RAGE: Greek Concert Cancellations Explained

Greece's concert promotion agency Sold Out Promotion has issued the following statement regarding the cancellation of the previously announced RAGE shows in the country:

"As a result to the cancellation of the GOD DETHRONED and DEW-SCENTED shows, we are sad to announce the cancellation of the RAGE shows in Greece which were planned for January 26 and 27, 2007.

"After the cancellation of the first two shows, Dragon Productions, which represents the three bands, and RAGE, due to lack of trust to our company, decided to cancel the Greek RAGE shows.

"We admit we have made wrong decisions due to our enthusiastic character, lack of experience, and romantic views on heavy metal, but our primal intention is, was and will be the three parts involved, fans, band and company, to be satisfied with the result of the shows. We found out that this point of view is too romantic to be true because of the economic result it would bring (GOD DETHRONED, DEW-SCENTED). This is the reason why we discussed the fees of the bands but Dragon Productions and the bands wanted either all or nothing. In the RAGE shows we had to face our punishment for the cancellations of the two other shows. We didn't get the chance to prove to the agency representing the band whether we would have kept our parts of the deal in terms of payments and organisation, instead they decided to cancel the shows with the consent of the band even though we made sure that there would have been promoters to do the second show who were willing to give half the money we would give to the band as a fee. On these bases the shows were cancelled due to lack of trust to Sold Out Promotion.

"With the cancellation of RAGE, our company's name from our first steps in the field, is being trashed to unprofessional and unserious and we are not willing to tolerate such behaviour. We are already exposed for example to the venues we already had booked for the shows, which means economic loss for them too and us since we are working with them. Our media partners also get a big part of this sort of exposure since they have trusted us with their support.

"After having cancelled the shows in Thessaloniki we tried to find other promoters to do the shows there since we wouldn't be able to support them properly as we found out after our first shows with Ross The Boss, because we come from Athens. GOD DETHRONED and DEW-SCENTED were not an option for promoters in Thessaloniki. RAGE had the option to play in Thessaloniki for less money, but they chose not to.

"We admit our mistakes but we will not tolerate such criticism from someone who has never worked with us in fact, but only over email and phone.

"We are sorry most of all for the fans who were anxious to see RAGE in a headlining show in Greece, and didn't have enough of them on their previous appearance in which they were supporting PAIN OF SALVATION (2003). We will try to state our place in the future. We know we stand in a very difficult place from now on but we will try to face our bad reputation due to the three cancellations, which were caused because of the re-negotiation of the economic fees we asked for (GOD DETHRONED – DEW-SCENTED) and the cancellation of RAGE which came from Dragon Productions and the band based on the lack of trust and not the renegotiation of the fees."