Matt Hall

In what was supposed to be an intimate one-off performance in Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel, actor-turned-rapper Childish Gambino was apparently booed off stage last night. After turning up with a large entourage, it is said that Gambino spent the first 40 minutes of the show idling behind turntables as his friends, and even fans performed on stage.

Performing what appeared to be his only headline show as part of his Australian visit for Listen Out festival, Gambino was reportedly shocked at the negative reaction from fans. Just hours before the Newcastle show, Gambino cancelled what was supposed to be a second sideshow, in Canberra, citing that “his busy touring schedule taking a toll”. Perhaps the two are related?

Although as stated by one commenter on the Cambridge Hotel’s Facebook page:

“This was meant to be a DJ set, blame the hotel for misguiding most fans.”

The performance has left many fans enraged, and we’ll have to follow the story more today to find out if this is a gaffe on the part of the hotel, or promoters, and whether they misrepresented what the show was supposed to be, or rather if the touring schedule has taken too much of a toll on Gambino and is to blame for the underwhelming performance.

It’s disappointing to see the Listen Out brand disappoint fans twice this week alone with sound issues marring Melbourne’s performances. Especially for a festival that sits at the high end of attracting touring hip hop artists.

But one thing is for sure, fans spend a lot of money on seeing their favourite artists, and especially for teenage music fans who get very little opportunity to see the musicians they love, and they have every right to be angry about receiving a performance that was less-than-advertised. While no statement has been released by the tour agent or promoters, it does seem that now there is a growing selection of people who actually enjoyed the show and are dismissing the previous reports of an entire audience filled with angry fans, but rather paints a group of the fans as rude and aggressive.

It’s hard to know who to believe, but weirdly, both sides of the argument have a point.

Look at the difference in how the shows were advertised for Sydney and Newcastle.

Clearly, the Newcastle poster would not make it seem as if it were to be a Royalty DJ set featuring Childish Gambino. Even now the anger is starting to be directed towards the tour promotors rather than the artist. And for those expecting a DJ set, they probably had a grand old time.

The Cambridge Hotel though maintains that the show was intended to be a Childish Gambino headlining performance and has stated that:

“We’re very disappointed,… Unfortunately we can’t control the artist, and on the night we said something but unfortunately nothing changed.”

This back and forth is sure to continue through the day, but here’s hoping some fans enjoyed the show and for what it’s worth, it does look like some were for 15 seconds or so here:

 

 

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Actor turned rapper Donald Glover A.K.A Childish Gambino is a busy man. Juggling both acting roles, putting out new music, and touring internationally. But if any of it is weighing him down, you wouldn’t tell by his recent interview with Conan O’Brien on his late night show ‘Conan’. Except for the hockey-esque playoff beard, Gambino seems completely at ease with his double life as an actor starring in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, and musical performer set to headline Listen Out festival next week! There doesn’t appear to be a Bruce Willis/ Bruno situation developing just yet for the Atlanta born performer. Yet.

Whatever you think of Gambino’s music, you have to admit that as far as switching disciplines, Glover has been about as successful as you could imagine. A founding member of comedy troupe Derrick Comedy, Glover got his start writing for 30 Rock, before moving on to the role of the beloved Troy in NBC’s Community. All the while however, alter-ego Gambino was working on his music, preparing to make a splash on the hip hop world.

Gambino ruminates during the interview, discussing the horror of his mother that he would consider leaving a prosperous writing job to pursue a career in music, he notes “It was a bad decision, but I didn’t know it—so it worked out great!” Clearly though, the creative talents of Glover are insuppressible, having achieved great success in writing/stand-up/acting/music he is the ever-rare quadruple threat.

When pressed on the differences between stand-up and performing in concert, Glover quips, “It’s really bad when people know all the words to your jokes,” and continues to note that he’d once had a bar of soap thrown at him on stage at a Gambino show, and how he’d much prefer to deal with that at a music show than during a comedy performance. Charming as always, Glover once again displayed his appealing nervousness that endears him to people, and works so well with his clever lyrics and urgent cadence.