TAZ TAYLOR BAND Disputes GRAHAM BONNET's Account Of Why Russian Concerts Were Cancelled

The TAZ TAYLOR BAND, whose touring lineup includes legendary hard rock singer Graham Bonnet (RAINBOW, MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, ALCATRAZZ, IMPELLITTERI),cancelled its Russian tour dates scheduled for May 2 and May 3 based on what the group previously stated was "entirely the decision of Graham Bonnet." Graham followed this up by issuing a statement of his own in which he claimed that the reason for the cancellation was that "we'd recently performed in Europe and the fees I'd negotiated and expected were not honored. I actually lost money on the tour as my modest outgoings were far greater than my final paycheck."

Earlier today (Saturday, May 3),the TAZ TAYLOR BAND responded to Graham by issuing the following statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:

"We would like to correct the record regarding the cancellation of the Russian shows.

"Graham had stated, 'the fees I'd negotiated and expected were not honoured.'

"There were no fees ever negotiated by Graham for the recent European tour which he refers to. Graham knew and agreed to participate in the tour for whatever the revenues were, based on ticket sales. Graham was fully aware this tour was a gamble on whether Germany was a viable market for Graham Bonnet and TAZ TAYLOR BAND and accepted this risk.

"The tour was arranged and booked by a German promoter into some of the most popular rock clubs in Germany, Vienna, Budapest and Prague.

"While hardcore fans of Graham and our 'Welcome To America' album did turn out and made the shows excellent concert events, their numbers were not enough to cover tour costs, flights, nightliner, hotels, taxes, etc.

"Even so, at the end of the tour, Graham and a hired keyboardist received every cent of the revenue, including all the money from our own merchandise sales, which was additionally supplemented with funds out of TAZ TAYLOR BAND's own pockets with the members of TAZ TAYLOR BAND being the only ones to actually lose money.

"Classic hard rock concert-goers in this region are apparently fewer than ever with SCORPIONS, [MICHAEL] SCHENKER, GLENN HUGHES and others also posting low attendance. Even so we and all fans in attendance considered the shows an enormous critical success albeit not a financial one.

"The Russian shows were a different promoter, with a guarantee of payment before departing from the U.S. Hundreds of tickets were pre-sold for these shows and a strong turnout for both shows was expected.

"Only hours after flights were paid, Graham changed his mind about performing the shows, stating his intention to begin work on other projects.

"In several private conversations between Graham and TAZ TAYLOR BAND, he had never mentioned he felt we had not honored any agreements with him. We were therefore very suprised to read his public statement which suggested otherwise.

"We were disappointed in Graham's decision to cancel the Russia shows as the promoter lost thousands of dollars and profitable work for everyone was lost.
While we have great respect and love for Graham, we strongly disagreed with his decision. And cancelling these shows was completely his decision.

"Thank you for the opportunity to set the record straight."

TAZ TAYLOR BAND's latest album, "Welcome to America", was released last year via Escape Music.

Watch fan-filmed video footage of TAZ TAYLOR BAND performing with Graham Bonnet on April 17, 2008 at the Avalon club in Budapest, Hungary: