Neil Young's Ukraine Benefit Concert Canceled + Comment of the Moment
(Click photo to enlarge)
Per official Neil Young Archives, Neil Young's planned benefit concert in Ukraine has been canceled. (yes, "canceled" with one "l".)
Neil Young's statement:
"Our concert in Ukraine is cancelled.We had a good venue, close to a shelter, but the changing situation on the ground was too much. I could not in good conscience take my crew and instruments into that area. My apologies to all. Ukraine is a great country with a good leader.Slava Ukraini. [Glory to Ukraine]"
The Ukraine benefit concert was planned to kickoff the Love Earth Tour of Europe this summer, and provoked some rather heated discussions here on Thrasher's Wheat upon announcement earlier this month and after his wife Daryl Hannah declared "SLAVA UKRAINE" while presenting an Oscar at the Academy Awards Ceremony on March 2, 2025.
"Fool's errand"? I beg to differ.
Although my country enjoyed relative safety for the last 80 years, thanks to American friends, all the wars during this time affected us in Central Europe (such as in former Yugoslavia, Near East, now in the Ukraine with 1.2 million refugees in Germany alone, not to speak of Poland with her additional millions of Ukrainians seeking protection there). There is a lot of coming and going in Munich and Upper Bavaria (more than a 100 000 refugees), soldiers on temporary leave, families travelling back and forth. It's true that there is no place in Ukraine that appears to be absolutely safe. But that's true for the nightly streets of (insert American city) or under-staffed American air traffic safety of late.
Is it that Americans never had a war close by or even in their country since 1865 that they tend to overlook that even in war-torn countries people have to work, eat, sleep and desperately try to keep up some normality under these conditions? They go to concerts, watch movies and play football. And they would go and attend a Neil Young concert, just like American combattants not too far from the frontlines did enjoy shows by almost every major artists of their time, everywhere in the world where Americans fought for good or bad reasons.
I do understand and respect that Neil Young and his management walked a away from their idea but also believe that there could have been "show formats" with fairly safe perspectives and conditions. Maybe that would have required "to keep the trap shut", go for it and talk about it later? Lwiw, the next large town in Ukraine is about 1000 kilometres from München, a long day's drive and a distance that some Neil Young fans easily would travel to a Neil Young show.Gauging risks from any American territory being more than 7000 kilometres away is very difficult and reminds me of my mom being very concerned about hurricane Katrina hitting the South while my family and I were in Minnesota.
Many thanks Dionys for continuing to bring us a different perspective on EARTH events. And -- maybe just as importantly -- thanks for listening to diffferent perspectives on theother side of the pond.
Say what you will about Neil Young, he is a man who puts his music where his heart is ... nearly always.
(Click photo to enlarge)
Labels: concert, neil young, schedule, tickets, tour
by thrasher@PermaLink: 3/22/2025 09:51:00 AM
17 comments
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17 Comments:
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Clear to me this was a publicity stunt to garner attention and good will. Probably didn’t hurt ticket sales in other countries.
In the U.S. ticket prices are insane. I don’t think there will be many, if any, sell outs. Neil ending “dynamic pricing” is more smoke & mirrors. Hasn’t decreased prices, makes no difference at all. Also, a recent comment by NY that the length of his shows affected his health is more of the same. I saw 2 shows last year, long before he pulled the plug. Both were maybe, slightly longer than 90 minutes. For the most money I have ever spent for face value, member only, pre-sale tickets. Prices higher now. If this all sounds unrelated to cancelling Ukraine, it’s not. It’s ALL ONE SONG. And the name of this song is Sell tickets.
That ticketing issue being connected to the Ukraine statement? That's all speculation. Doesn't it look more likely that Neil Young (and Daryl Hannah) are just appalled at the fact that the head of the current US protection racket figuring as government sold the Ukraine down the river, with everyone to see on TV, and the Gremlin guy just going ROTLHAO? Ticket sales have been slow in the past sometimes and that may be of concern to Neil Young and his management who want or need to keep the engine running, but a bad busines decision? That's nothing that can't be survived. A person as wealthy as Neil Young does not need more money for himself. However, being able to influence things, soft power so to speak, or at least taking a stand might be of interest for a 79-year old guy, who mostly already had a wonderful life and who can count on many admirerers no matter what a show ticket in the US costs. So the attempt to prepare for a show in Ukraine was a message to Daryl, who obviously is staunch supporter of Ukraine sovereignty, a statement regarding the other 79-year-old guy with his omnipotential pipe dreams, and maybe also an attempt to connect with his many (European) fans who probably by vast majority like the idea of Neil Young supporting the Ukraine. Sure, there are western Europeans who do not subscribe to the sanctification of Ukraine and rather believe in doing Putin's bidding but in the European west they are a minority. And while I not necessarily believe in the newly found Ukrainian holiness, Neil Young and I agree on the idea that Ukrainians currently are defending a set of values that Trumputin is selling off, as if he/they owned it. They don't.
Dionys
(Now playing for Sophie Auster's blue team, and that's not the American Democrats, there are left 1400 days and counting)
Honestly, I was a little incredulous when the show was announced. Not that the idea is out of character for NY—if anything, it fits with his almost reckless boldness. It may’ve been theoretically doable. Then again, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for the safety of everyone involved, or have it on my conscience if something went badly.
It’s worth remembering that large music venues have, quite recently, been deliberately targeted elsewhere in the world. If it’s just a political publicity stunt, I hope it draws some more attention to the issue at hand. If you’re going to be in NY’s position, might as well leverage that celebrity for a good cause.
Regarding concert length, I’m not surprised if NY can’t go at it like used to. 90 minutes of Neil in good form would be worth a reasonable price, particularly if one didn’t have to travel very far for it.
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An important point: a simple benefit concerning, staged somewhere other than Ukraine, strikes me as a reasonable suggestion here. How to ensure the monies would get to the right place is, unfortunately, another story. At this point, I think it would have to be on European soil for that to be anywhere near guaranteed.
*sigh* “concerning” should read “concert.”
I stand with Ukraine and support their independence from Russia. Perhaps a concert was doable there, but with our current government regime we should probably focus our energy on dealing with the criminal in the White House.
This evil man has committed crimes against humanity and should be impeached immediately and sent to El Salvador. We could trade him for the 2,000 people he sent there without due process.
Got to protect those all important instruments, cant have Old Black being hit by a Russian drone. He can always do an acoustic concert in the metro like U2.
To add I think there is a 50/50 chance there will be no tour at all. 1 he cancelled last year randomly over unspecified health issues. 2 his whole protect others thing since covid, concert goers, himself, now the crew and instruments 3 inability to sustain long shows over 90 minutes. 4 unpredictable personal announcements, Glastonbury on/off, Ukraine on/off. 5 random complaints about ticket vendors (he could suddenly pull a tour over this too). 6 the fact he is nearly 80
Generally old men are not to be trusted, especially once they are older than 78 years of age. These guys do not have to live up to their promises because their expected life span suggests that they do not have to live very long with their decisions while others might regret theirs for a long time. That's really funny because in the past of course this was different and much better. Neil Young's shows always lasted for more than two and a half hours, musicians never had any drug induced problems and never ever cancelled shows (with the exception of hand injuries of course when Poncho Sampedro jumped out of the bus or Neil Young tried to make a midnight sandwich), there never was a strong shakey rumor published by the few media we had and no probabilty scale on the rust list and elsewhere existed evaluating bits and pieces of communication by what then was called the "Neil camp", a phenomenon comparable to the Kremlin augurs assumptions during the cold war. Complaints about ticket prices were never known either. Infact the trees were taller and butter more yellow back then.
Neil has always done exactly what he has wanted to do, and I assume that he doesn’t consider his fan base in those considerations. He has already given us so much over the decades, and he has been consistently inconsistent with everything he’s done. The fact that anyone who has followed his career would have any expectations, may illustrate that they haven’t been paying attention.
This man doesn’t owe us anything. The fact that he still feels the need to tour at all is remarkable. He doesn’t need the money, and he doesn’t need the attention. He is just doing exactly what he wants, and I think he has earned the right to do so.
Paul McCartney is over 80 years old, and still continues to play live. His voice isn’t what it used to be, but his concerts continue to sell out. He definitely doesn’t need the money, but apparently he still enjoys the experience of playing in front of an audience.
These two men have already secured their place in music history, and neither one of them will be around much longer. So perhaps we could give them some credit for what they’ve already accomplished.
I think we should be able cut them some slack for not always fulfilling our personal needs.
Peace🙏
Dan, I too stand with Ukraine, against imperialist aggression and indiscriminate slaughter. Sadly, as this seems to be a somewhat radical position in the US, I doubt are country’s capability to be an effective ally (to anyone) at the moment.
On a lighter note, I appreciate the irony of people acting as though Neil (gods bless him) hasn’t always been changeable and impulsive. Given the miserable state of things, I can’t blame folks for having less good will to spare. I suspect a lot of us are struggling with how we can (and can’t) help during these times.
Peace and harmony,
Ian
(“Our”, not “are”)*
…
“ The grass was greener
The light was brighter”.
To some here: Jeeze, save the bitter anger and cynicism for the fascists of this world. NY wanted to do something good. Tried. It didn't work out. It IS a war zone. Maybe they will still pull off some kind of concert for freedom in Poland, or elsewhere. But if you are so down on Neil Young, and humanity, why are you on this site?
Anyone going to Paris?
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