By Keith Sharp
Understanding the storm of controversy sparked by accusations that Vancouver band Hedley have been accused of inappropriate behaviour by a number of their (mainly teen fan base), the band has made a number of creditable public relations moves to de-escalate the existing volatile situation.
First, the band has helped avoid a potentially embarrassing situation at the Sunday March 25th Juno Awards in Vancouver by withdrawing their nominations from three awards they were nominated for including Top Canadian Group, Top Canadian Pop Album for `Cageless’ and the Juno Fan Vote award.
And then they issued a `mea culpa’ agreeing “we plan to talk about how we have let some people down and what we intend to do something about it.”
Targeted by a twitter campaign, initiated by a fan who had been offended by her own negative and inappropriate interaction with band members Jacob Hoggard, David Rosin, Tommy Mac and Jay Benison, many more fans contacted her hashtag #outHedley2k18 registering similar complaints.
This led to CARAS dropping the band from a scheduled Juno Awards broadcast and was followed by the band’s booking agency Feldman & Associates and personal management Watchdog Mgmt of Vancouver both dropping business involvements with the band. Corus Radio Network then pulled all the band’s music off their 37 national radio network.
The band is continuing their current Cageless 23-date tour without opening act, Neon Dreams, which has been booked through March 23rd saying “it didn’t make sense to cancel the dates because the easy thing to do would be to run away and hide, but they have acknowledged complaints from their fans and have vowed “to start making positive changes starting right now”.