THE DESCENDENTS have posted another statement regarding what happened at their London shows earlier in the week:
Hi everyone! We just wanted to talk a bit about our recent shows in London. We realize the April 25th show at London’s Sheppard’s Bush Empire was a total disaster, and we would like to clarify a few things, as well discuss some future plans.
There has been understandable frustration from many people who attended the show. They waited a long time to see us, paid good money to do so, and they feel that we gave a less than satisfactory performance.
We couldn’t agree more.
Milo’s voice “gave out” at about the 3rd song, and while he did his best to go forward with the show, he was simply not able to perform once his voice was gone. Friends got up and sang some songs to help us try to give a good show, but there really wasn’t much we could do with Milo’s voice gone. Several fans have pointed out that we should have ended the show right then and there, and hindsight is 20/20. It was an incredibly hard decision to make on the spot, and none of the choices on the table felt good.
When we got on stage on the 25th, we had absolutely no reason to expect things to go the way they did. Milo’s voice had been fine at the two previous shows we’d done, and his voice was clear all day before the show. We take a lot of pride in our live shows, and would never want to deliver a less than killer performance.
As a result of the condition of Milo’s voice during the May 25th show, we decided to cancel our show the following night. We were unable to announce the cancellation in time for people who had to travel to see the show, and we all feel awful about that. This late cancellation was because Milo woke up with his voice somewhat restored, and felt like he might be able to manage the show. We decided to do soundcheck, but after playing Silly Girl and Coolidge during the soundcheck, we discovered that his voice had not healed enough for us to give a great show. That was when we knew that we had to call it.
Needless to say, we’re really bummed that the shows went the way they did. We want to sincerely apologize to all who came to the show expecting to see a high energy Descendents show; we understand that you were let down. We know many people have been waiting a long time to see us, and we want to give you our best.
We are working with the promotors in London to plan a free make up show. We have just arrived home and so no plans have been made yet, but we know that we owe you one hell of a show, and we promise to deliver on it.
Thanks for all of the support that you’ve shown us over the years. We don’t take it for granted, and feel lucky to be surrounded by so many awesome people. Can’t wait to continue our quest for ALL with you.
Our boy Mike Scott was at Monday’s show. See what he thought of the events here: http://staging.punktastic.com/reviews/gigs/477