CROSSBREED exits tour following extended drama

Crossbreed has left their tour with Nothingface and Silent Civilian due to the band's unwillingness to accept conditions placed upon the group by representatives of Nothingface.

Following is an official statement from the group, outlining the gory details of the entire scenario.



"Down below is a copy of the memos that were sent by Nothingface to our booking agent concerning the Nothingface/Crossbreed tour. As far as the promotion of the tour and the contracts of the tour, it was a co-headlining run between Nothingface and Crossbreed. Before we explain the circumstances of why we left the tour, we'd like you to read the first memo sent to our agent that was meant to be forwarded to us. Also included is the second memo which was meant for our agents eyes only, but as a result of this mess she sent us this copy so we could see with our own eyes why she fired them today as a direct result of their actions on this tour which not only screwed over Crossbreed, but the fans, promoters and venue owners as well. Now keep in mind, we actually shared the same Booking Agent with Nothingface.





Read this first, then after you've read it the circumstances of why we left the tour will be explained below the memos. We just want everyone to know what we experienced.





Memo #1



So everything is looking good for the tour. I emailed my guy @ Jager and let him know bout the posters..I told My friend at Coffin about you as well....

So there is a few last things we need to make clear and straight for this run.

1. Silent Civilian will be allowed to sell NO more than (2) pieces of merch.

This is very normal for a tour to only be aloted x-amount of merch. This WILL be enforced. We are only bringing 4.

I hope there is no problem. However this is how it is and ALL bands will compy and play by OUR rules.

2nd. Bands will get dressing rooms for some shows, HOWEVER don't expect them. For instance MD. NO ONE will be granted backstage access once leaving the stage. Pop's same..and allot others. Please talk to your guys and let them know this is how it is and to NOT expect them. if a venue has more than a few they MAY be accommodated. Again. Don't expect it.

Same will go for parking etc. NF will ALWAYS come first. Again this is the NF tour. Therefore even if SC arrives before NF we will retain ANY if at all preferred parking.

Each band member and crew will receive (1) "Support pass" if lost there will be a 30.00 charge for a new one. This is to detour anyone losing one and coming to me. We are gonna have enough work to handle w/out dealing with any added dramas.

I will figure out Guest List and a # in the coming days. Guest Lists will be turned in the day before the show PERIOD. I will not make any exeptions.

30 Minutes to NF set ALL band and crew will exit backstage area. (remember this is not a ego thing, this is simply a small club thing)

The guys in the band are welcome to hang with the band as long as they are invited. Otherwise please respect my guys space.

I am making basic guidelines to avoid any problems. I will be running this alongside Maxwell and assure everyone involved that drama will NOT be tolerated. If at any time there is any MAJOR problems with said band or bands they will simply be asked to leave the tour. Again this is not a ego or hard ass thing this is just to simply set guidelines for basic tour etiquette.

Please feel free to call. or email me w/ questions.

All the above terms are NON-NEGOTIABLE.

Jerry Montano









Memo #2



So i sent this to SC manager, ALL the rules WILL apply to ALL bands. Including Crossbreed.

I have spoke to everyone in the band and this will be the LAW.

We still need to go over a few things such as pc/overages...We are Not splitting w/ Crossbreed correct? And what are they getting paid each show. We want to know. Just staying on top of things. As i said before my guys aren't thrilled bout them on the remaining shows but it will go by so fast it will be o.k

(NH- we really wish we could lose Crossbreed for those two. But if it has to be then so be it.)



I just want EVERYONE to understand the terms. OUR terms.


Dressing Rooms as we stated in rules, will not be provided for ANYONE. However if there are a few rooms there may be.

I really need EVERYONE to understand the Rules. The rules are this is a NF tour. Not a co-anything.

I am sure you understand working with the band in the past NF is not afraid to speak how they feel and will not hesitate to drop a date or a band in a seconds notice.

Unfortunately for the time being there is no manager so i have been put in the position to handle the business and be the bad guy (which i can very well.)

Anyway please pass along how this is going to work to the Crossbreed camp.

Hopefully there will be no problems.. (see attached NON-NEGOTIABLE email)

Anyway things are great , flying out Thurs morning for rehearsals...Sirius "Hard Attack Show" and NF are doing a NF tix giveaway for all the shows and are already pushing..so is DirtBAg clothing and SuicideGirls.com

So things are looking great.

xoxoxox Jerry

Thanks-

Jerry













We truly are sorry that we had to make the decision to drop off this tour. The last thing we wanted to do is disappoint any fans, promoters, or club owners; as you can tell from the memos above the relationship between Crossbreed and Nothingface was not a good one before the tour even started.



Day #1



Within the first 30 seconds of arriving in Battle Creek, MI, as if straight out of a scene from Office Space, we were asked that famous question, did you get the memo? Within the first five minutes we were asked if would like to leave the tour in the first thirty seconds of conversation with Jerry of Nothingface. We felt blindsided by that remark and questioned why it was even said? We tried to talk it through with him and even offered them to use our lights from our stage show, and in return, to allow us to sell more items of our merch in which he declined that offer. The fact is, bands signed or not, live on the road by merch sales, considering they're a band that (allegedly) dropped off a disturbed show because of merch issues, you would figure they would have a better understanding in that situation than most.





Day #2



En Route to Traverse City, we get a phone call from our agent saying that Nothingface told her if we arrived to that show, they would not allow us to load in the venue. Now this was decided on their behalf because they said a kid told them we were selling shirts for $12 instead of the price of $25. We were forced to price match with Nothingface, in which we had no problem doing so. Truth is, I wish we could afford to sell shirts for the price of $12, but we cannot and did not as this was another attempt by them to kick us off the tour.



Once Nothingface was informed that they had no legal right to kick us off of the Traverse City and Flint shows, they made this day really fun for us. First off, we had dressing rooms on the opposite side of the club, instead of the regular area just to keep our bands separated. Second, they not only told us that we couldn't use our lights on stage, but made sure we didn't use any house lights as well either. Third, they lied straight to James' face and said the club wanted us to set our merch up right next to them, which was a flat out lie. We knew right away that meant they wanted to keep an eye on us which was insulting. The owner of the club actually asked us why we couldn't set up on the other side of the crowd as intended, and Nothingface said this is how it has to be.



Throughout Day 2, it was a very amusing day for us, but not as amusing as this. They actually had one of their crew members standing at the front door asking everyone who they were there to see in the form of a poll and asked them to say only one band name. How fuckin funny is that shit? I mean, is it a national tour, or a fuckin local show where you get a fucking dollar a head?









Day #3



This day came as a shock to us. The band that has done everything to kick us off was being nice to us? We all couldn't believe it. It actually gave us a little bit of hope that somehow we could finish the run with them, which, obviously didn't happen. We as well as our agent tried to contact Nothingface to work it out for the remaining shows, and you know what we got back? We got a message saying that they were too hung-over to discuss it yet. Our agent said to them that Crossbreed will be in Cleveland until Monday night, so decide quickly. After numerous attempts to get an answer, there was none to be given.



So here we are, back in Florida pissed off that we had to go home and not finish what we started. As a result of being forced to drop off the Nothingface dates, we were financially unable to sit around for a week in the Midwest to play the remaining shows.





We truly feel bad for Silent Civilian having to witness this mess, they are truly a great band to watch out for and we hope to hook up with them again in the future.





As for the fans, promoters and venues owners, please understand that all attempts were made to clear up this mess to remain on the tour. In 10 years, Crossbreed has never EVER been in this situation before. We thank god for bands like Mushroomhead, Rammstein and Static-X for existing, cause if everyone acted towards us like Nothingface did, we wouldn't ever want to tour with another band again!!!!!!!!!!!!!





We are currently working with our agent and promoters to book a make-up tour for all dates missed, it should be around May."







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admin    March 02, 2006