Kanye West Takes Heat For Australian Festival Delay

Posted on 23. Jan, 2012 by Kanye West in Kanye West

Fellow performers Soundgarden criticize West after his soundcheck bleeds into their set at Sunday's Big Day Out festival.
By James Montgomery

Kanye West performs on stage as part of Big Day Out Festival at the Gold Coast Parklands on January 22, 2012 in Gold Coast, Australia
Photo: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

It wasn't a delay on par with his 2008 Bonnaroo debacle — when he took the stage at roughly 4:30 a.m. (and then <a href="/news/articles/1589926/kanye-blames-bonnaroo-pearl-jam-for-430-am-show.jhtml">nearly destroyed his MacBook Air</a> in the aftermath) — but at Sunday's <a href="http://goldcoast.bigdayout.com/" target="_blank">Big Day Out festival</a> in Australia, <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/west_kanye/artist.jhtml">Kanye West</a> was nearly 45 minutes late for his headlining slot. And, as you can imagine, folks weren't thrilled to be kept waiting. According to <a href="http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/kanye-west-annoys-soundgarden-before-a-45-minute-delay-at-big-day-out-on-the-gold-coast/story-e6frfn09-1226250931914" target="_blank">reports</a>, fans bided their time by breaking into numerous chants of "bullsh--" as they stood in the rain, and when West finally did appear, many wandered off to watch other acts like Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and My Chemical Romance. The Gold Coast Bulletin wrote that West blamed the delay on "sound problems" caused by the wet weather. While those chants were no doubt withering, West did manage to rebound and wow fans with a booming, ballerina-enhanced set. Unfortunately, he couldn't impress fellow headliners <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/soundgarden/artist.jhtml">Soundgarden</a>, who were apparently less than pleased that his soundcheck bled into their set. "Sounds like there's children playing music there, retarded children, retarded as in 'held back,' " frontman Chris Cornell told the crowd, after West's music was heard in between the band's songs. "There's no other word for it." A spokesperson for Soundgarden did not respond to MTV News' request for comment on the matter by press time. Aside from the acrimony, weather and delays, several Australian newspapers noted that the West-headlined Big Day Out Gold Coast did not sell out — the first time the fest had not been at capacity "since the 1990s." Many attributed that to the fact that Kanye had also headlined Australia's Splendor in the Grass fest less than six months ago.

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