Global concerts in flux as virus spreads

Artists announce changes to touring schedules

MBy Mesfin Fekadu

ulti-platinum rock band Third Eye Blind had never canceled a tour, even when its members “all had salmonella poisoning and we were all green and vomiting,” as bandleader Stephan Jenkins put it.

But the rockers have been forced to do the unthinkable due to the rapidly growing coronavirus, which first forced musicians to cancel and postpone tour dates in Asia and Europe, and has now hit the US in a major way.

“In the 22 years since I’ve been doing this, I’ve never had a tour begin at the announcement of a global pandemic,” Jenkins said in a phone interview with The Associated Press, the day Third Eye Blind was set to kick off its latest US tour in Seattle, a solo show they called off before postponing the entire tour. “We don’t miss gigs. We don’t take sick days.”

“Once you’re on a tour like this, you’re in contact with thousands of people. Then there’s airports, a lot of surfaces to touch — that doesn’t bother me. What I’m thinking about ... is the well-being of our fans, our community,” he said. “We can postpone the shows. Money is not the issue. We want to play. We don’t want to let people down. We don’t want to cancel this. I feel a moral imperative to make sure we’re doing something that’s not unsafe.”

Third Eye Blind, who released their six-times platinum self-titled debut album in 1997 and have Top 10 pop hits like “Semi-Charmed Life”, “Jumper” and “How It’s Going to Be”, watched the news closely as the virus continued to grow in different locations. After canceling Seattle, they canceled Washington, D.C., the last date on the tour. That was followed by the cancellation of Thursday’s show in Portland, Oregon, and hours later, the whole tour was officially postponed.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate

the Folio award is open to fiction, nonfiction and poetry published in Britain.

Luiselli’s third novel and her first written in English, “Lost Children Archive” weaves together a family’s American roadtrip with the stories of migrant children symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

The cancellations last Thursday rolled in like clockwork as act after act announced changes to their touring schedules. Among them were the Who, Cher, Blake Shelton, Dan + Shay and Billie Eilish, who was set to play New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Her announcement came hours after New York Gov Andrew Cuomo said the state would ban all gatherings with 500 or more people to battle the coronavirus.

Impacted

“Without question it’s got everyone concerned,” said Ray Waddell, president of media and conferences at Oak View Group, which owns concert trade publication Pollstar. “There’s a whole economy around touring and shows and everybody’s impacted. It starts with the artists and then spreads down to the venues and people who work at the venues, and the agents who are trying to route tours, and the managers who are trying to do the right thing for their artists — ethically and morally the right thing — and the event producers, and all the people that go — the fans.”

“All of them are sitting here wondering what to do next?”

The city of Houston ordered the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to close early, canceling upcoming shows by Keith Urban, Lizzo and Chris Stapleton.

Also on Thursday Live Nation, AEG, CAA, WME, Paradigm and UTA said it was joining forces to form

along the Mexico-US border.

Poet Paul Farley, who chaired the threemember judging panel, said the book was “a road trip, a documentary, a portrait of a family and of the American borderlands, and a journey into the idea of home and a global task force to “drive strategic support and unified direction ensuring precautionary efforts and ongoing protocol are in the best interest of artists, fans, staff, and the global community.”

“At this time, we collectively recommend large scale events through the end of March be postponed,” the statement read. “We continue to support that small scale events follow guidance set by their local government officials.”

The waves of cancellations first began in late January and February as acts such as X Ambassadors, Khalid, BTS, Green Day and Avril Lavigne canceled performances in Asia. Others, from Madonna to Queen to Maluma, backed out of scheduled performances in Europe, especially as officials put limits on public gatherings. And each day, more and more US shows have been axed.

America’s most popular festival, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, was set to take place in April but has been postponed to October. The electronic dance event, Ultra Music Festival in Miami was also postponed. The South by Southwest festival, originally planned for March 13-22 in Austin, Texas, was scraped.

“The concern is not so much that a bunch of people would go to a show and get really sick. It’s that they go home and spread it around. That’s a concern for the festival business and destination festivals, where people come from all over the country, if not the world,” Waddell said.

John Cooper, of the Grammy-nominated Christian rock band Skillet, noted that a larger number of musicians are germaphobes because they are worried about getting sick and need to be healthy to perform at their best.

“I’m not one of those people in general, so I’m still shaking hands,” Cooper said. “People come up and they want to hug me. I was just walking to my hotel and somebody came up and was like, ‘Oh, can I hug you?’ I was like, ‘Yeah of course.’” (AP)

belonging.”

A planned ceremony at the British Library in London was scrapped to conform with public health recommendations to reduce the number of people sickened with COVID-19. Instead, the announcement was streamed online and broadcast on BBC radio. (AP)

ST PETERSBURG, Florida:

Pro wrestler Hulk Hogan has settled a lawsuit against a talk show host and two others he’d accused of taking part in leaking video of him and using racist language.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that the full details of the settlement aren’t known.

The lawsuit filed in Pinellas County demanded damages in excess of $15,000, but didn’t specify an amount. The lawsuit did note that Hogan — whose real name is Terry Bollea — was awarded $140 million in a previous lawsuit against Gawker over the tape, but settled for $31 million when that company went bankrupt.

Mike Calta, who hosts a morning drive talk show heard across Tampa Bay on Cox’s 102.5-FM The Bone, was among those sued. He could only be reached via his verified Twitter account, the paper reported.

“My understanding is the lawsuit was amicably resolved by Cox and Hogan on terms that are confidential,” he wrote in a direct message. “I’ll address the rest Monday on my show.” (Agencies)