Was anyone else at the ARS electronic Rastermusic evening last night? What a
joke!
The ARS electronica webpage had listed all 12 contributors to the 20' to
2000 series (including elph) as appearing live at the event. (the page has
previously listed that only some may appear, but this was changed late last
week)..
So.. off we went to Linz..
We got there and paid 250 ATS to get in, and saw a board with the times of
each act. Elph were listed at playing last at 1:00pm
Toward the end of the evening we'd heard from someone who had played earlier
that Peter and John hadn't turned up, and instead of letting people know
that they weren't appearing, they planned to get stand ins to mime to the
CD!
So we waited, and lo and the final act appeared. A lone figure in a hooded
sweater walked on stage and stood with his back to the audience, while the
Elph CD played...
Many of the people there believed this was Sleazy (or John) until a few
people started shouting "This is not Elph!". After about five minutes
someone jumped up on stage and went up to the guy and pulled his hood off
and tried to pull him towards the audience to show that this was just a
stand in, the guy was promply removed, while the Sleazy impersonator
remained on stage.
By now, people were wondering what the hell was going on. People all along
the front were taking photos of what they believed was Elph, until a woman
from the festival organization, went round telling people to stop filming
and photographing the performance!
More and more people were realising what was happening, some were just
staring in amazement, others just didn't care. When the performance (i.e.
the CD) finished. Some of the audience applauded, others booed and shouted
"Fake"..
Talking to some of the other artists at the end of the evening, it seems
that Pita Rehburg (the organizer of the evening) knew they wouldn't play,
but didn't want to announce they weren't there. This would be bad enough,
but to DELIBERATELY attempt to deceive the audience by using a hooded figure
on stage during the performance is outrageous!
This might be his idea of a joke, but for the people who had driven for
hours to Linz (not to mention the people who arrived from Germany and
Hungary) especially for a chance to see them were not happy.
This morning revealed another twist, it seems the organisers must be a
little worried about last nights little fiasco. They have replaced the web
page which listed all bands as playing (it now says it's a "CD
Presentation"), and they have COMPLETELY removed all contact details and
email addresses for the staff and management of the festival!
I'm in no way blaming Coil/Elph for this, it's possible they never intended
to play anyway, but the ARS electronica organizers deliberately lied to the
public by stating they would play, taking their money, and then duping the
audience into thinking they were by using a stand in..
Sorry if I'm rambling, but am I over reacting to this? Or are we just
expected to be fobbed off, ripped off and then quietly go home........
t3TM
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