OMG, I LOVE Rain, the korean artist, and he's so fabulous and a good person! And his concert in LA got cancelled hours before for the STUPIDEST of reasons!! (Some reasons weren't entirely stupid, but his local promoters should've been more prepared. And just HOURS before it had to start too.) Argh! Read this! I got it from a forum. (Hope they don't mind, but I was really mad!

Rain's LA Concert Goes Bust

By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter



Pop star Rain shed tears after his concert in Los Angeles was abruptly canceled just hours before the scheduled performance due to the local promoter's lack of preparation and financial problems, according to reports yesterday.

The American leg of the popular singer's "Rain's Coming" world tour has flopped altogether, as Los Angeles was the only remaining concert after his four other scheduled performances including New York and Atlanta were indefinitely postponed earlier this month, following a lawsuit over the copyright of the name "Rain." The lawsuit was settled only late last month when a Nevada court dismissed the case against the Rain Corporation, a Nevada-based music company that sued over the rights.

Officials at Rain's Seoul-based concert management company, Star M, attributed the cancellation of the Los Angeles concert to the L.A.-based promoter that did not pay subcontractors money owed to them on time. As the companies withdrew, the stage was left bare without lighting or screens, according to Star M.

The 25-year-old singer and actor expressed a strong wish to appear on stage to greet his fans, but this was impossible due to regulations on performances, Star M said.


Disappointed Japanese fans of South Korean pop singer Rain look at
their tickets after the concert was canceled just one and a half hours
before the scheduled performance in Los Angeles, Saturday. / Yonhap

Rain's ambitious plan for a limited tour of the United States has now come to an unfortunate end, leaving a bad taste in fans' mouths and a lawsuit. Last month, Click Entertainment, a Honolulu-based promoting company for Rain's concert, filed a lawsuit against the singer's Korean managers, claiming they were not informed of the cancellation and swindled out of about $500,000. Star M plans to counter the lawsuit with a defamation suit.

Rain, whose real name is Jung Ji-hoon, expressed his sentiments on the recent unfolding of events on his official Web site on his birthday June 25.

"I hope that people's greed doesn't ruin our concerts any more," he wrote in Korean and English. "I'd better plan the next tour and set up the stage by myself. Then, there won't be any problems, will there?"

saltwall@koreatimes.co.kr

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July 2, 2007

Plug pulled on Rain's L.A. concert
Rain

LOS ANGELES ― A concert in Los Angeles by South Korean pop singer Rain was abruptly canceled about two hours before his performance, the singer's Seoul-based producer said yesterday.

Rain was to perform at Staples Center in downtown L.A. Saturday evening as part of his U.S. tour. The concert, however, was canceled because the performance center refused to allow in stage equipment from South Korea, Star M Entertainment Co. said.
The city and center authorities banned the use of the Korean equipment, mostly electrical, citing the city's electricity and fire-fighting rules, it added.

"We transported 20 tons of stage equipment from South Korea after a confirmation from the concert's L.A. promoter V2B Global Co. that we could use the equipment on stage," a company spokesman said. "Everything came to nothing with the city authorities' ban."

The abrupt cancellation triggered strong protests from thousands of Rain fans, who came to the concert not knowing it had been canceled.

It also dealt another blow to Rain, whose earlier performances in Honolulu, San Francisco, Atlanta, New York and San Jose, California, had all been called off because of a legal challenge from Rain Corp., an American company that says the singer cannot use his stage name because it holds the copyright of a Beatles tribute band of the same name.

"We were unable to press for the concert even without basic stage equipment, although Rain showed his intent to perform if he could only sing a song," Star M said in a statement. "We're very sorry for the fans who might have traveled a long way to see the concert."

Yonhap

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