Busking brothers refuse to beat it for double-booked Michael Jackson
A pair of busking brothers are refusing to budge from a gig at a London venue double-booked by Michael Jackson’s management.
Si and Tyber Cranstoun, who have sold about 900 tickets to their 2400-capacity ska and reggae show at IndigO2 on July 16, reportedly said they booked the gig months before Jackson announced his comeback dates at O2 Arena.
Jackson’s people “badgered” the brothers, aka The Dualers, for six weeks before backing off, the report says.
Tyber reportedly said: “It got pretty heavy. We have had this booked since February and then out of the blue we got a call saying Jacko’s lot wanted us out. There were no negotiations at all at first.
“It’s typical of how Americans think they can come in and push people aside. They expected us to cancel, but I wasn’t about to tell the 900 people who have snapped up tickets that we were moving the show.
“It has been stressful and we did come close to sacking it off, but we don’t gig very often and we’ve got people coming from as far away as Italy to see us, so we just couldn’t do it to the fans.”
But the brothers have agreed to cut short their set by 90 minutes to give Jackson time to prepare for his show in the arena.
Although they are unsigned, the Dualers were the world’s first street performers to enter the UK charts, reaching No 21 in October 2004 with Kiss On The Lips. They started off busking on the streets of Bromley and Woolwich in south London, and in Canterbury.
