AJ Maddah reveals why Soundwave Revolution was cancelled

It’s been three years since the cancellation of Soundwave’s sister festival Soundwave Revolution polarised fans and media alike.

The 2011 national festival was cancelled a month out and fans were placated with Counter Revolution, a mini-festival which experienced similar cancellations and behind-the-scenes crises to the intended event.

Now, Soundwave Revolution’s promoter AJ Maddah has revealed it was Rage Against The Machine who caused organisers to pull the plug. Speaking to Tom Roberts, host of online podcast Full Metal Lockdown, Maddah said the festival was created for the LA band, and when frontman Zack de la Rocha hadn’t signed the contract, he was forced to announce the tour without the band.

“Basically after eight months of fucking around […] three quarters of the band had signed on, you know Zack hadn’t signed on. And it just stretched and stretched and stretched to the point where we couldn’t wait anymore and we had to announce the tour.”

Maddah revealed Van Halen also pulled out at the penultimate moment, forcing him to decide whether to continue sans headliner or not.

“I didn’t think that was fair,” said Maddah during the 47-minute interview. “We came to the juncture where either we cancel it today or carry on and face the reality that neither band would turn up to headline. The honourable thing to do was to cancel and give everyone a full refund.”