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CONCERT UPDATES
No shows
BY CARLY CARIOLI
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We’d been psyching ourselves up for months about a late-June Wednesday-night clash of the titans: we were to be visited on June 23 by a pair of America’s musical sweethearts — Britney Spears (at the Tweeter Center, in Mansfield) and Courtney Love (at Avalon, in Boston). If it sounded too good to be true, well, it was: as if on cue, their respective tours began falling apart last week, and neither will be touring anywhere for the foreseeable future. Love was to have begun her jaunt behind her debut solo album, America’s Sweetheart (Virgin), on Friday, June 18, in New Haven. But Love’s schedule has long been in doubt. In October, she was arrested for being under the influence of a controlled substance, and later overdosed on OxyContin; she pled guilty to the charge in May in hopes of being sentenced to rehab instead of jail. In March, she racked up an assault charge for allegedly hitting a fan over the head with a mike stand during a New York concert. And last week, another warrant was issued for her arrest stemming from an April incident in which she allegedly assaulted a woman with a bottle and a flashlight at the Los Angeles home of her former manager and boyfriend. Love turned herself in last Friday and was released on bail; by Monday, it came as no surprise when ClearChannel Boston announced her tour had been canceled. We had to yank Courtney off the cover of our 8 Days a Week section just before going to press on Monday; late Tuesday afternoon, after the section shipped, Britney Spears officially canceled her Onyx Hotel tour, which was to have kicked off on June 22 at Hartford’s Meadows Music Theater. There had been rampant speculation that Spears would be unable to tour after suffering a knee injury on June 8 while shooting a video for her next single, the R. Kelly–penned "Outrageous," in New York City. She reportedly underwent arthroscopic knee surgery that night. But as late as Monday, ClearChannel hadn’t heard anything from the singer’s camp; the national concert megaproducer was still in the dark when Spears’s label, Jive, issued an announcement on Tuesday canceling the tour. As such, it was unclear whether the dates would be rescheduled; the Jive release said Britney would be out of commission for somewhere between three and four months. In the meantime, refunds are available at point of purchase.
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