http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2012/07/25/killing-joke-quitting-cult-mission-uk-tour/
“Last month, the planned five-date U.K. arena tour featuring hard-rocking headliners The Cult with support from freshly reunited ’80s-era contemporaries The Mission and Killing Joke was unceremoniously downsized to smaller venues, presumably over poor tickets sales. Now the tour may have lost one its opening acts, too.
Rumors have circulated in recent days that Killing Joke, displeased with the change in venues, has quit the September tour. The band hasn’t made an official statement, although a scathing note about the tour and, specifically, The Cult (“All their songs suck!”), purportedly written by Jaz Coleman, was posted then removed from the band’s Facebook page.
In part, that note read: “Frankly, playing at a gig with The Cult never appealed to me in the first place. The only reason we allowed ourselves to be talked into it was to blow both bands off the stage and to steal their respective audiences. As the concert has been downgraded to a venue that we have recently headlined (and sold out) it doesn’t make sense.”
On Tuesday, Wayne Hussey of The Mission took to his band’s website to expound on the tour, writing, “I think the promoters have conceded that Killing Joke ARE puling out of the shows. We have tried to contact the band through their management, agents and promoters and it seems that no one is any the wiser and the band have gone incommunicado.”
Hussey noted that he agreed with some of the points in the purported Killing Joke post (“These are venues that we could easily play on our own,” he notes), and urges the promoters not to replace Killing Joke and instead just let The Mission and The Cult each play longer.
Lastly, Hussey shines some light on the now-deleted Facebook post (which you can read below): “I’ve just heard that the Facebook statement that was allegedly from Jaz wasn’t at all but from a fan that was hanging out with the band recently in Prague who paraphrased some of the comments made by Jaz and the band and took it upon himself to post it online. Apparently KJ are preparing their own statement which we wait for with bated breath and which will also confirm that they are still apparently pulling out of the tour.”
UPDATE: Still no statement from Killing Joke on the dates with The Cult and The Mission, but the band this morning announced a “once in a lifetime” Sept. 8 live appearance at London’s Metropolis Studios for the filming of a DVD. Tickets are priced at £195, or about $300.”
From KJ’s FB page;
"KILLING JOKE
Official Statement
A statement was posted on Facebook, reputedly by our singer, maligning both The Cult and The Mission and pulling us out of the shows.
… He is now AWOL and has not contacted any of his band mates.
We are deeply embarrassed by this and offer our sincere apologies to all involved.
We are all concerned about our missing singer’s welfare.
Killing Joke made a collective decision to play with The Cult and The Mission in September.
It was agreed by all of the band that we would do these shows. Indeed, we thought that they were something to look forward to, even though they were downsized.
We would still like to honour our commitment to this tour, the other bands, and all the Gatherers and people who have already bought tickets and made travel arrangements.
If this proves not possible, Killing Joke will make alternative arrangements to compensate for the trouble caused.
Meanwhile we are doing everything we can to make this tour happen and locate our missing singer.
KILLING JOKE"
