Yesterday it was announced that the ‘Godfather of Grime’, Wiley, will be playing at The Cube on Friday 25th January. A huge name in the rap and grime genre, it is a booking which could restart Friday nights in style, hopefully in a more successful way than recent events at The Cube.
With support from R3wire and Varski, this night looks like it should be great, with tickets at a mere £6.50; a bargain price for an artist who produced the tune of the summer, ‘Heatwave’, and follow up hit ‘Can You Hear Me? (Ayayaya)’.
Nonetheless, Wiley’s recent University gigs suggest that Southampton students shouldn’t get their hopes up. The Coventry Telegraph reported in October that Wiley had cancelled an appearance at Warwick University, with his team sending the venue a text to say that he had been involved in a car accident. However, it later emerged that the accident had been fabricated and that Wiley had tweeted earlier that day to say he had “other things to do.”
Since cancelling his appearance at Warwick, Wiley has vowed never to play a student gig again. In an interview with The Daily Star newspaper, he stated that: “I don’t like students’ attitudes. They only really like indie (rock) bands, and why would I want to perform for people who are going: ‘Shut up Wiley, you’re s**t?’ I did a gig at Surrey Uni recently that I hated… I didn’t need that £12,000, so I cancelled the whole uni tour and now I won’t play a university ever again.”
Ultimately, the booking of Wiley for The Cube may be futile. Despite fostering a successful music career in recent months, and gearing up to the release of his tenth studio album The Ascent, it remains to be seen whether Wiley will even turn up.
Union President Sam Ling had this to say: “It’s hard to know the specific details of other unions, mainly because all I’ve seen is through student media. When it comes to our event, I’ve got real confidence and I’m looking forward to it and there’s been a fantastic student reaction to the fact that he’s playing. It’s part of one of our Ministry of Sound nights and we have an excellent working relationship with the people who deliver them and they have never disappointed us and they have a good working relationship with the artist.”
Wiley is set to play at The Cube on January 25th, with tickets available through the Box Office.
16 Comments
What an over entitled prick.
If I go it’ll be to support SUSU, not this bellend.
These comments serve only to justify Wiley’s stance.
Evan you’re an idiot. I’d explain why but it’s pretty self-evident.
He used to do student gigs, then realised the crowds don’t like him, so he stopped.
If that was any other career, It would be seen as acceptable. If you went into a shop and insulted the shopkeeper, then it would be justifiable that the shopkeeper wouldn’t want to provide you service. But because Wiley is a musician, this shouldn’t matter?
He did one round of student gigs where a couple of shows didn’t go his way (which, by the way, is an occupational hazard of being a professional musician and something you are expected to DEAL WITH like an adult).
His reaction to this was to tar all students with the same brush and then carry on booking student gigs without any kind of apology.
These comments aren’t as a result of Southampton students thinking he’s rubbish, they’re in response to him unjustifiably saying we all have bad attitudes just because a few performances didn’t live up to his prima-donna expectations.
My original point wasn’t that he was right to cancel those shows. (He did tweet about having piss thrown at him, which may or may not be true, so I’m not going to set foot in either camp on that one).
My point was that while he may have tarred all student crowds with the same brush, the initial response is to insult him, as opposed to saying “we’re not all dicks, be fair”. This will only cement his opinion on student crowds.
No with any luck he might learn that insulting your core demographic isn’t a great way to go as someone who depends on them for their livelihood.
I wonder if he’s worked out that he’s the butt of an ironic in-joke yet.
See Wiley’s interview with Warwick TV, in which he explains the reasons for his absence, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2tEKgRcMCU
I would love to see our Union’s entertainment magazine doing a, say, telephone interview with the artist, rather than practically promising disappointment to everyone who goes.
Just for you, here’s some interviews with artists.
http://content.theedgesusu.co.uk/interviews/
Interview with THE artist, not ANY artist. Wiley, in this case.
We will do an interview when and if we get the opportunity.
Did you ask for the opportunity?
BT3 are you offering to conduct the interview?
No, that is hardly my job.
I was simply offering feedback and a suggestion.
You guys going to be doing a review? Can’t remember a lot of the night!