A Glasgow venue has canceled a performance by former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon because of “aggressive” behavior from his tour manager.
Lydon was set to perform at Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre last night as part of his ‘I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right’ book tour.
The theatre’s general manager Iain Gordon alleges that Lydon’s manager Andy Richardson showed up two hours early at 1 pm, instead of coming at the time that was formerly arranged.
Gordon claims he politely asked Richardson to come back later, and that’s when everything blew up.
This kicked off over nothing because the tour manager arrived at 1pm instead of 3pm to set up as he’d asked for.
“I had no crew around until nearer 3pm to make sure backstage is all Covid safe before acts and a crew arrives,” Gordon told The Scottish Sun.
“When he was politely told to come back nearer to 3pm he went off on one and was completely irrational and started swearing at the box office staff.
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“I came down to the box office to try and calm him down when he started jabbing his finger in my face.
“Now I’ve dealt with all types over the years and I can usually placate them and work out a solution – but this Andy character was so aggressive I warned him if he jabbed his finger in my face again then I’d break it.”
Because of the altercation, Gordon decided to pull the plug on Lydon’s performance just hours before he was set to perform.
“No one wants to cancel a show at such notice but this kind of abuse is not on – especially in this zero tolerance age.
“This tour manager is certainly not a good advert for John Lydon – we are sorry for Lydon and his fans that we had to cancel the show but it is clear this character would have continued with his unacceptable behaviour throughout the rest of the night,” said Gordon.
Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre detailed the circumstances of the cancellation of their Facebook account.
Lydon hasn’t publically shared any insight on why the performance was cancelled, but has acknowledged that it won’t be going ahead on Twitter.
Glasgow Pavilion has unexpectedly cancelled tonight’s show. We were informed of the cancellation at 2.48pm.
— John Lydon Official (@lydonofficial) October 25, 2021
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