Madonna and Live Nation have responded to last week's lawsuit which seeks damages over the late start of the recent New York shows on her 'Celebration Tour', stating that delays were due to a “well documented” technical problem during soundcheck, rather than the musician’s poor time-keeping.
Saying that they "intend to defend this case vigorously", they insist that two of Madonna’s shows at New York's Barclays Center started on time. Only the one attended by the fans who have filed the litigation began late, and this was down to “a technical issue … during soundcheck”. This, they add, “was well documented in press reports at the time".
Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden sued Madonna, Live Nation and the Barclays Center last week. They said that Madonna's show on 13 Dec was advertised as starting at 8.30pm, but didn't get going until 10.45pm. That meant the concert didn't finish until after midnight, and Fellows and Hadden were “confronted with limited public transportation, limited ride-sharing, and/or increased public and private transportation costs”.
Despite Madonna and her promoter arguing that the late start issues experienced by Fellows and Hadden only occurred on 13 Dec because of technical problems, their lawsuit also stated that "upon information and belief, Madonna’s concerts on 14 and 16 Dec at the Barclays Center also started over two hours late" and "Madonna has a long history of arriving and starting her concerts late, sometimes several hours late".
If this dispute ever gets to court, it will be interesting to see how Madonna's reps respond to the wider allegation that their client routinely starts her shows late. Although they may focus more of their efforts on arguing that - however punctual Madonna may or may not be - pop concerts starting late do not constitute "breach of contract, false advertising and negligent misrepresentation", as Fellows and Hadden have claimed.
Cases like this rarely do get to court, but it would be fun to watch if it did. Would Madonna be called to testify? And, if so, would she show up on time?