News - VIP-Booking

VIP- News - August - January 2005 2010
notice board ››
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Statement from Aliona Chernaya - City Concerts
International Artists, Moscow
I thought that show business was criminal
in Russia and Eastern Europe only but it
turned out that a manager of a well known
European band with a 20 year history can
run away with money in the 21st century.
I booked Ace of Base for Barvikha Concert
Hall in Moscow and paid 100% upfront in
May 2009. The show was postponed twice
and eventually cancelled. As of yet, mid
January, I have not received any money
back.
More than two months ago, Orlando John,
Urbania Group (the former manager of
Ace Of Base), sent me a statement saying
that the Ace Of Base brand was terminated
and that the band had to cancel all shows
and that money would be refunded within
two weeks. This was the last thing I heard
from him.
When I spoke to Ulf Ekberg, the singer of
Ace of Base, he said the band was still together
and was not aware of this show and
that they never received any money and
didn’t sign a contract for this show. Orlando
John was fired in August, meaning
that he was negotiating on behalf of Ace
of Base without their awareness and that
he took the money and then made a false
cancellation statement. Isn’t this fraud?
It seems that Orlando John has used the
same scenario before.
My Russian college Alexander Uneshkin
from Radio Record, Saint Petersburg had
a similar experience with Orlando John in
2008.
“We booked MC Hammer through Urbania
group for SuperDiscoteque-2008. A few
months later we received a statement saying
that the artist could not perform his obligations
and that the advance payment would
be sent back shortly.
We then contacted MC Hammer directly
only to find out that he had no idea about
this festival and never received any proposals.
We booked him directly then, but
we never received any money back from
Urbania. Interesting that Orlando John presented
himself as the exclusive agent for MC
Hammer, who said, he had never heard this
name before.”
Some of our partners in the Baltic countries,
where Urbania was very active, and
an artist in Sweden, reported that Orlando
John hasn’t paid them money and ignores
their emails, avoiding communication.
Now the question is why don’t we proceed
with legal action? The answer is very
simple: SIA Urbania Group was put into
bankruptcy and Orlando John has recently
moved to Thailand, where he is running a
venue called Supper club.
The company is still operating under the
same name and has some activity in Thailand
and in all probability another legal entity
has been registered in Sweden. There
are several gigs announced on the website
including Tiesto and Ferry Corsten’s
shows. I personally find it very amusing,
that artists of this level can involve themselves
with a promoter with such a controversial
history.
We have now initiated a criminal investigation
and are trying to solve the problem
through the police. However, we would
like to warn all the artists and promoters
who come across Orlando John - please be
careful, this agent likes easy money.
Aliona Chernaya, General Manager
City Concerts International Artists, Moscow
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