Nbadan
05-02-2005, 03:26 PM
On the Air America program 'So What Else is News' (http://www.airamericaradio.com/weblogs/sowhatelseisnews), Marty Kaplan posed the following question; "Did the media giant conspire with the Bushies to shut down a popular music festival?"
Later in the show, which you can download here (3.8MBs) (http://www.airamericaplace.com/upload/aasw043005.mp3), he interviews the founder of Lollapalooza, Perry Farrel:
Marty Kaplan: The summer concert season officially kicked off this weekend, with the two-day Coachella music festival in California's desert. If you don't get a chance to make it out, no worries, in July, Chicago's Grant Park will host this year's Lollapalooza with a lineup that rivals Coachella.
Now, one year ago, Jane's Addiction front-man Perry Farrel was booked on this very show to talk about last year's Lollapalooza. In addition to musicians like Morrisey, and the Pixies, the travelling festival was to feature MoveOn's anti-Bush ads projected on giant TV screens. And voter registration agents ready to net potential Kerry voters.
But a day before his interview with us, the fest was suddenly cancelled. Lollapalooza, the best-known brand name in the concert industry, had trouble selling tickets.
Or at least, that's what they said.
Now, for the first time anywhere, we find out the real story from Lollapalooza founder himself, Perry Farrel...
Perry Farrel: In the press, you've come to read that Lollapalooza was cancelled due to... 'poor ticket sales' was the excuse that they gave it. Now, I find it ironic that the day before I come to do the interview with you, the entire festival gets cancelled. And two days prior, I was gonna be on the cover, we had the cover of the LA Times; this was gonna be the July 4th cover.
Now, I've always told people that personally, I didn't do that interview to tell anybody about poor ticket sales, we did not have poor ticket sales. Our tickets were as competitive as the next festival, in fact in many cities, we were doing better than the Ozzfests, however, we were aligned with the Kerry campaign. I was working with MoveOn, and we were very, very excited, we thought we were gonna do a great job to help get Kerry elected. And, approximately two weeks before the festival was set to go off, they pulled the plug on us.
Kaplan:And who was the 'they' who pulled the plug?
Farrel: Well, 90% of the tour was owned by ClearChannel, so... you tell me.
Later in the show, which you can download here (3.8MBs) (http://www.airamericaplace.com/upload/aasw043005.mp3), he interviews the founder of Lollapalooza, Perry Farrel:
Marty Kaplan: The summer concert season officially kicked off this weekend, with the two-day Coachella music festival in California's desert. If you don't get a chance to make it out, no worries, in July, Chicago's Grant Park will host this year's Lollapalooza with a lineup that rivals Coachella.
Now, one year ago, Jane's Addiction front-man Perry Farrel was booked on this very show to talk about last year's Lollapalooza. In addition to musicians like Morrisey, and the Pixies, the travelling festival was to feature MoveOn's anti-Bush ads projected on giant TV screens. And voter registration agents ready to net potential Kerry voters.
But a day before his interview with us, the fest was suddenly cancelled. Lollapalooza, the best-known brand name in the concert industry, had trouble selling tickets.
Or at least, that's what they said.
Now, for the first time anywhere, we find out the real story from Lollapalooza founder himself, Perry Farrel...
Perry Farrel: In the press, you've come to read that Lollapalooza was cancelled due to... 'poor ticket sales' was the excuse that they gave it. Now, I find it ironic that the day before I come to do the interview with you, the entire festival gets cancelled. And two days prior, I was gonna be on the cover, we had the cover of the LA Times; this was gonna be the July 4th cover.
Now, I've always told people that personally, I didn't do that interview to tell anybody about poor ticket sales, we did not have poor ticket sales. Our tickets were as competitive as the next festival, in fact in many cities, we were doing better than the Ozzfests, however, we were aligned with the Kerry campaign. I was working with MoveOn, and we were very, very excited, we thought we were gonna do a great job to help get Kerry elected. And, approximately two weeks before the festival was set to go off, they pulled the plug on us.
Kaplan:And who was the 'they' who pulled the plug?
Farrel: Well, 90% of the tour was owned by ClearChannel, so... you tell me.