Cheap Trick Cancel Show Over Staging Concerns, Black Keys Enter Saga

Cheap Trick wants you to want them -- but not if it means they have to perform on the same stage as their disastrous July 17 Ottawa Bluesfest show, a gig that saw the stage collapse around them mid-set.

Earlier this morning (Aug. 1) on their website, Cheap Trick announced they're cancelling their Sept. 1 show at Vancouver's Pacific National Exhibition because the company providing the staging in Vancouver, Mega-Stage (Groupe Berger), is the same company that handled things at Bluesfest.

"All potential alternatives have been explored by the band and promoter and were exhausted, leaving Cheap Trick with no other option than to cancel their September 1st engagement at the PNE," the band said in a statement. "Unless current investigations prove otherwise, the band will not, as a matter of principle, but more importantly, as a matter of safety, appear on a Berger stage in the future."

Tickets for the concert will be refunded at all points of purchase.

Watch Footage of the Ottawa Bluesfest Stage Collapsing
In related news, Billboard.biz reports that the Black Keys may have been the first band to raise concerns about the Mega-Stage set-up when they played the stage in question for a gig nearly ten days before the incident in Ottawa.

According to "sources," the duo's management noticed a flapping wind panel and requested it be repaired. When stage crew didn't fix the panel, Black Keys' management pulled the group from the stage until it was fixed. This latest news doesn't bode well for Mega-Stage and the crew on hand at Bluesfest considering the account given to Billboard by one of the roadies working the fest in Ottawa.

"The windwall on stage left was not released and had tore," the roadie said. "It was blowing in the wind, which was about 60 miles an hour, for over an hour and the stage crew did nothing about it. That probably put a strain on the stage's structure."

There is also speculation the repairs were done using steel cables, making them nearly impossible to cut compared to the plastic zip ties usually used. But Groupe Berge's Vice-President Stephane Berger denies the presence of steel cables were used.

"One thing that everyone needs to understand is that the wind went from 45 kilometers an hour to crazy in two minutes," he told Billboard, adding that the structure's capacity is 120 kilometers an hour, less than the winds which were recorded that day between 140 to 150 kilometers an hour.

Spinner will continue to keep you posted on updates regarding Cheap Trick and the Ottawa Bluesfest saga.