If all had gone according to plan, Anthrax would be home by now, basking in the glory of their first major European tour since 2019. But instead the group were forced to cancel 20 dates on their 40th anniversary Euros outing and instead play just 8 gigs in the UK before packing everything up.
“When I saw the numbers, they were literally three times what they were originally,” said bassist Frank Bello Total Rock‘s Neil Jones on the Scotch Shows. “We would come home with such a loss. You don’t mind a little loss just to play in front of the fans, but such a loss – we would have been really bad off for a while. So it made no sense.”
When Jones asked if it was a “Brexit thing” that forced the cancellations, Bello said: “It’s a human thing at this point, my God. I mean, it’s a budget thing.” Bello explained that the group was excited to play for their “large” fanbase overseas, but once they had the budget settled before the shows were sold, the global pandemic upended things upside down. “After COVID, when everything went crazy, it was financially and financially unfeasible,” he said.
“When [we] When we looked at it, we said, ‘Okay. Better times are ahead.’ And this is how you can see it now. Look, heating bills and everyone has to put food on the table. I understand now. So it’s a really tough time for everyone.”
Bello said he can’t wait to return to Europe “next time,” but no new dates have been announced at this time for the run, which was set to run from October 11 to November. 5. Anthrax played from Sept. 27 to Oct. 8, after announcing on Aug. 31 that “unfortunately, due to ongoing logistical issues and costs for 2022 that are beyond our control, we have no choice but to to cancel the European leg of our upcoming 2022 tour”.
Anthrax is a month full of acts that are open about the financial and logistical woes of touring right now. Recently, Lorde said things are out there “at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty,” while earlier this year a number of smaller and mid-sized acts narrated billboard that “runaway” gas prices were seriously eroding profit margins.
Watch Bello’s interview below.
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