Soundwave Revolution Cancelled

Today Twitter came alive not only with the terrible acts of mindless vandalism and rioting in the UK but by the news that the Soundwave Revolution festival which was to feature Van Halen as the headlining act along with about 40 other bands including Alice Cooper, Steel Panther, Alter Bridge and Gojira to name a few had been cancelled. In fact the person who broke the news via Twitter was none other than Steel Panther’s drummer Stix Zadinia (@stixzadinia).

I’ve been waiting to see Van Halen live since 1989 when I first picked up the electric guitar, Eddie Van Halen inspired and continues to inspire me like no other guitarist so imagine my excitement when I see that Van Halen were to headline a festival here in Australia! I immediately pre-ordered a ticket, I didn’t care who else was playing I was perfectly happy handing over $150 just to see Eddie and co. At the back of my mind I was always a little skeptical about Van Halen actually making it on to the plane, I mean they aren’t exactly the most reliable band on the planet but considering the other bands playing I figured no matter what it would be a great day out.

Today this all came crashing down after a week or so of teasers about the announcement of yet more headlining bands to be added to the bill which made me think “really? I honestly had no idea there were going to be more bands but ok that’s a nice bonus”. So that made the reason that Soundwave Revolution promoters gave for cancelling the event even harder to swallow:

“…our festival co-headliner circumstances changed at the last minute and they had to pull out and unfortunately we don’t have enough time to replace them and we didn’t really want to go ahead with an incomplete line-up.

…it still would have been a better financial outcome for us then the road we have chosen but we didn’t want to put an inferiors product on the market.” – AJ Maddah

First of all I don’t believe this statement, I think that Van Halen pulled the plug, the promoters freaked out and thought everyone would demand a refund and cancelled. I could be wrong but that seems the most likely reason to me. The annoying thing is I would have still gone, sure I would have been disappointed but there are still a load of great bands to see on the bill. I obviously don’t understand what goes into organising such a huge festival touring such a huge country but I think the Australian public deserve more respect than a convenient line about some unnamed band that shall forever stay secret and some crap about an “inferior product”, urgh lame.

Apparently some of the bands who have already scheduled to make the trip downunder are still going to schedule shows:

“…we are, you know, creating packages and what have you for them to (play) in clubs and other venues”

I guess keep checking their site for details, personally I’ll take my refund thanks.