Latest revision as of 18:58, 20 March 2011

Marilyn Manson May Be Shut Out Of Richmond, Virginia
Apr 16 1997 6:15 PM EDT
MTV News


April 16 [18:15 EST] -- Having already had one gig canceled out from under it in Columbia, South Carolina last week, Marilyn Manson now faces the wrath of city fathers in Richmond, Virginia who are trying to derail a scheduled May 10 Manson concert at the Richmond Coliseum.

At issue, as always, is Manson's manifest lack of niceness. On Tuesday, Richmond city manager Robert C. Bobb told the Washington Post that the band was "not consistent with our community standards." Fortunately, he said, the city council had discovered that Manson's contract to play the city-owned Coliseum had never actually been signed, thus paving the way for a convenient cancellation.

The show's promoter says this possibility is now being discussed, perhaps because as of Wednesday only 2,000 of the 9,000 available tickets for the Manson concert had been sold. While the band still plans to perform, Robert C. Bobb says there's nothing to discuss; the band can play any other venue it likes, but it won't be playing the Coliseum.

Meanwhile, the Virginia branch of the American Civil Liberties Union says it is already preparing a First Amendment lawsuit against the city, charging that local authorities wanted the concert canceled solely because of the content of Manson's lyrics, which do not traffic much in uplift.

In any case, all of this is free publicity for Manson, who's now preparing to spend some studio time with Rasputina, the trio of lingerie-clad female cellists currently providing what Manson wittily calls a "musical interlude" between his own set and that of opening act Helmet. Manson will do a remix of a Rasputina track called "Transylvanian Concubine," off the group's debut album, "Thanks For The Ether."