The eagerly anticipated Homelands electronica festival has been canceled after three major acts withdrew. The festival – an import from England – was to play near Sydney and Melbourne in the first two weeks of December. Public Enemy had internal problems with the festival’s publicist, Amber Petty, telling the media that one member had his own U.S. agent book him on another tour while the band was negotiating to come to Australia.

Leftfield had illness in the ranks. Australian band The Avalanches’ drummer, Darren Seltman, broke his leg when one of the band members accidentally fell on him during horseplay at a Brisbane show. Petty says that rather than play with a half-baked bill, the decision was made to postpone to next year.

The festivals, which were based on the successful U.K. events of the same name but with the addition of local DJ talent, are likely to be rescheduled next year. Other acts due to play included Laurent Garnier, Robert Miles, and Orbital.

Canada

Due to overwhelming demand, tickets behind the stage, left of stage, right of stage, corner stage and side stage for a good portion of the shows on The Tragically Hip‘s upcoming Canadian arena tour have been put on sale, including both Toronto dates, Hamilton, Edmonton and Calgary.

Some venues in smaller markets, however, are designed with “horseshoe” seating, not 360-degree, so there are no more seats to release.

There will be no more free folk-fest tickets for the residents of Cloverdale, where the Edmonton Folk Festival is held each summer. Event organizers said it’s too expensive and “cumbersome.” Last year, event organizers administered some 600 passes worth almost (Cdn.) $50,000. The four-day passes were intended to appease the townsfolk, who had to endure the traffic and noise from the thousands of performers and fans.

Festival programmer Terry Wickham said he is willing to give each household a pair of tickets to the Thursday-night main stage show or a half-price rate on two weekend passes. The latter offer would raise a further $25,000 for the folk festival, which is having difficulty breaking even.

“We won’t get the financial results of how we did until March, but I’m guessing that we’ll break even or post a small loss on a sold-out show,” Wickham told The Edmonton Journal. “So we have to look at all our policies and fine-tune them. We work within a 5 percent margin of the whole show. People think we’re rich but we have a cash flow of about (Cdn.) $125,000 that we keep in the bank.”

Asia

British girl group All Saints are to spend three days in Phuket, Thailand, in mid-December for a regional promotional trip. Media from around the region were invited for the group’s only stop in Asia. It will perform a showcase and hold interviews to promote its recently released album, Saints and Sinners….. In Malaysia, Australian girl band Bardot spent last week courting the local music press with a three-song showcase and was rewarded with glowing reviews all around….. Another band on a regional promotional tour is Westlife, which will be in Singapore on November 27 and 28.

At press time, Canto pop star Nicholas Tse was set to begin a five-night concert series at the Hong Kong Coliseum on November 11. The 20-year-old teen idol and beau of H.K. singer Faye Wong plans to smash guitars onstage during the show to enhance his image as one of Canto pop’s more rebellious rockers. Last month, actor/singer Leslie Cheung wore dresses in a series of concerts to steal public attention.