Can't sleep. It's a combination of things, alcohol and chocolate among them, and a sore throat that I'm assuming is gig-lurgy from Sunday, but mostly it's because I'm churning thoughts about Walk The Moon's cancellation of their European tour. So seeing as it's about a tour, here seems as good a place as any to brain-dump, and then maybe I'll be able to sleep.
It's been a long day (ridiculously so, at this point, it's 3.45am!) A maximum of 5 hours sleep before the day when long-awaited domestic appliance delivery was due, with no fixed time allotted so I was awake from before my alarm went off, and the alarm had been set in case they rocked up at 8am. From then there was dozing until we got the phone-call saying they'd be here in 25 minutes. There was scrambling around emptying the old fridge, making sure space for delivery etc. They were done shortly before 12 noon, and then we went present shopping, pleasant enough but still tiring with a gammy hip.
Did I mention my gammy hip? Seeing as I haven't blogged in forever, that seems unlikely. So anyway, I have a gammy hip. It's stopping me from running, which is my usual, easy source of cardio other than dancing around the kitchen or actually being at gigs. So I'm not as gig-fit as I'd like, because everyone knows that as well as being the first rule of Zombieland, cardio fitness is a damn good idea for bouncy gigs!
Present shopping over, we came home and I had a brief break before a drive through rush-hour traffic, with diversions and emergency vehicles, to visit a relative in hospital, he's been there for a few months now, and isn't really getting better. Not a pleasant duty, at all. Quite wearing, in fact. So when I'd got home and eaten dinner, and caught up on internettery and half-watched some rugby, I welcomed the Blokeface's suggestion of wine. And then I found out that a gig that I've been looking forward to for some time, which happens to fall on my birthday next week, has been cancelled because of the Paris attacks on 13th November.
At this point, dear reader, I lost my shit. I wept. I ranted. I wept some more. I blurted in various places online, and to the Blokeface, who was surprised, but totally gets it. I am beyond disappointed. Yes, there's the 'oh fuck, my plans, my PLANS!!' reaction, but it's more than this, so much more. There's my love of music, of going to gigs, of this band in particular and not getting to see them now, and knowing that I can't get to their next tour in February either, and it's still more than that. There's the stress of life that's made me look forward so, so much to this gig, that I get a night away from everything, but yeah. Yes it's my birthday and now I don't know what I'm doing on my birthday and it's less than a week away and still... and still...
Here's their statement. https://www.facebook.com/walkthemoon/posts/10153761807017558
A few people have said it's lame. As a fan I find it derisory. And paternalistic, actually, and kind-of infantilising. Like they've had to make the choice for us, to keep us safe, like we're not grown adults (well I know a few will be 14 or so but even so.) We're clearly not capable of assessing a situation and deciding if it's too risky for us. And the employees, colleagues, crew that they would be bringing with them, do they not get the option either? Do they not get the chance to say 'I believe in the work that I'm doing and I will not allow this particular risk factor, which is statistically lower than flying across the Atlantic Ocean and travelling between gigs is just anyway, to stop me from doing that work?' Other bands are still touring. Other bands who are friends with people who died, who were injured, both physically and mentally. They've made the choice to not succumb to fear, to honour the memory of those lost by carrying on, by living well.
And then, if this isn't the band's decision, I'm pissed that they haven't the capability to put their foot down about it. Or if, as has been suggested in some quarters, it's about increased costs, that their current success isn't enough for them to suck it up and come and do the jobs, and support the people who've supported them over the years to help them get where they are now.
Whatever the reason, I'm sad. Super, super sad. And I don't know if the disappointment in the band will go away enough for me to ever see them live again. And that makes me sad some more.
OH! I forgot to work in, somehow, the title of this post. I've had this earworm for a couple of hours, it's a Taylor Swift song, about looking back on simpler, easier times. It seems kind-of apt, somehow. I wish we were out of the woods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoPMwvAECVA
A few people have said it's lame. As a fan I find it derisory. And paternalistic, actually, and kind-of infantilising. Like they've had to make the choice for us, to keep us safe, like we're not grown adults (well I know a few will be 14 or so but even so.) We're clearly not capable of assessing a situation and deciding if it's too risky for us. And the employees, colleagues, crew that they would be bringing with them, do they not get the option either? Do they not get the chance to say 'I believe in the work that I'm doing and I will not allow this particular risk factor, which is statistically lower than flying across the Atlantic Ocean and travelling between gigs is just anyway, to stop me from doing that work?' Other bands are still touring. Other bands who are friends with people who died, who were injured, both physically and mentally. They've made the choice to not succumb to fear, to honour the memory of those lost by carrying on, by living well.
And then, if this isn't the band's decision, I'm pissed that they haven't the capability to put their foot down about it. Or if, as has been suggested in some quarters, it's about increased costs, that their current success isn't enough for them to suck it up and come and do the jobs, and support the people who've supported them over the years to help them get where they are now.
Whatever the reason, I'm sad. Super, super sad. And I don't know if the disappointment in the band will go away enough for me to ever see them live again. And that makes me sad some more.
OH! I forgot to work in, somehow, the title of this post. I've had this earworm for a couple of hours, it's a Taylor Swift song, about looking back on simpler, easier times. It seems kind-of apt, somehow. I wish we were out of the woods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoPMwvAECVA
I'd love to know what really happened with the band, whatever, it still sucks.
ReplyDeleteJude
Yeah I'd love to know too, I can't decide what I hope actually happened :-/
DeleteA couple of additional points on this. The band haven't given details of how to get refunds for the gigs, only that tickets will be valid for gigs on their February tour. How this will work when the gigs aren't in the same places and there hasn't been any announcement of replacement gigs, and tickets are already on sale for the Feb tour so presumably some venues will be already at or near capacity, I have no idea. I've organised my refund through the ticket agency I bought from, but I got this info via other disgruntled folk on Twitter, not from the band themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt's been suggested in various places that the whole thing is an excuse and the band will now use the time concentrating on promoting themselves in the US. If this turns out to be true (and considering the time difference and travel time from LA, where they're performing at an awards show on Sunday evening, to Edinburgh where the tour was to start on Tuesday, it doesn't seem like an unreasonable suggestion, as unpalatable as it may be!) then I don't see how they will ever gain the widespread support over here that was building at this point.
I've loved this band so much, and I've never felt so disappointed in a group of people either.