Public Enemy have cancelled their entire Australian tour just days out from their first show in Melbourne on Saturday, October 5.
Australian promoter TEG Dainty released a statement on behalf of Chuck D and Flavor Flav on Monday explaining the cancellation was due to a medical emergency.
Frontman Chuck D, 64, will require ‘immediate eye surgery’, preventing the American rapper and the group’s co-founder Flavor Flav, 65, from going ahead with the tour.
‘I’m sorry to make you wait a little longer but I need to get this eye surgery done, so I can really rock the house for you and Bring The Noise,’ he said in the statement.
The release went on to reveal that there would be more Australian dates added to the tour at a later date to make up for the cancelled shows.
Ticketholders can apply for refunds or hold onto their tickets, which will be valid for the rescheduled performances to be announced ‘in due course’.
The US rap icons were first expected to start their tour Down Under in Perth on October 2 before jetting to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane.
Due to ‘unforeseen scheduling issues’, promoter TEG Live axed the Perth, Adelaide, and Newcastle dates just five weeks before Public Enemy was set to perform.
Public Enemy (pictured) have cancelled their entire Australian tour just days out from their first show in Melbourne on Saturday, October 5
Fans were quick to express their disappointment on social media following the news and questioned why the shows were cancelled.
Taking to Reddit, some crestfallen fans suggested the reason given by the promoter for the tour’s truncation was a ‘euphemism’ for low ticket sales.
‘They’re some convenient scheduling issues for the the three shows most likely to be undersold,’ one fan wrote.
Another fan suggested there should be more transparency from promoters when cancelling shows.
Australian promoter TEG Dainty released a statement on behalf of Chuck D, 64, (left) and Flavor Flav, 65, (right) on Monday explaining the cancellation was due to a medical emergency
‘Sometimes, it would be better for the promoter to just outright say they haven’t sold enough tickets,’ they said.
‘To claim there is a scheduling conflict as the reason to cancel one show despite not cancelling the show right before or immediately after gives it away anyway.’
Another chimed in: ‘Yes because it’s not profitable to book under-attended shows in isolated cities, and it’s not profitable having to cancel them.
‘Touring is business, and business goes where the money is.’
Public Enemy were formed in the mid-1980s in Long Island, New York by Chuck D and Flavor Flav.
They rose to prominence thanks to their uncompromising socio-political messaging and genre-defining albums including Fear of a Black Planet and It Takes a Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back.
Frontman Chuck D will require ‘immediate eye surgery’, preventing the American rapper and the group’s co-founder Flavor Flav, 65, from going ahead with the tour
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