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Kathmandu is history
It appears that the ill-fated appearance in Nepal, first scheduled for March 15, then postponed until April 26, now has been scrapped alltogether. Metal Hammer quotes a statement from the band’s management:
The agreed fee was not paid as per the contract they had with the promoter of the show, Richard Coram, of Talent Brokers in Dubai.
Despite several assurances, Talent Brokers failed to deposit the fee into its registered escrow account, even though the band’s management allowed extra time for payment to be made.
Deep Purple are deeply concerned that fans may feel that the band have let them down, and that those who bought tickets may not have been refunded. The band wish to make it abundantly clear they were ready, willing and able to come to Nepal. Nevertheless, in view of Talent Brokers’ failure to comply with its payment obligations under the contract, the band had had no alternative but to withdraw from the performance.
Gillan adds to this:
I hate it when this sort of thing happens – the first time ever in Nepal and it gets cancelled.
I want to assure everyone that our management and agency bent over backwards to make this work. But every promise from the promoter was broken. Things dragged on to the last minute and then went past the deadline for our equipment to be delivered.
Deep Purple will go through hurricanes, earthquakes, riots, and all kinds of hazards just to get there and do the show – but you do need competent connections to be able to achieve this.
We are truly miserable that we couldn’t get there and would love to come over at the first opportunity.
Thanks to Yvonne Osthausen and Metal Hammer for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Whilst the article covers the background to the cancelled March gig, Don Airey’s UK date (28th April, Newmarket – ‘Cambridge Rock Festival springfest’) was cancelled (Fleetwood Bac replacing Don Airey & Friends) after the promoters in Nepal announced the new date and they are still selling tickets for 26th April and saying tickets for 15th March will be valid.
April 9th, 2013 at 23:02This was on the Cambridge Rock Festival’s facebook page on 3rd April: “Unfortunately due to his commitments with Deep Purple he has had to cancel appearing with us on 28th April, we are looking at possibilities to reschedule but full refunds will be given. In the meantime we have the tremendous Fleetwood Bac now playing Sunday night of Springfest 3.” The CRF cancellation was first mentioned on their website a week before that.
April 11th, 2013 at 04:01