Sheppard turned down Commonwealth Games Opening ceremony because they were offered “honorarium fee” of $6K to perform

The Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony has been widely criticised for being musically uninspired, with rumours circulating that both Christine Anu and Ricki Lee’s performances were lip-syced – and now Sheppard’s George Sheppard has revealed on Hit105 Breakfast that the low fees offered to artists could be a key reason why.

Breakfast team Stav, Abby and Matt spoke with George from the Aussie pop act morning, who said that organisers had asked the band to play for an “honorarium fee” at the games.

George revealed organisers had offered “to cover some costs, but it was pretty basic and would have cost us a lot more money to do it than they were going to pay us.”

He said that they had to turn down the fee, as it would have set a precedent where other acts would have also been expected to play for a nominal fee as well.

George also continued the band’s trade against Games’ musical director Katie Noonan, who also performed, with speculation rife that the bad blood between the two could have fuelled the decision to offer Sheppard such a low performance fee.

Noonan and Sheppard have been at loggerheads since she criticised them for not collecting an award in person at the Queensland Music Awards in 2016.

“I can’t talk for the other artists, because I don’t know what their deals were,” continued George. “But it wasn’t up to scratch for us, which was a shame because it was something we really wanted to do.”

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John Farnham was another to have reportedly turned down the offer to perform, while Katie Noona’s manager Jesse Flavell posted a statement on Facebook, suggesting that Noonan did not have final say on creative decisions for the event.

“To suggest that the MD has unilateral control and the final say on any creative decisions for events of this magnitude is incorrect,” she said.

“To suggest that the MD is involved in setting the commercial terms offered to any performers is incorrect.”

news.com.au have since reported that Sheppard were offered a total of $6,000 to perform, while the ceremony itself cost $17 million.