Teens aren’t the only ones susceptible to the slings and arrows of people saying shit on the internet. So says embattled Big Day Out boss and recent New Zealand Herald interview subject Ken West, who provides an interesting take on the sudden departure of longtime business partner Vivian Lees. Sad emoticon.
Despite claims that Lees left to spend more time with his family and pursue other interests, West attributes the split to “vitriol from Facebook”, saying that Lees “couldn’t deal with it”.
West explains: “What I successfully managed to do without any choice is to piss off the heavy rock fans by having Kayne close and then get all the vitriol from Facebook, which is part of the reason why my 58 year old (Vivian) left. It went on sale Friday, he turned 58 on Saturday and on Monday he wanted to turn it all off. He couldn’t deal with it, this show is actually a victim of Facebook abuse and he took it all in…”
Ironically, the “vitriol” has curbed considerably since Lees’ departure with one Facebook user posting the following message on the Big Day Out Facebook wall: “I think after reading The article with Ken West us punters need to give these guys a little more credit. All we do is bitch & moan about the lineup and ticket prices etc yet these ppl are putting everything on the line yr after yr just for us to even have a Big Day Out. They can’t please everyone all of the time. I say we all just shut the fk up and enjoy it before we don’t have it anymore.”
Yeah everyone, just shut the fk up.
Big Day Out tickets are still available for purchase here.
