Adele fan misses out for third time after show axed
Lori Shortall had flown from Newfoundland to U.K. for star’s concert
A Newfoundland woman was banking on the third time being lucky in her seemingly cursed bid to see singer Adele in concert.
Lori Shortall and two friends jetted off to London, England, last Friday, thrilled by the prospect of finally getting to see Adele as the British star wrapped up a tour plagued by health problems.
But when Shortall checked her email hours after settling into their hotel, and just days before the scheduled concert, she was stunned to see one from the concert promoter announcing that the performance at Wembley Stadium had been cancelled.
For Shortall — a 48-year-old music teacher from St. John’s — the news was a frustrating three-peat coming after she had bought tickets to Adele concerts in 2011 and in 2016, only to have them cancelled at the last minute.
“I could not believe it when I saw that email — it didn’t even enter my head that it would be cancelled,” Shortall said from a shop in London, where she and her pals were wrapping up their vacation. “I was so disappointed I couldn’t even tell the girls — I couldn’t even deal with it — it was almost like it was a dream. So yeah, that’s bad juju, bad karma.”
Soon after she heard that the London concert was being cancelled because of the singer’s recurring vocal-cord issues, Shortall took to social media to appeal to Adele for a meeting.
On her Facebook page, Shortall posted a photoshopped picture of her and Adele arm-in-arm, along with a direct appeal to the singer.
“I still haven’t seen you in concert and I estimate I have forked out almost $10,000 now. Help a girl out. All I want is five minutes of your time and a cup of tea,” Shortall wrote in her post.
Some people commenting on the site used lines from one of the singer’s biggest hits, saying: “Hello, it’s me. I’ve been travelling around the world in hopes that I could see. You performing, for all your fans. But still no sight of you and now I’m down about 10 grand.”
Shortall also contacted TV talk-show hosts Ellen DeGeneres and James Corden in a bid to have them arrange a tea date with Adele, but, so far, has not heard back from either.
Shortall’s history with the singer, known for her devastating ballads and overpowering vocals, goes back to 2011 when she bought tickets to see her in Houston, Texas, where her sister was living. Shortall took a few days off work at her school and flew down. As she was heading to the concert, a friend told her it had been cancelled because the singer had a vocal hemorrhage.
Five years later, she and her husband decided to go to Phoenix, Arizona, for a vacation so he could mountain bike and she could take in an Adele concert. “So, he got to do lots of biking and I didn’t get to see my show,” she said with a laugh.
Her tale of woe has captured the attention of British media, with The Sun newspaper interviewing her by phone while she was on a bus to Windsor Castle and Stonehenge. She said everyone on the bus could hear her story, and at least two couples had travelled from the United States and Israel to see the Adele concert.
“So the whole bus heard my interview and were looking at me like: ‘Oh my God woman, nobody has that kind of luck,’ ” she said through laughter.
Still, Shortall, who sings herself, said she and her friends are not upset with Adele and, if given the opportunity, would wish her a good recovery.
“The first thing I would do is to absolutely wish her well and then I’d say: ‘Hey girl, you need to cut a girl a break. Let’s hang out.’ ” she said.