No one in the crowd wants to hear Aftermath songs. Jon's in the right if that's honestly why he bolted (and I don't think it is).

And no one wants to hear Capt Crash either but that doesn't stop Jon.

I agree. And why should he apologize again? The fans who are pissed off and probably yelled the loudest that he owed them an apology are now saying he's not sincere (big surprise!), that it's just for show so they'll support him, that he REALLY owes the apology first to the crew - THEN he should cone back to make it right with the fans...the man can't win.

No amount of apologizing is going to make it right with those who are mad. They're enjoying their anger too much to let it go right now.


As you say, Richie has explained and apologized. It's up to the individual fans whether they accept it or not.


I sincerely hope that if Richie's not totally 100 f*cking percent responsible for this mess that at some point the truth comes out and all these "fans" have to eat their words. Because he's taken a beating these past nine months. If it turns out that it's deserved that's one thing. If it's not, It will be interesting to see how those who have judged him so harshly and prematurely plan to apologize and make it up to him.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Captain Crash goes over far far far better (in certain countries) than Aftermath songs ever would. Jon milks the crowd to dance and sing and sway with him for Captain Crash and it works. It's over played, it's annoying, it's plasticy but it works. It's just shtick but you're naive if you think it's on the same level as a solo song from an album that failed to sell sung by someone that isn't the singer.

Yes I do, great song! :-) And I love this town, bring it on, every show! :-D

What About Now, The Fighter, not running and Amen fail miserably. In the past, nineties, Richie played "Stranger in This Town" everynight. Now, that's over. Ask the CEO.

In fact, Stranger never was played night after night. The only time it appeared rather frequently was during the final shows of the TD tour.

I agree with the first part - I'm sure here in Europe a Richie song like Stranger or even Every Road would've gone over much better than most of the WAN songs.

I don't have the internet to back me up so I honestly don't know, what was the reaction in America when Richie sang Stranger? I know that album didn't flop as bad as Aftermath but it didn't do great either. What was the reception like at shows, does anyone know?

I do not think that playing "Every Road" or "Seven Years Gone" was inconceivable in this last tour. But for some reason, Jon did not want to make happy to Richie.

Yeah...
 

Yeah, this is the part that still puzzles me, too. Jon said he wasn't surprised when he got the call - so he apparently knew something was up, yet was confident enough that Richie would be in Calgary that he didn't have Phil-X on site. Do you think maybe the power struggle/negotiations (or whatever they referred to when RS said, "We're just not happenin' right now" and JBJ said, "... or you say, "I hate my brother and you quit the band...") carried on through the break? If it was a standoff, and given that it seems RS played the last card on show day, could it be that it was RS who called Jon's bluff over something?


The other question that won't let me go is what happened between the start of the tour and Lubbock that set up Richie's non-return in April? I don't think RS would have started the tour if he truly had no intention of finishing it. From accounts I've read here of how amazing Cleveland was things seemed ok then. In Lubbock I thought RS seemed preoccupied during IBTFY, then right before the outro, it seemed to me like something kicked in and he caught fire. (I'm not the performance critics some of you guys are, though, so I'd be interested in your thoughts about that.)

After he didn't show up in Calgary, I wondered if he knew in Lubbock he wasn't going to finish the tour and that was the reason for his preoccupation (if he was and it wasn't just my imagination :) )