Singin' The Manilow Blues

There are some really sad things going on in Manilowland.

To get the full crux of this story, you would need to start off by reading my friend Suzanne's blog, Manilow Musings.

Now, in full disclosure, I had a ticket for Barry's November 13th show that is no longer going to take place. I also had tickets for June concerts that were also cancelled. Thankfully I've not lost money on airline fees and hotel room cancellation fees (if they allow you to cancel at all), the only thing I got charged for was a cancellation fee by Ticketmaster in June. I wait until a few days before the shows to make my hotel and airline accommodations, that way I'm pretty certain that this concert is actually going to take place. Typically, when I made arrangements to see Barry in the past I've not had to do this, but these days it seems the cancellations are becoming more and more frequent.

Here are some comments and observations:

First off, Stiletto (Barry's Management) didn't make a formal announcement of the cancellation of the shows, so it took about 24 hours before the Hilton actually stopped selling ticket and room packages for Barry's shows. I don't know how many people were affected in those 24 hours, but it shows a complete lack of concern for Barry's paying public - fan or civilian - for Stiletto to allow that to happen to Barry's customers. Barry's concerts in California are still selling tickets - with the now cancelled dates on them, and even holding a drawing for a free trip to a show that isn't going to happen as scheduled. You see, these venues want to hear from Barry's management that these shows have been rescheduled.

All of this is snowballing because Stiletto refuses to put out an "official" message on the web site concerning these concert dates. They were hoping to bury this to keep the momentum going for Manilow.TV and Barry's concert at the Hollywood Bowl, which, by the way, they've put out another "Hotline" message for. Now that the concerts in the other So. Cal. areas have been postponed, you (and your money) should now be free for the Hollywood Bowl. At least that's the message Stiletto is sending whether it means to or not.

The other sad part is how this is affecting Barry's fans. As Suzanne talked about, even the diehard fans are crying foul over this. I already know of two people who have previously left the MMN message boards over the lack of civility between fan club members (and that's just the two latest fans, there are more who have left). I have a feeling there may be more to come given the amounts of money these people have spent and lost with this latest round of cancellations.

Even if they don't leave, they will be more hesitant to spend the money they did in the past.

Now there is the unconfirmed rumor that Barry is leaving the Hilton, which leads to speculation as to whether there will be more cancellations of the remaining shows for 2009.