Waters Didn’t Chicken Out Of Kiev

Andrew Zweck was so furious to discover a Ukrainian company had gone on sale with a Roger Waters show in Kiev that he threatened to report it to the local police if they didn’t refund all the ticket money immediately.

Having decided it would be better for the act to play Rotterdam July 7th, the Sensible Events (Live Nation) chief was staggered to discover Solex Plus was selling tickets for a show at Kiev Republican Stadium for the same date.

Zweck, who’s Waters’ agent and world tour producer, acknowledges he had an offer from Solex, which was made via Lasse Olson and Marek Szpendowski of Viva Art, but said he knocked it back in favor of the Rotterdam show.

Szpendowski said he understands Zweck’s annoyance but thinks there’s been “a misunderstanding or miscommunication” and is satisfied Solex promoters Valery Povalyaev and Sergei Khruzin genuinely believed they had the date.

“First they made an offer and it wasn’t enough. I discussed the fee with Andrew again, and then Valery and Sergei matched what he was asking and so I believe they thought they had the show,” Szpendowski explained.

“I couldn’t believe they’d gone on sale without having a confirmation,” Zweck told Pollstar.

What annoyed him even more was the fact that he declined the Kiev offer in writing on June 19th but it appears tickets still went on sale. Estimates suggest the promoters shifted around 10,000 before taking the date off sale.

Thinking it was a late cancellation, the Ukrainian media was soon on the phone to Zweck and asking for an explanation.

“I’ve been in this business 25 years and I’ve never been scammed quite like this,” he complained, putting the matter straight with the Kiev press.

“I was with Lasse, Marek and the promoters for another Roger Waters show in Moscow on June 24th. If they thought they had a July show, why didn’t it come up in conversation? Nobody said anything – not even ‘See you in Kiev’ as I left.

“If they really believed they had a show a couple of weeks later, surely somebody would have mentioned it at some point.”

At press time it wasn’t possible to get comment from Solex, but Szpendowski said the delay in stopping sales was because it took a couple of days to inform the sponsors and the promoters thought they should be first to know.

Having had several conversations on the subject with Kiev journalists, Zweck decided to use his new media contacts to keep him informed of any news regarding the refunds.

Szpendowski told Pollstar that he understood all 10,000 or so ticket buyers had been given their money back by July 8th.

– John Gammon