Yusuf (aka Cat Stevens) Jeered and Heckled at comeback gig

geeky

Sorry to sound like a caller Joe Duffy, but this is a f**king disgrace

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1117/1224258981275.html
Yusuf jeered by fans at comeback concert
AS A high-profile convert to Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens is used to controversy, but even he hadn’t reckoned with elements of an Irish audience in a foul mood. Incensed fans booed, jeered, slow handclapped and walked out of Yusuf Islam’s comeback concert at the O2 in Dublin on Sunday.

A 40-minute interlude promoting Moonshadow , a new West End musical based on his songs, provoked their ire. Though he flagged it in interviews ahead of the concert, many just wanted to hear old Cat Stevens material.

Radio presenter Gerry Ryan, who was there, said he had never seen such a “level of hate and bile and viciousness” from an Irish audience. He heard one fan shout at the singer: “play Peace Train, you f***ing b******” .


Unbelievable. I remember reading that the scourge of live music, sport, and justy-about-anything in this country is 'the man who paid good money for this'. This seems a perfect example.

The “play Peace Train, you f***ing b******” moron was just comical. Does anyone feel this was justified?

faceman

Did I read that right? He had a 40 minute interlude to promote a musical in London? What an idiot. The tickets for his concert werent cheap.

soups05

who?

Dancor

Im sure he can take it on the chin. He knows its a wild world.

seamus

He took a forty minute break to show advertisements to the crowd for a show in a foreign country?

I'd be rightly pissed off too if I'd spent money to go to a gig.

What a moron, shows how out of touch the music industry is with the public and why they're getting raped by independent labels and releases.

Sheeps

Why did he rename himself from a bad name to a shockingly bad name?

scargill

geeky wrote: »

Sorry to sound like a caller Joe Duffy, but this is a f**king disgrace

A 40 minute promo in the middle of a gig. You are right that is a f**king disgrace. tickets were €80 - €100.

MoominPapa

He promised the crowd a surprise during his second encore and Ronan Keating joined Yusuf to perform Father and Son to widespread applause.

Thats when I would have started with the effin' and the blindin'

whodoo

don't agree with the guy shouting for him to play a specific song but if people pay that much money and end up watching a promo they have a right to show they aren't happy.

Long Onion

Ah, could have been worse, some Danish magazine could have published funny cartoons of him durka durka durka.

BraziliaNZ

I wanted to go to this, but forgot it was on already. I like the guy but 40 mins of music you don't want to hear is a bit much.

General Zod

40 minutes of an advert in the middle of the show? He deserved the booing. a "show and a half" as he put it is not putting an advert for another musical in another country.

Of course, the people could equally have been booing at Gerry Ryan. I know I would have.

Draupnir

Anybody else read this and think: "Takin' Care of Business!"

biko

40 mins interlude? People come to hear the songs they love, not getting more fecking ads, TV/cinema is bad enough but concerts. Moth****er

Title should be "Yusuf (aka Cat Stevens) Jeered and Heckled at comeback gig, then more jeers and heckles on the biggest Irish community board"

GhostInTheRuins

I can't blame them for it really, a 40 minutes advertisment during the show? Come on, and when the tickets were so expensive too.

“play Peace Train, you f***ing b******” is an amazingly funny quote

Biggins

I'm be pretty pissed off to pay to partly see a 40 minute advert to be honest!

Degsy

****in idiot

John Mason

well, feck you all

i really enjoyed it

and i would like to point out, Cat Stevens doesnt exist anymore and it was impossible for him to play the O2

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055685783

Notorious

seamus wrote: »

He took a forty minute break to show advertisements to the crowd for a show in a foreign country?

I'd be furious if I paid and had to watch that.

I heard on the radio this morning that he's getting death threats from a lot of Irish fans. He probably knows he won't be playing another show over here for a while.

arybvtcw0eolkf

I was at the gig, paid €210 for two tickets and left early.

It was a deplorable gig, and whilst I didn't involve myself in boo'ing for heckling I can understand the frustrations of the people who did.

I've never witnessed such hostility from an audience before, it was pretty shocking.

Yusef, or whatever stage managed this gig got something very, very wrong.

And while some people say they enjoyed it, I'd safely say that given the number of walk outs, boo'ing, heckling and general dissatisfaction levelled at the event someone fvcked up big time as we're not in general a very boisterous people, even at the worse of times.

Biggins

Given that it takes a lot to actually get some folk in Ireland to open their mouths and actually stand up and complain, it must have been pretty bad indeed!
Crikey.

bSlick

Yusef should go and do a tour of the middle east and see how his fellow muslims like his tunes.

catbear

I was at a Bowie gig in the point mid-ninties that went down very badly. It heavily advertised on the radio, using all the hits in the ads. However the his actually setlist had only three or four songs of his hits, the rest of the show was utter crap. i vaguely remember one song had "hallo spaceboy' as a chorus. Around me people were shouting "wanker" etc, but the music was too loud. The place was easily half empty well before the end. False advertising.

thee glitz

catbear wrote: »

i vaguely remember one song had "hallo spaceboy' as a chorus.

Ye sure that's the name of the song

I'd be well pissed off after paying over €100 a ticket. What a tool, he may never be back.

propjo

I have never posted here before, but I can not get over the ignorance on here and at the show on Sunday.
A couple of points, the musical was not blatant advertising. This was a musical written by Cat Stevens with his music. This muscial was advertised as part of the show. When you bought a ticket you were buying to see this also. I felt it went on too long and I'm sure that will be changed. How people felt they had the right to boo, jeer and slow clap is unbelieveable.
When you were going to this gig surely you realised what you were going to see. An artist who hasn't toured in over 30 years, and the first night of his tour, but people expected him to stand on stage for 2 hours belting out his classics (some of which for his religous reasons he doesnt sing anymore). I think people expected one of those TV3/ITV shows with Neil Diamond or Tom Jones.

No matter what your view on the show, it was inexcusable for the actions of some of the crowd. Ireland has a reputation as having a good live audience, we embarassed ourselves on Sunday

m@cc@

bSlick wrote: »

Yusef should go and do a tour of the middle east and see how his fellow muslims like his tunes.

FlutterinBantam

Carter Jolly Jaguar wrote: »

I was at the gig, paid €210 for two tickets and left early.

It was a deplorable gig, and whilst I didn't involve myself in boo'ing for heckling I can understand the frustrations of the people who did.

I've never witnessed such hostility from an audience before, it was pretty shocking.

Yusef, or whatever stage managed this gig got something very, very wrong.

And while some people say they enjoyed it, I'd safely say that given the number of walk outs, boo'ing, heckling and general dissatisfaction levelled at the event someone fvcked up big time as we're not in general a very boisterous people, even at the worse of times.

Good enough for you, when will Irish people have a bit of focking sense and stop paying vastly over inflated prices for focking has beens.

Every clapped out jackass in the music industry has made a "final farewell" tour to Ireland because the money men know the public will like the dummies they are pay top dollar for "Blown" goods.

Charley Pride, Kenny Rodgers, Four Tops, etc etc the list is endless and we still cough up top dollar.

Has me beat, so it has

kraggy

Why anyone would go to the concert of a man who called for the death of a another man for writing a book is beyond me.

Tillotson

What about when Cat Stevens said that Salman Rushdie deserved to die.

Deserves what he gets.

General Zod

shamed Ireland? away with yourself.

You make it sound like this is something new.

the Theatre (and by extension, the O2) is protected under irish legal precedent as a place of protest.

http://books.google.ie/books?id=tBoSJFAnKbMC&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=irish+theatre+riot&source=bl&ots=4CU7z_Aprg&sig=-Ze8P0pauLHXQRa1a4bjhDg86mM&hl=en&ei=2YQCS_qwAZHu-AbYkfAO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=irish%20theatre%20riot&f=false

The relevant quote from Chief Justice Charles Kendon Bushe in a trial of theatre rioters:

"an audience may cry down a play, or hiss or boo an actor.... the audience may be noisy, but not riotous. besides, this must be the feeling of the moment; elsewise it becomes criminal".

It definitely was the feeling of the moment. People wanted to see Yusuf Islam, not some guy from Hearsay for 40 minutes.

seamus

propjo wrote: »

When you bought a ticket you were buying to see this also.

Did they tell anyone this? Did they tell anyone that the show would be interrupted for this?

Being "flagged in interviews" is not the same as telling people. Most people who go to gigs don't spend time listening to shows about the gig beforehand, they just go to it. So unless the ticket had, "40 minute interlude to promote X" written on it, then people were gibbed out of cash.

The timing is also important. If the "promo" was at the start or the end of the show, nobody would have batted an eyelid. You'd have the *choice* to watch it.

Exactly like the cinema - they show trailers, but you have the choice to watch them. Imagine if they stopped the movie halfway through and showed 30 minutes of trailers, effectively giving you no option but to watch the trailers or miss the end of the movie. Cinemas would go bust in very short order.

This kind of advertising needs to be stamped on and pissed all over and the artists who allow their shows to be interrupted for it should be boycotted.

Mikefitzs

irishbird wrote: »

well, feck you all

i really enjoyed it

and i would like to point out, Cat Stevens doesnt exist anymore and it was impossible for him to play the O2

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055685783

So is he dead? I thought he just changed his name.
Fvck him, he has got so much hype from this, all the marketing companies around the world will be jumping on the bandwagon now to do the same thing. , this is what all concerts will have going forward because of this shiit:mad:

Turd Ferguson

Dancor wrote: »

Im sure he can take it on the chin.

Yeah, with that beard there'd be alot of cushion for it

General Zod

SV wrote: »

He converted to Islam?

Welcome to 1977.

SV

General Zod wrote: »

Welcome to 1977.

I'm sorry, I wasn't born until 10 years later and it wasn't really big news about then.
plus, no one ever mentioned it!

AnonoBoy

SV wrote: »

plus, no one ever mentioned it!

I'm pretty sure Yusuf mentioned it once or twice between then and now.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

geeky wrote: »

Sorry to sound like Didier Drogba, but this is a f**king disgrace

fixed that for you :cool:

Degsy

I sincerely hope the same happens to that bastard Paul mcCartney plays here and charges 150 quid a ticket.
The irish are the biggest rubes in the world when it comes to paying top dollar to see over-the hill merchants.

propjo

seamus wrote: »

Did they tell anyone this? Did they tell anyone that the show would be interrupted for this?

Being "flagged in interviews" is not the same as telling people. Most people who go to gigs don't spend time listening to shows about the gig beforehand, they just go to it. So unless the ticket had, "40 minute interlude to promote X" written on it, then people were gibbed out of cash.

The timing is also important. If the "promo" was at the start or the end of the show, nobody would have batted an eyelid. You'd have the *choice* to watch it.

Exactly like the cinema - they show trailers, but you have the choice to watch them. Imagine if they stopped the movie halfway through and showed 30 minutes of trailers, effectively giving you no option but to watch the trailers or miss the end of the movie. Cinemas would go bust in very short order.

This kind of advertising needs to be stamped on and pissed all over and the artists who allow their shows to be interrupted for it should be boycotted.

Yes Seamus, this was advertised as part of the concert, "a showcase of the upcoming musical Moonshadow". I believe it went on too long and he could have reassured people he would be on afterwards because those who didnt read the advertising seem to think he was off after 40 mins. Either way for people to behave the way they did was inexcusable. A security guard was bitten and headbutted.

I agree completely with the fact that prices for tickets here are over the odds. I believe this case needs to be looked at on its merits. He still played about 20 songs himself. People travelled from all over for this as it was his first tour concert in over 30 years, I would expect to pay top dollar for the opportunity to see him as we may never have this opportunity to see him again.
Also for those who had to protest, they ruined the night for everyone else. Anyone I spoke to couldn't enjoy the rest of the night because of them.

geeky

Degsy wrote: »

I sincerely hope the same happens to that bastard Paul mcCartney plays here and charges 150 quid a ticket.
The irish are the biggest rubes in the world when it comes to paying top dollar to see over-the hill merchants.

So maybe they shouldn't fking go!!!!!

Or maybe, if they're going to blow over 60 quid on a ticket, you bother to find out whether the artist is in the habit of playing their recent work or going through their greatest hits (not everyone aspires to be a fking Jukebox). If you don't want to hear anything other than the 'best of' collection, stay at home, listen to the album, and spend your money elsewhere.

Aside from being flagged in interviews, the interlude was also indicated on posters for the event. What more notice did people want?

I thought it was a different, fun idea personally, though I can see why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. What pissed me off about this was the sense of entitlement amongst the crowd ("play peace train you f******..."), and the vitriol directed at a guy who's only returning to performing after a long hiatus.

geeky

propjo wrote: »

People travelled from all over for this as it was his first tour concert in over 30 years, I would expect to pay top dollar for the opportunity to see him as we'll almost certainly never have this opportunity to see him again.

fixed it for you prop. Thanks to the actions of the ever-present people-who-paid-good-money-for-this, I'd be really surprised if Stevens is bothered coming back here again.

orourkeda

Degsy wrote: »

I sincerely hope the same happens to that bastard Paul mcCartney plays here and charges 150 quid a ticket.
The irish are the biggest rubes in the world when it comes to paying top dollar to see over-the hill merchants.

We need to get used to it. When we're all OAP's we'll be paying €150 to watch paddy dracula in Whelans.

Degsy

I'm a go to Paul Mccartney and scream "Play the Froggy Chorus you droopy-faced cuckolded lover of One-legged golddiggers".

mike65

On the IT blogs

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2009/11/16/i-cannot-remember-anything-like-this-happening-at-a-gig-before/

geeky

Degsy wrote: »

I'm a go to Paul Mccartney and scream "Play the Froggy Chorus you droopy-faced cuckolded lover of One-legged golddiggers".

I'm intrigued by the plural, Degsy.... and am willing to join with others in contributing to the price of a front row ticket if you promise to record the incidence.

Borneo Fnctn

propjo wrote: »

but people expected him to stand on stage for 2 hours belting out his classics (some of which for his religous reasons he doesnt sing anymore). I think people expected one of those TV3/ITV shows with Neil Diamond or Tom Jones.

Fuck him. He only sold the tickets for such ridiculous prices on the strength of his classic songs.

bernardo mac

Must get a bag of rashers for Moonshadow......

spadder

irishbird wrote: »

and i would like to point out, Cat Stevens doesnt exist anymore and it was impossible for him to play the O2

Well, at least the show was still Cat

Biggins

spadder wrote: »

Well, at least the show was still Cat

...get your coat! :P

Degsy

bernardo mac wrote: »

Must get a bag of rashers for Moonshadow......

I'm gonna bring my good friend Salman Rushdie and a packet of sausages.

stovelid

I know nothing about him and wasn't at the gig but if Gerry Ryan disapproved of the audience actions, I'm 100% behind them.