WU-TANG CLAN DROPS OFF RAGE TOUR!!!!
John Book
(or perhaps "RAGE AGAINST THE WU")
Taken from Addicted To Noise, the on-line rock & roll magazine -
http://www.addict.com/
Music News Of The World
-- Sep 03, 1997 --
Edited by Michael Goldberg
Wu-Tang Quit Tour With Rage Against The Machine
Rage camp says 'internal conflicts' caused nine-member rap crew
(pictured) to drop out.
Addicted To Noise Staff Writers Gil Kaufman and Chris Nelson report :
Citing "personal" reasons, the popular rappers of Wu-Tang Clan have
suddenly and without much explanation dropped-off their successful, genre-
blending tour with Rage Against the Machine and Atari Teenage Riot.
While the Clan have yet to offer details as to what led to the
unexpected cancellation, the Rage Against the Machine camp said "internal
conflicts" caused the rappers to bow out.
"Wu-Tang is not finishing the rest of the tour. Basically it's due to
internal conflicts. I believe Wu-Tang is telling people that they never
committed to finish the second half, but they always did. It was always
clear that they were doing the whole tour. They have now decided to do
other activities," a source close to Rage Against the Machine said
Wednesday.
After missing a pair of shows this past weekend with little notice to
either the venues or headliners Rage, the nine-member rap crew out of
Staten Island, N.Y. have apparently bowed out of the well-received tour.
The first, a still-unexplained no-show, was in St. Louis, Miss., on Aug.
31 and was followed by another in Kansas City, Miss. on Sept. 1, skipped
to allow the band to play the third-annual Park Hill Day festival in
their native Staten Island.
The rap crew also took itself off the bill for Wednesday night's show at
the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., so that its members could travel
to New York to act as presenters at MTV's '97 Video Music Awards show
Thursday night.
When asked to verify the Clan's flight from the bill, Erin Burke, of the
group's label, Loud Records, said, "At this moment their participation is
canceled due to some personal things." Typical of the hard-to-pin-down
nature of the multi-platinum band, another source at Loud verified that
the group was off the tour, but intimated that they "were trying to get
them back on."
The tour was doing "surprisingly well," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of
the industry concert trade magazine Pollstar -- citing sellouts and near
sellouts at a majority of the scheduled dates -- "considering you
wouldn't think of either of these bands as headlining in 15-20,000 seat
venues."
Target Center spokeswoman Sandy Sweetser said her venue was told of the
Wu-Tang cancellation the day of the show, just a few hours before the
performance was scheduled to begin. "We're not being given any statement
on it," Sweetser said of the last-minute change, other than the "personal
reasons" statement received from Wu management. No additional opening act
will join Rage and ATR for that show. Like the Riverport Amphitheater in
St. Louis, the Target Center is offering refunds to concert-goers who
request them. Over 800 fans reportedly requested refunds for the St.
Louis show.
Texas rockers The Toadies will take the Wu-Tang slot for the next two
shows, on Sept. 5 in Dallas, Texas and Sept. 6 in Austin, Texas. The Rage
source revealed that the Foo Fighters will then take over for the
remainder of the dates, beginning on Sept. 8 in Denver, Colo. at Fiddlers
Green Amphitheater. The grunge-rocking Foo Fighters, who were already
slated to join the Rage/Wu-Tang tour for the Sept. 19 and 21 shows, will
play the nine remaining dates, through the tour's end on Sept. 21 in
Phoenix, Ariz.
Although the majority of the tour's first 16 dates (out of an originally
planned 28) went off with few glitches, there were some minor bumps on
the road. Rage singer Zack de la Rocha seriously twisted his ankle on Aug.
20 at a New Jersey show, requiring a 20-minute break while the frenetic
vocalist had the injury taped. Rage's show the next night at Boston's
Great Woods Amphitheater was postponed by three hours while de la Rocha
visited a doctor, even as Wu-Tang mastermind RZA was being delayed
because of a "limo mishap."
Other rappers in the Clan have missed performances on the tour.
Ghostface Killah was absent from the opening night show in Florida on Aug.
8, and Ol' Dirty Bastard spent a night in New York when his bandmates
played in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 15. De la Rocha and RZA recently
shared the cover of Rolling Stone magazine for a story about the tour and
their oft-spoken about, but-not-yet conceived recorded collaboration.
[Wed., Sept. 3, 1997, 6 p.m. PST]
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