Slack time-keeper Madonna has been sued by two fans over her slack time-keeping.
In a new lawsuit filed with the courts in New York, gig-goers Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden have accused Madonna, her promoter Live Nation and the Barclays Center arena of “unconscionable, unfair and/or deceptive trade practices”, and all because the musician rarely makes it to the stage on time.
Their lawsuit claims that three dates on Madonna's 'Celebration' tour that took place at the Barclays Center were all advertised to start at 8.30pm. But, in fact, they didn't start until some time after 10.30pm.
This meant that the gig wasn't over until after midnight, when the fans were “confronted with limited public transportation, limited ride-sharing, and/or increased public and private transportation costs”.
The legal filing notes Madonna's well known reputation for starting shows late, which means promoter and venue "were aware that any statement as to a start time for a show constituted, at best, optimistic speculation".
Given Madonna's reputation for starting shows late, most of her fans presumably also realised the advertised start-time was "optimistic speculation". I don't know whether that could be any sort of defence to this lawsuit.
Either way, Fellows and Hadden reckon that Madonna and co are liable for breach of contract, false advertising and negligent misrepresentation, and they want class action status for their lawsuit so that a win would benefit everyone who attended the shows.
This seems like a somewhat ambitious legal claim that is unlikely to ever get to trial. Though if it did happen to be successful, it could impact on a bunch of other big name musicians who are famously unpunctual when it comes to their shows.
I wonder if that would result in better time-keeping by those acts, or would promoters just start putting "who knows" as the start time in marketing materials? The latter seems like a simpler solution.