squashed it.

so it's not really 'famous' in that it applies to a band many people haven't heard of, but i guess it was the only incident i could think of

lol sometimes Tuomas reminds me of Method Man going "i-i-is he dead?"

Sunday 15 August 2010
Daft Punk Yankee Stadium
Bronx, New York NY, United States

Why is that one famous?

Why are any of these famous?

was this elvis presley supposedly famous or something?

Go easy. Someone provided some misinformation here: Photos taken of famous people together that you would never have expected to be together but make you happy all the same.

Tuomas -- Gee, I would offer you some offhand advice on where to go to find such little details, but I'm not sure such a place [b]e</>xists

exists

BAH

Cool effect. How does one make one letter darker than the others?

by forcing it to read Sylvia Plath

Who is that? A famous author?

tuomas

August 27, 2009, London: FAP for Tuomas, Tuomas not sighted.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d165/markruncible/S81.jpg

wait, Elvis is an ilx poster? and he was performing concerts in the 1970s? /tuomas

Sorry, I forgot my

TOUMAS

lol sorry i had to telegraph it like that

Arrgh.

TUOMAS

jesus fucking christ, tuomas

lolz

there were also the projects the beatles had for the get back sessions concert (including the greek theater idea used by pink floyd later) which ended on the roof of the studio beccause they couldn't bother.

Not famous at all, the 2001 tour that was supposed to follow the release of Zoom, Jeff Lynne's first ELO album since 1986.

They did two invitation-only shows in L.A. to record a concert video (I was working for the DVD company so I got in), but the planned tour got canceled because a.) the market dropped out of the concert biz that year, and b.) foolishly, they booked arena shows when they should have gone for theaters.

On the fictional side, there's that tour Negativland had to cancel when "Christianity Is Stupid" caused an axe murder.

Not exactly famous, but I've always thought that the NYC Unwound/Clinic show (both touring on their best albums) that got cancelled by 9/11 had a small ripple effect. Actually, I'll bet there are a lot of 9/11 related shows/tours that didn't happen...

Cancelled Negativland tour was real, "Christianity is Stupid" excuse was not.

Okay, I googled "Sunday 15 August 2010 Daft Punk Yankee Stadium", but couldn't find any info why this one would have been a famous cancelled concert... Is it really hard to write an explanation when you post something here?

these are all completely fictional events

The original ATP, scheduled for September 1999 just after the original Bowlie Weekender, was cancelled at v. short notice due to poor ticket sales. I had a wee dig around the internets and found this excuse from Foundation, which seems so quaint. Festival fatigue in 1999! People preferring to go to lots of individual gigs rather than have them all in the same place!

the rumours have been circulating and unfortunately they are true, All
Tomorrow's Parties has sadly been cancelled.

no feeble excuses - there was simply not enough tickets sold. this can be
attributed to a number of factors - festival fatigue, the requirement of
having to buy tickets in groups and the unfortunate timing that many of the
main acts are about to tour.

we are very grateful to those who worked solidly on the event and for the
interest and coverage we received. however we are gutted and genuinely feel
for the bands scheduled to play and especially for those who bought tickets.

we hope their belief in the need for a platform for music like this still
remains.

kindest regards

all at Foundation

I took all my ticket money and went to London and got pished for four days with all the people I had been going to ATP with. It was just like being at ATP but without pesky bands getting in the way.

Cancelled Negativland tour was real, "Christianity is Stupid" excuse was not.

And Helter Stupid, the only Negativland album I own, is mostly about the 'controversy' that ensued.

Joy Division opening for Buzzcocks

Uhhhhhhhh, what do you mean? They did an entire UK tour with as support act to the Buzzcocks.

In the US I presume?

Ah!

Hey Tuomas, I was curious too so I googled without the date and found this: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2009/11/daft_punk_is_not_touring_we_re.php

Daft Punk have been the victims of loads of fake tour dates, does that kind of thing count?

― StanM, Sunday, 13 November 2011 04:36 (2 days ago)

ffs ppl

....I was just answering Tuomas' question. ffs right back atcha!

That cancelled proposed ELO tour is a perfect example!

How many times was a DLR-Van Halen reunion tour falsely rumored before it finally happened?

Throbbing Gristle at ATP, 2004

― ban this sick stunt (anagram), Saturday, 12 November 2011 17:42 (2 days ago)

but they did, eventually? (well, albeit in December headlining the Chapman Bros one rather than their own cancelled one..)

ha forgot all about the inaugural atp getting cancelled too..

i can't remember for sure, but did Autechre ever confirm Busta Rhymes for their ATP too? I remember them saying later he was one of the main ppl on their wishlist that they went for, before they eventually got Public Enemy to headline..

I don't think false rumors count. There's always someone rumored to reunite or show up who fails to do either of those things. I'm thinking of more concrete stuff, booked or announced shows that never transpire or get cancelled or otherwise don't happen.

I was always curious how many tickets were sold for Led Zeppelin's 1980 US tour before it was cancelled. I knew tons of kids in high school who bragged about how they had tickets to these shows, despite the fact that they would've been around 8-10 years old in 1980.