Kevin Donnelly's Good Charlotte/Simple Plan Winnipeg Concert Fiasco Response

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE SEVENTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM DECEMBER 2005 TO MAY 2006.

Well, it took a while due to other commitments, but finally here's a new Beau Zone. One of those commitments was finding you people an explanation for the Good Charlotte/Simple Plan fiasco I opened The Beau Zone with last column. Briefly, just after the Good Charlotte/Simple Plan show was moved from The Burton Cummings Theatre to the MTS Centre this past summer, Simple Plan mysteriously dropped out. Why? My e-mails to Simple Plan bounced back, saying their inbox was full. My e-mails to Winnipeg newspaper music writers were not answered. I didn't know who the promotor was. But Kevin Donnelly, Senior Vice-President of Event Management and Building Operations for True North, which runs the MTS Centre, did respond. Now, I never saw ALL the news or advertising on this bill, which makes his response to this issue both interesting and puzzling. Was this tour only for the U.S.? Following is the response from Kevin Donnelly, Senior Vice-President of Event Management and Building Operations for True North, which runs the MTS Centre:

"I hate to break it to you, but there are no 'conspiracies' secretly held in the Winnipeg concert promoting world - no shady ties between writers and bookers and venues in an attempt to fool the public. As I recall it - and please understand I am only the venue here - I responded to a call from the promoter who was interested in moving a sold out show from Venue A (The Burt) to Venue B (MTS Centre). Simple Plan were never on the bill for the show at The Burt. They were touring together as a package in the U.S., but the package was never promoted anywhere in Canada to my knowledge. They were never mentioned in any conversations I had with the event promoter. Radio station employees (and the newspaper writers for that matter) routinely pick up info from one source and assume it is accurate - even if it is not the source they know provides the correct information for their town. Speaking from experience (I used to be a concert promoter), radio jocks and writers used to announce concerts based on info from magazines and from record companies - even if the promoter (the only one who would be 100% accurate, because they are the one creating the show) was telling them otherwise. This regularly leads to the announcing of wrong dates (happens all the time), wrong venues (Bartley Kives announced Barenaked Ladies for the Concert Hall), and sometimes even wrong performers on the bill. I don’t doubt that you may have heard SP with GC on the radio somewhere, but in reality I don’t think the show was ever booked that way for Winnipeg. Blame the lazy disc jockey who watched E Talk Daily about the tour in the U.S. and assumed the package was coming here. Sorry to disappoint. Not second shooter on the grassy knoll… - Kevin"

So there you have it. I have found tour dates on the web supporting what Kevin says, although I don't know when those pages were posted. I also tried e-mailing Remo at Hot 103, 'cause that's the station that kept saying "Good Charlotte and Simple Plan are coming" that let to the Burt selling out in five minutes in the first place, since, as you recall, I turned on the radio that night in June just as Remo's interview with someone in Simple Plan had ended and Remo had said, ".....and that's why Simple Plan won't be opening for Good Charlotte at the show's new venue, MTS Centre, now." Remo did respond to me, saying he doesn't remember any of it and that it could have been one of the other jocks. Yeah, right. I have found a great SP fan website as I write this, one that acknowledges much of the facts you have just read. I'll try asking the girl who runs it about all of this. If she has any substantial answer, I'll put it on the NEXT Beau Zone, otherwise that is all for this topic.