Neil Young is livid that fan’s around the world know that he’s doing a show with Bob Dylan in Hyde Park next year.
The show was announced nearly two weeks ago, tickets have subsequently gone on sale, but apparently, Young didn’t know, nor consent to the announcement.
“I had no idea the announcement was coming that day,” wrote Young on his Neil Young Archives site.
“I was still finessing the art for the poster and trying to make sure that all of the details of the show were agreeable to me…the tickets were put on sale and the announcement was made, all without my knowledge.”
Young also hit out against show sponsor Barclays, labelling the banking service as a “fossil fuels finding entity.”
“I believe in science. I worry about the climate crisis and am deeply concerned about its massive global ramifications and my beautiful grandchildren’s future…There’s no doubt about it. It’s been a massive fuck up!”
Check out Neil Young perform Cortez The Killer last year
The show, set to happen on July 12th, will no doubt be an enormous celebration of two of the finest contemporary songwriters.
Taking to the stage as part of the British Summer Time concert series it will be the first time the two have appeared together since 2016. However, there are fears that after the debacle things won’t go ahead, with Young noting the situation was precarious.
“At the moment, we are trying to rectify the situation and will soon update you on the status of the Hyde Park show,” said Young.
“We are quite confident that nothing like this will ever happen again. We’re sorry for this situation – it is – and shall remain an anomaly.”
In the post Young included lyrics from his anti-corporate anthem This Note’s For You, adding in the words “I ain’t singing for Pepsi/Don’t sing for Coke/I won’t sing for nobody/Makes me look like a joke.”
“To say we fell short of our obligations on the announcement and pre-sales for the Hyde Park show is an understatement and we disappointed a lot of people,” said Young’s manager Elliot Roberts, drawing attention to the fact that subscribers of the Neil Young Archives were not given priority ticket access.
“Neil’s life’s work has been mine as well. We will make every effort to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
Young’s been sticking it to the corporates for over 30 years
The National, Florence & The Machine and Robbie Williams are just some of the other names making appearances over the series of events. Find the full list of concerts here.
