Brand New Day Promised Jam Tomorrow

Lisbon promoter Jose Araujo said his company will almost certainly go bankrupt after it failed to come up with enough cash to cover Depeche Mode‘s July 25th show at the city’s Alvalade Stadium.

The act was forced to pull out when some local suppliers had already made it clear they wouldn’t be working the show because of the money they’re owed, thereby making it impossible for the band to give any sort of performance.

The Brand New Day chief said his first job now is to make good the refunds as soon as possible, although he takes issue with band press officer Barbara Charone’s statement saying 75 percent of all tickets had been sold.

“If I’d done three-quarters of the fucking house, I would have done the fucking show,” he complained, pointing out that he’d done a little more than 10,000 of the 25,000 available.

“Ticket sales aren’t the issue,” Depeche Mode agent Andrew Zweck (Live Nation–Sensible Events) said.

“As far as the band was concerned he was trading while insolvent and hadn’t been able to pay one single penny in deposits. It seems he’s used whatever box office money he’s had to pay for press and TV ads,” he continued. Araujo didn’t dispute that.

He admitted trying to cash-flow the show by drawing on the box office, a move he said he regrets. But he’s still confident he has available resources to meet the refunds.

After giving the punters their money back as quickly as he possibly can – hanging on to it is an arrestable offense in Portugal – Araujo said he’ll then tackle the problems of compensating the band and suppliers.

“I don’t know what the next step will be after that,” he explained, saying his options were to either raise funding to start a new promoting company or go to work for one of the country’s other live music companies.

“The whole show’s been a disaster for me and the Portuguese market is a lot of the reason. Nothing’s doing that well and I think the last sold-out date was the one I did with Depeche Mode at the 16,000-capacity Atlantico Pavilion in January,” he added.

Depeche Mode has issued a statement apologizing to disappointed fans, and advising them to seek a refund from the point of purchase.

– John Gammon