That’s just not how you treat an artist.
The creators of 80s hits such asย Weโre Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock were extremely unhappy with the treatment they received at the Amnesia Rockfest in Montebello, Quebec as they played their final tour. According toย a now deleted post on the bandโs blog, a senior member of the bandโs crew expressed their collective rage in detail.
Courtesy : hellfest.fr
Among the band’s complaints was the fact that even their name was incorrectly spelledย on their dressing room door, The dressing room was too small to accommodate the 20+ person entourage in addition tot he fact that lead singer Dee Snider usually has his own private room. Apparently there were not even enough refreshments and to top it off they were forced to play a tiny stage.
Other bands such as Korn and Blink-182, got the โhuman-sized stage,โ said the crew member. The โlocal crew treated us as if we were just the neighborโs kids playing air guitar on tennis rackets.โย Amnesia Rockfest also apparently only gave Twisted Sister a 45 minute slot despite them wanting to play an hour long set.ย โSeven songs. Seven damn songs. And those fans rocked out hard every single song, every single note.โ
โWe can put up with terrible production. We can put up with lousy catering. We can put up with s**tty dressing rooms, dirty toilets, small stages and poor treatment of us, the crew. But to disrespect the band by pulling the plug on the last single note without even letting them say the words, โGood nightโ is unbelievable.โ
โWORST. FESTIVAL. EVER. F**k your boat, f**k your tiny-ass stage, f**k your forty-five minutes and f**k your five bags of chips. Weโre going back to Europe and playing the real festivals! Canadians rockersโฆ go to Heavy Montreal next year instead โ this festival doesnโt deserve your attendance.โ
Alex Martel, founder of Amnesia Rockfest, later sent a statement to the Montreal Gazetteย “In the 11 years of the festival, I have never seen anything like this,” he wrote. โNo member of the Twisted Sister camp contacted me at any point during or after the festival to express any concerns โ we are always open to constructive criticism and improvement. I could explain how running a festival with 130 bands over two days works and how our entire team makes serious efforts to accommodate them all, rather than giving priority to a single band.ย Even though I strongly disagree with their claims and the way they chose to share their views, I still have tremendous respect for this legendary band and I wish them the best in their future endeavours.”