Syracuse, NY -- Concert promoter Michael Banks said he will have to borrow money to do it, but he’s working on a plan to refund those who bought tickets for the Aug. 5 Bret Michaels concert that didn’t happen. Michaels was supposed to play as part of the Regional Market Block Party series. Michaels arrived in Syracuse and met...
View full sizePerformer Bret Michaels is interviewed in his tour bus parked at the Regional market in Syracuse last week. Michaels' concert was canceled partly because he and his band were not paid. Syracuse, NY -- Concert promoter Michael Banks said he will have to borrow money to do it, but he’s working on a plan to refund those who bought tickets for the Aug. 5 Bret Michaels concert that didn’t happen.
Michaels was supposed to play as part of the Regional Market Block Party series. Michaels arrived in Syracuse and met with fans but did not play, saying Banks didn’t pay him the full deposit.
During an interview Wednesday, Banks said he tried for days before the concert date to reschedule Michaels show. He said he was trading phone calls and e-mails with Michaels’ management people even on the morning of the show date and was meeting with a potential sponsor when he heard Michaels’ tour bus had arrived.
Ticket sales were slow, Banks said. He had just 25 days to promote the show, because he wasn’t allowed to mention Michaels’ name until after the former Poison rocker and reality-TV star had played at Turning Stone. Sales were further damaged, he said, by rumors that the show was going to be canceled. The show didn’t happen and while Michaels said he will return to Syracuse to perform in November, he won’t be working with Banks’ company, Aloha Events LLC.
Banks said he contacted the local office of the state attorney general’s office to discuss how he could refund money to those who bought tickets. Making refunds is complicated, he said, because tickets were sold through places such a pizza shops and hair salons, as well as through the Internet. He said he’ll run the refund plan by the local office of the attorney general, “to see if that’s acceptable.”
“I personally will have to borrow the money to loan to the company to pay for the refunds,” Banks said.
Banks said that when he was ready with refunds, “which may take a couple of weeks,” because of the need to get the AG’s approval and apply for loans, he would make an announcement and post information at www.cnymarketblockparty.com.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” he said.
Banks, 52, said he’s been promoting concerts around Upstate New York for 10 years. He promoted concerts as far away as Buffalo and promoted concerts at the Inner Harbor. “I put the Inner Harbor on the map,” he said.
Until this year, Banks said, he worked on concerts with local bands. But this year he wanted to work with national acts that were on tour and wouldn’t cost too much money. “I’d rather give people a great show at a great price that’s affordable, instead of those higher price tickets,” he said.
Banks said the Regional Market concerts were part of an effort get Syracuse back on the rock-and-roll tour schedule. Before Michaels’ show and the Regional Market’s announcement the remaining three concerts were canceled, there had been five shows this year with bands Slaughter, Warrant, Skid Row, Adler’s Appetite and Vince Neil.
Tickets for shows ran from $5 to $15, he said. Prices for Michaels’ show were $20.
None of the shows drew as large a crowd as Banks had expected, he said. “The bottom line is we didn’t sell enough pre-sale tickets.”
In the days since Michaels’ aborted show, Banks has heard people say things about him he knows aren’t true and has been inundated with angry phone calls and e-mails. He brought one threatening e-mail to the local office of the FBI, he said.
Even when the refunds are settled, Banks said he has his work ahead. “I just have to get my business and personal life back in order,” he said.
Contact Charles McChesney at cmcchesney@syracuse.com.