Rain Cancels Day Of Show

Korean pop star Rain was scheduled to headline the 20,000-capacity Staples Center in Los Angeles June 30th. Instead, Rain canceled hours before showtime.

Rain was featured on Pollstar’s cover, then immediately canceled a North American tour, ostensibly because of a lawsuit involving a U.S.-based Beatles cover band (Rain: The Beatles Experience) that claimed copyright infringement inside the U.S. However, rather than canceling the entire U.S. tour because of the lawsuit, one show remained on the books: the Staples Center performance.

Staples issued a statement from Rain’s promoter, V2B Global, that said, "Due to issues related to the show’s production, we regrettably have to cancel tonight’s Rain concert," according to CBS Television. The statement came at 6:20 p.m., according to the station. Fans came from as far as Seoul and Japan, the television station said.

Rain’s show includes 28 trucks and 96 people, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"The local promoter didn’t set up everything," Rain told the Times through a translator.  "When I came to the venue, the LED screen couldn’t be set up.  I have rain falling in the concert — that couldn’t work.  When I came to the venue, the stage wasn’t set up, there were no lights, no sound.  I wanted to do a great show.  But yesterday, I couldn’t get on stage."

He added that he felt ridiculous about the situation and had been in Los Angeles for two weeks before the concert.

Apparently, some of the show was not in code with Los Angeles safety regulations and a compromise was not possible.  Rain’s production follows a storyline and it was not possible to figure out a scaled-down version.

Previously, promoter Andy Kim told Pollstar that Rain’s Korean team was concerned that it wouldn’t be possible to move the singer’s massive production, which was designed by Roy Bennett, from city to city quickly enough. Bennett also designed Madonna’s Confessions tour stage.

"They were trying to do too many venues for too big a show," Kim said. "It’s a huge show with a lot of video and a lot of pyrotechnics.

"Although we anticipated that it could be done, in the end we just felt that the timing would be too close."

Tickets were priced from the $60 range to $270, plus service charges. The Korean pop star did arrive in Los Angeles and held a press conference at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Pollstar learned that, at the time, the ticket count for the major venue was less than 2,400. The total reached 6,900 at the time of cancellation, Pollstar learned, but the paid ticket count never moved.