Parece mentira viniendo de dos artistazos de la talla de STEVE HOGARTH (Marillion) y RICHARD BARBIERI (Porcupine Tree, ex-Japan), pero así es. El dúo ha cancelado la gira que les llevaría entre agosto y septiembre por Alemania, Polonia, Bélgica, Francia, Holanda y Reino Unido, por problemas económicos. Exactamente la culpa de ello la tienen las escasas ventas de entradas anticipadas, contabilizadas hasta la fecha, motivo por el cual la banda no puede correr el riesgo a sufrir pérdidas con los shows.
El resto de músicos que hubieran acompañado a Richard y Steve en este tour: Yolanda Charles (Paul Weller, Robbie Williams...) al bajo, los hermanos Ken y Carl Papenfus (coros, guitarras y teclados), el batería de sesión Andy Gangadeen (Duran Duran, The Bays...) y Dave Gregory (XTC), quién grabó las guitarras para "Not the Weapon but the Hand" (Kscope Music, 2012).
Desde su Facebook oficial, dejaron ayer el comunicado en el que recalcan lo mal que les sabe, por los seguidores que ya habían adquirido su entrada, así como billetes de transporte o reserva de hoteles.
A continuación podéis leer dicho texto (en inglés):
/// "It
is with extreme regret and no little reluctance that Richard and I must
announce the cancellation of our forthcoming August and September
shows. We have worked hard and planned carefully to make this tour a
memorable musical event. We assembled a brilliant creative unit of
talented musicians and performers and were careful to communicate to our
respective fan-bases the intention to play a spectrum
of music from across our careers. Unfortunately, the process has seen
expenses spiralling beyond our initial estimates and tough economic
times have led to a slow take-up of ticket sales so far. Financially the
tour just won't work. We can't compromise the quality of the band or
the performance and, in this instance, we're not backed by a large
corporation and all expenses and losses will have to be incurred
personally. This has left us with little alternative but to pull the
plug on the project.
Support from the public has been enthusiastic,
and we're grateful to those of you who have rushed out early and bought
tickets. We will do all we can to ensure existing ticket-holders are
refunded. We do appreciate that there may be people who have incurred
travel and hotel expenses in connection with our tour and, especially
during these tough times, we are truly sorry if you are out of pocket
over this.
We hope to revisit this project in the future as and when
our respective Marillion and Porcupine Tree schedules allow as we were
very excited about the show we had been planning.
Steve Hogarth and Richard Barbieri." ///
