Hedley plays concert in Barrie as fans look past sex assault allegations
The Canadian pop-rock band Hedley has now been dropped by its management team, booted from the Juno Awards and blacklisted by hundreds of radio stations over sexual misconduct allegations that surfaced last week on Twitter.
And yet, the show must (or at least does) go on.
The Vancouver-based group, once famous for being on MuchMusic a lot and singing songs with names like "Kiss You Inside Out," continues to tour this week despite a great deal of distancing from within the music industry itself.
Fans packed the Barrie Molson Centre in Barrie last night for a scheduled Hedley show, some of them carrying signs to show their support for the band (which has called the allegations against it "simply unsubstantiated").
Members of the band, like frontman Jacob Hoggard, took the time to pose for pictures with teen fans outside following the show in Barrie.
"Ended up meeting the band after standing out in the cold rain for about 45 minutes near their bus," wrote one concert attendee on Instagram. "With everything that has been going on with Hedley in the past week I thought they were going to cancel their show."
The band said in a statement on Monday that is will be performing the roughly dozen shows it has booked through March 23 across Canada because "the easy thing to do would be to cancel the tour and hide."
Fans using the hashtag #IStandWithHedley are applauding the move on Instagram and Twitter, but some are also getting quite vicious with those who've publicly decried the band and its alleged past behaviour.
I am now recieving some of my first threats for reaching out to survivors of rape and offering to cover tattoos signifying abuse. pic.twitter.com/j7VcxsSlbv
— Lizzie Renaud (@LZA) February 18, 2018
Toronto-based tattoo artist Lizzie Renaud, of Speakeasy Tattoo, offered last week to cover up any Hedley tattoos for free in light of the sexual misconduct allegations.
She's been replying to and retweeting nasty comments sent her way from Hedley fans on Twitter ever since.
Wonder if @Hedleyonline fans would be interested in organizing a #boycott of this losers store. #Hedley #hater #badtattoo #badperson https://t.co/XJ90gm4SAS
— Thetorontorant (@thetorontorant) February 19, 2018
"Hedley fans are very hurt, and very much crying for help," wrote Renaud on Twitter yesterday in response to the torrent of hate.
"Please, remember to talk to the people around you, and show them love. You have no idea who’s hurting this badly, and who is perhaps getting themselves in major trouble with online violence."
