Jackson tribute show ends in dud

What was supposed to be a Michael Jackson tribute concert turned out to be a fiasco as artists and members of the audience realised on Friday, reports Malvika Nanda.

What was supposed to be a Michael Jackson tribute concert turned out to be a fiasco as artists and members of the audience realised on Friday.

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On the eve of the late pop star’s birthday, a tribute concert titled ‘Michale Jackson Gone Too Soon’ was to be held with popular Delhi bands like ‘The Aryans’, ‘Bandish’ and ‘Groove Adda’ at Sirifort auditorium in South Delhi.

However, on the morning of the show (Friday) the bands were allegedly told that they won’t be performing.

Also the artists realised that their cheques ( with signing amounts) issued by the event company, The Address, bounced not once but twice.

Said Aditi Singh Sharma of Groove Adda: “This is so unprofessional. All the publicity was done is our name and so many of our friends and acquaintances bought tickets because of us. It’s ridiculous. We’d bought the costumes and practised much more than we do for our shows as it was a tribute to a legend like Jackson.”

A member of the organising team told HT that the organisers didn’t even have required permission from the Police.

On the other hand, some Hip-Hop and fusion artistes were called in a few hours before the show to fill in.

Paras who represents the Da Souljaz, a Hip-Hop and R n B group said: “I got a call from one of the organisers late on Thursday night. They said the planned artistes had backed out at the last moment, so they needed us to save the show.”

Organiser Amit Kalkhandey was unavailable for comment.

The tickets for the show were priced at Rs 500, 1000 and 1500.

“No one has any clue about what was happening. The guards told us we couldn’t enter and refused to give us any more details. What happens to the Rs 3000 we’d spent. All numbers that were given out with the advertisements are switched off,” said Akshara Srivastav, who came to watch the show.

After 8 p.m., some artistes were told that the show was cancelled finally. Some people who had purchased tickets were told to come back at 9. Others had left after hanging around for a couple of hours.