The cancellation of a number of high-profile concerts has left performers and ticket holders questioning the role of Irish promoter Rockefeller Productions, writes JIM CARROLL
IT HAS been a momentous week for all the wrong reasons for Irish promoter James Delaney O’Neill and his company, Rockefeller Productions.
Last week, Delaney O’Neill was due to promote high-profile Dublin shows by Ute Lemper and Marianne Faithfull and an Irish tour of the dance-musical Marilyn.
He was also involved in a proposed visit to Dublin by Hollywood screen idol Tony Curtis and was promoting four Irish shows for Grace Jones this month.
With the exception of Faithfull’s performance at the Grand Canal Theatre, which went ahead albeit after a change of promoter, all of Delaney O’Neill’s other ventures were cancelled.
While cancelled shows due to poor ticket sales have become a familiar sight on the Irish live music business in the last 18 months, Delaney O’Neill was dealing with a far different set of problems.
Ute Lemper was due to perform at Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre on June 22nd. However, the show was cancelled and the following explanation was posted on the venue’s website: “It is with great regret we are forced to cancel Ute Lemper’s show that was scheduled on June 22nd 2010 at the Grand Canal Theatre Dublin.
“The promoters organising this event have failed to fulfil their contractual obligations, making it impossible for Ute to go ahead with the show.” This post has subsequently been removed from the venue’s website.
When contacted by The Irish Times, Lemper says she was "terribly upset and sad" that the Dublin show had been cancelled, but she was left with no choice in the matter. "I had no idea about a cancellation until one week before the concert. The promoter stopped all communication with us. Tickets for the musicians, which were at the charge of the promoter, were not booked or bought and this man [Delaney O'Neill] just disappeared from the earth all of a sudden.
“We all had a bad feeling about the promoter, as he had not paid the deposit in advance and seemed to be somehow in financial trouble, but nevertheless he had a decent reputation and we trusted things would work out. After all, we had a signed contract.”
Lemper claims that she was left with significant financial losses from the cancelled show. “I, on my end, had to change all my flight tickets, pay compensation salaries to my musicians and my crew and missed out on other concert opportunities that I actually had for this date, as I was already on tour in Europe. It’s a mess.”
The following night, June 23rd, Marianne Faithfull played at Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre. This show initially was to be promoted by Rockefeller Productions (as outlined in the venue’s spring/summer 2010 programme).
But between the time the gig was announced and the date of the show, the Live Nation-operated venue had taken over promoting the show. The Irish Timesunderstands that this followed communications between Faithfull's representatives and the venue.
On June 24th, Marilyn, a dance-musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe, choreographed by the award-winning Peter Schaufuss, was due to open for three shows at Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre and then visit Belfast, Wexford, Killarney, Limerick, Cork, Derry, Galway and Castlebar. However, the entire Rockefeller Productions-promoted tour was cancelled.
According to a source at the Cork Opera House, the cancellation was down to “promoter problems”, while a source at Limerick’s University College Hall cited “poor ticket sales”.
Delaney O’Neill was also involved in the planned visit last week by Hollywood legend Tony Curtis to Dublin to attend the opening performance of Marilyn at the Grand Canal Theatre on June 24th. The Irish Film Institute then organised a number of screenings and a public interview with Curtis on the back of this visit. But Curtis’s trip to Ireland was cancelled.
Rockefeller Productions was also promoting July shows for Grace Jones in Dublin’s Wright Venue and Cork’s Savoy Theatre.
But a news item appeared on the Savoy Theatre’s website last week stating that Jones’s shows there were cancelled and that ticket-holders should contact Rockefeller Productions for refunds.
This week, Jones’s agent, Michael Schweiger from Central Entertainment Group, issued a statement about the Irish shows. “The reported performance dates for Grace Jones in Dublin and Cork, July 21st to 24th have been cancelled. The promoter, James Delaney O’Neill of Rockefeller Productions, is in breach of his contract by failing to pay deposits and advertising these dates without a fully executed artist agreement.”
“Advertising these dates without a fully executed artist agreement” implies that Delaney O’Neill and Rockefeller Productions had put tickets on sale for shows for which they didn’t have a confirmed and signed contract.
It is not known how many tickets were sold by Delaney O'Neill and Rockefeller Productions for the cancelled shows, although The Irish Timesunderstands that ticket sales for the Jones and Lemper shows in Dublin and many of the Marilyn shows were slow.
The Irish Timeshas made numerous attempts to contact Delaney O'Neill and Rockefeller Productions by phone, text and email over the past week to both office and mobile numbers. At the time of writing, no response has been received.
This week, the company’s Facebook profile was deleted, while Delaney O’Neill’s mobile number now carries a voice message saying “this number is not in service”.
It appears that this run of cancelled shows was not Rockefeller Productions’ first foray into promoting. In April 2009, the company appears to have been behind an Irish tour by The Chippendales with dates announced for Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick. But that tour also did not go ahead.
A version of this article first appeared on Jim Carroll’s blog
irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord
