Concert date: 8/01/99 San Francisco, CA

Review of the show:
Hey Rachel -

Thanks for the forum to vent and greetings from the bay area. As we all know, the concert was cancelled 15 minutes before it was set to start and it caused a lot of anger among the fans in attendance. The local news has been covering the story and did not paint a very favorable picture of Whitney.

One station implied that she cancelled because she was not happy with ticket sales and they said if she was really too sick to go on, wouldn't she realize it more than 15 minutes before the show. Of course the drug rumors persist.

I am a serious die hard fan but this is starting to wear thin on me. This is the seventh time I have bought tickets to one of her shows and this is the third time she has cancelled. I drove 95 miles each way to go to this show and I was very angry. I gave up a special evening with friends to waste hours doing nothing!

I saw some things that I found disturbing.

I saw children sobbing as they left the stadium after being seated and waiting anxiously. I saw one young girl shredding the tour book and throwing it all over the parking lot after they would not refund her money.

One person actually tossed their "My Love Is Your Love" CD out the window and ran over it as they left the lot.

There was a lot of anger and I heard a number of people say they would never buy another ticket or recording of hers again. And word has it she has no plans to reschedule here.

This kind of bad publicity could really be damaging at a time when the album and new single are poised to do well.

And with all the good reviews, I hate to see her end the American tour on such an ugly note. This kind of bad publicity has a way of really getting around. As I said, the story got a lot of coverage on the local news and it did not make her look good at all.

I will be interested to see how she deals with this situation. She will probably just ignore it and then wonder why she has not had a number one hit since "Exhale". Treating the people who buy the stuff like shit will likely influence future sales. Punishing those who buy the stuff is pointless. She is always thanking Jesus and praising the Lord, but is doesn't seem very Christian like to treat fans this way.

I must admit, I will think twice before I purchase a copy of the "MLIYL" single. And I am a die hard fan, imagine how others will react!

Later!

TJ