Rocker apologizes after realizing planned super-concert sponsored by "fossil fuel funding entity"

[G_j]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/neil-young-hype-park-apology-766673/

Neil Young Decries ‘Massive F-ckup’ Around Bob Dylan Hyde Park Show

Rocker apologizes after realizing planned super-concert sponsored by “fossil fuel funding entity” Barclays

By ANDY GREENE

Neil Young is furious with the organizers of the massive concert that he’s scheduled to play in London’s Hyde Park alongside Bob Dylan on July 12th, 2019. The show was announced nearly two weeks ago and tickets are already on-sale, but in a post on his Neil Young Archives website, the rocker says all that was premature.

“I had no idea the announcement was coming that day,” he writes. “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. Then, suddenly, someone jumped the gun. The tickets were put on sale and the announcement was made, all without my knowledge.”

The fact that tickets were offered to the general public before Neil Young Archives subscribers has him extremely upset, along with the fact that the show is sponsored by the “fossil fuel finding entity” Barclays. “That doesn’t work for me,” he wrote. “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!”

And while he doesn’t explicitly threaten to pull out of the show, he does suggest that the current arrangement is untenable. “At the moment, we are trying to rectify the situation and will soon update you on the status of the Hyde Park show,” he wrote. “We have been talking about requiring a different sponsor as one option. 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.”

The post includes lyrics from Young’s 1988 anti-corporate sponsorship song “This Note’s For You”

..more..

[Atman]

1. I would fly to London for that show!

Except for the Barclays mess. I imagine any potential sponsor would need very deep pockets to underwrite a show of this magnitude. Not sure where Neil is going to find that outside of the corporate world. He and Bob could probably fund it themselves just with change found under the their sofa cushions.

[pintobean]

2. I guess Young plans to take a rowboat

[James48]

4. You would fly to London for that show??

Do you have any idea how much greenhouse gas it takes to fly to London for a concert?

[Atman]

6. Probably as much as Crazy Horse's amps!

i know, I know. Totally hypocritical of me. Fortunately it’s all talk. I wouldn’t actually fly there. But I’ve seen Neil in every incarnation, from unplugged at Tanglewood to the CSNY anti-Bush reunion tour. I’ve seen Bob Dylan a couple of times, once with Tom Petty. Those are some great memories! To see Young and Dylan together would allow me to die a happy man.

Plus, I’ve never been to London.

[Croney]

3. I have mixed feelings about the fan clubs getting tickets first.

I love it if I'm in that group. I hate it if I'm not!

[Ellipsis]

5. ..."needle and the damage done."

[ancianita]

7. "Clear blue skies..."

Clear blue skies, not too much to ask for,
They were here before we came,
Will they be here when we're gone?
Clean water, not too much to hope for,
It's the basis of our lives
And without it we are done...

[Blue_true]

8. The amount of water that we have on earth is finite and declining.

The oxygen that we breath was mostly generated millions, even billions of years ago, is largely finite but not declining at a rate that threatens life, that will change as more people inhabit the earth.

As the population of people grow, more oxygen is used up. Oxygen generated by many plants won't be sufficient to supply a large oxygen consuming population, there will be mass dying of people, animals and many plants at some point.

Water is somewhat different. For most of the earth's existence, it has been in a closed loop. It evaporates, rise a certain distance in the atmosphere and come back as rain. The weight of the water molecule has made going higher in the atmosphere impossible because there was not enough heat in the atmosphere to keep evaporate rising. As warming of the atmosphere increases, water molecules are rising higher. At some point, they will rise high enough to get swept away by solar winds - at that point, the closed loop will end and water will become rarer on earth until eventually earth looks like either Mars or Venus (Venus if other heavier gases end up in the atmosphere, Mars if they don't).

[treestar]

9. so they need sponsors

wouldn't that mean ads somehow?

I didn't know rock concerts had that - I would have figured they make the money from the tickets only - maybe they would be so expensive without sponsors that no one could go.

[Blue_true]

10. The old days.

When concerts were done in open fields or parks, all that was needed was a sound system. Musicians had one manager/agent. Today too musicians seem to have a lot of people on the payroll, plus there are tour promoters with their staffs, venues that have to be booked/approved. Ticket sale don't cover all of that unless people get dangerously packed in. Long gone are the Woodstock days (btw, I read that concert wasn't initially supposed to be free, but after people overran fences and barriers, it got turned into a free concert. Maybe people that were old enough then can provide insight, I was born and growing up, but was young and not aware of such things).

[treestar]

11. That does make sense

Yeah I bet Woodstock got out of hand! I must be about your age.

"Yasgur's farm" as I recall, from the song.