Sad news, but not unexpected given the times… Rock Werchter, Belgium, has cancelled for this year. RHCP were due to perform. Although many festivals have cancelled for 2021, this is the first one featuring RHCP in the line up to do so.
So sorry for everyone with tickets <3
Rock Werchter will not take place this summer. The four-day music festival will be back in full swing in 2022, from 30 June to 3 July.
This is not a decision we have taken lightly and in recent months we have been talking to governments, experts and colleagues in here and elsewhere about how festivals could take place. With the great momentum on vaccine rollout, we had hoped that it might be possible, however we have come to the reluctant conclusion that given current restrictions we simply cannot prepare for a 2021 festival in the normal way. We want every fan and artist to enjoy the festival to the fullest, and with the current situation we could not achieve this for you.Whilst we know that this is the right decision, we also know that this decision affects many: our employees, the technical crew, suppliers, artists and their entourages, all the local associations and their volunteers, and of course the fans. Our sector has been on hold for a whole year now. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but the dark times are not over, even with the cautious restart happening soon. The once thriving live music industry needs government support. Belgian festivals are internationally renowned.We have a special word of thanks to you, our fans and friends of the festival: YOU ROCK WERCHTER. Every time. Over and over again. You kept hoping during the dark days, showed understanding over the uncertain situation, and gave support to each other and to us. We cannot thank you enough. We look forward to making great memories together again in the future.Rock Werchter will be back next year, in full swing and even much better than that. Some of the planned Rock Werchter 2021 acts will appear. New names will be added to the 2022 line-up too. The line-up and practical information will be revealed later. But you can make a note of these dates now. Strong as ever, we will be back from Thursday June 30 to Sunday July 3, 2022. Ticket holders will be contacted shortly by our ticket partner, Ticketmaster. They can choose to retain their ticket, carry it over to 2022, or ask to be given a credit to the value of their booking. This credit can be spent on any of the festivals that will take place at the Festivalpark in Werchter in 2021 and 2022. Ticket sales for Rock Werchter 2022 will resume later this year.
Spanish Edition of Red Hot Chili Peppers by Gaar
I’ve just uploaded a load of photos of the Spanish edition of Red Hot Chili Peppers by Gillian G. Gaar and updated the band bibliography to include more details of this book.
Gaar: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Many thanks to Cesar for spending so much time helping out with this!
Deep Kick Footage?
A five minute clip, entitled ‘Deep Kick’, has been posted on YouTube by a long-time RHCP fan. Deep Kick was the name given to the “lost” documentary which was made/being made of the recording of RHCP’s One Hot Minute album. Video was filmed over the three year recording period, but the final documentary was never released. Only some brief clips have previously surfaced e.g. in the My Friends video and it’s not even known how much of the documentary was made/completed.
This recently uploaded video clip shows brief live footage of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and some shots of them in a coach and a car. Flea is seen conducting a group of children as they are recorded singing “It’s my aeroplane” for the song Aeroplane and there’s also a minute of him (heavily bearded) talking about his elephant tattoo and his “life” ideas for his daughter, Clara (she can do whatever she wishes as long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else or herself). It also features Chad bouncing his child on his lap while sitting at a drum set. The main footage in the clip though is of Henk Schiffmacher tattooing Anthony (dagger) at his tattoo studio in Amsterdam.
Watts Conservatory of Music
I’ve added a new page about the Watts Conservatory of Music that Flea has cofounded in Watts with information about its progress and the relevant social media links. It’s in the Band member/Flea section, but here’s the link:
The Guardian: Flea Mini-interview
A new Flea mini-interview has been published on The Guardian website. It’s more a collection of thoughts about a few questions & a book plug than a full-scale interview but it is still an interesting quick read.
I’ve been up and down about the band so many times. I’ve thought: “Can we continue without repeating ourselves?” or: “I don’t want to do it any more, I want to grow, I don’t want to be held prisoner by money, fame or power.” Then we’ll play a great show or write a song that has me tingling with excitement and I’m completely in love with it again.
Full interview: The Guardian
To Finger Paint…
A video recorded on January 1st, 1990, while the Red Hot Chili Peppers were touring London has (re)surfaced. Snippets of this have been online in the past, but this is the first time we have seen the whole thing. The video features all members of RHCP although Anthony Kiedis and Flea feature more heavily- John and Chad are seen more in the background. Enjoy!
Flea’s New Skull Tattoo
Flea posted photos yesterday (LA time) of him getting a new tattoo with a purple skull design by Dr. Woo.
Photo source: Flea’s official Instagram story
Frusciante and Flea Dublab Show
Last night, RHCP’s John Frusciante and Flea hosted a two hour show on Dublab. They were selecting and playing tracks which influenced them in their youth, and while it was mostly music, there was some chat and reminiscing in-between with a couple of Chili Pepper anecdotes thrown in.
Longer version with some songs although it’s not the full thing:
Shorter version of just the chat:
Flea on a Pathway To Paris
Pathway to Paris Earth Day 50: A Virtual Festival to Our Planet
Pathway to Paris are hosting a virtual livestream festival in celebration of Earth Day’s 50th anniversary via their Instagram account. RHCP’s Flea is among a number of celebrities who are due to take part in the event. It will livesteam on Sunday 26th April starting at 4:00 p.m. EST.
More information on Rolling Stone
RHCP Cairo Documentary
Update on the Cairo/ Pyramids Concert/ Documentary. URGENT ACTION NEEDED! Please help try to get a change of decision! (Details below).
Sadly, this has now been pulled by RHCP’s management and currently will NOT be released due to the change in band members.
So many of us would love to have that documentary and we’ve been looking forward to its release. We saw the live footage of the concert at the time and it was amazing. And there’s the interviews, etc. which we haven’t seen. I know people were looking forward to it even more given the cancellation of the upcoming US shows (and expected cancellation of the others) and there was a lot of excitement about the news it was coming yesterday (this is why the post about it was removed).
If you would like to see this, please could you message ASAP Flea and Chad on their social media accounts and especially RHCP’s management- there is a chance we could get this decision reversed today if enough people say they would like it:
https://www.instagram.com/qprimemgmt/