Did You Know....? - Poptastic
Romanian folk singer Joan Melu failed to sell a single ticket
for her gig at the 2200 seater Capitol Theatre in
Melbourne in 1980.
Despite the absence of an audience, she proceeded to
fulfil her contractual obligation by giving a two
hour performance, complete with interval and encores
fulfil her contractual obligation by giving a two
hour performance, complete with interval and encores
1 comments:
Joan Melu was a MALE singer. I actually was at his concert in Brisbane at Festival Hall on Wednesday, 19th November, 1980. I did not buy a ticket but happened to be strolling past the venue and got chatting to one of the guys working on the door. He told me I could go in if I liked, so I did. There was a fellow sitting in the 2nd row so I sat a seat or two away from him. I have no idea why, but that man then got up and moved a few more seats away from me. I didn't stay long and I don't even really remember what the fellow singing sounded, or looked like. I just know that I was there, and I think that somewhere I have an advertising poster for the concert somewhere in my collection.
You should also check out this website
http://www.daves-world.co.uk/humour/text/pages001-025/page04.html
In August 1980 Joan Melu, a Rumanian folk singer, broke all existing records for the smallest ever audience. Effortlessly pushing aside the previous contenders, he drew an audience of none whatsoever for a concert of what he described as his own style of country and western. Arriving on stage at the Capitol Theatre, Melbourne, in dark glasses and casual clothing, he gazed down on 2,200 empty seats and gave a two-hour show which over ran by 30 minutes.
Throughout Mr Melu performed as if people were there. Coming back on stage after a 5-minute interval the singer announced over the speaker system: "Ladies and gentlemen, Joan Melu." Towards the end of the performance he asked: "Hey everybody, do you want to hear my new one?"
After the show he said that he was "A little nervous" beforehand, but felt very satisfied with the way it had gone. "I love this life," the artist commented.
According to a stagehand, Mr Melu perched on one stool one metre from the edge of the stage and did not move for two hours except to strum his guitar without any attempt at chords and to mumble into the microphone in a monotone fashion. "every song appeared the same, musically and vocally."
Faced with this criticism, the singer said that he doesn’t pay too much attention to the music because "life is in the song not he notes."
Mr Melu triumph came during the tour of Australia’s largest theatres. The week before he had hired the Sydney Opera House and attracted an audience of 18 plus the New York Times critic, most of whom left before the interval.
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