Second ‘bootleg’ concert leaves crowd ‘cringing and laughing’

Another round of Wellington concertgoers have been left feeling shortchanged after a $130 event billed as an orchestral rendition of the Lord of the Rings soundtracks fell flat.

Concertgoers were left furious on Sunday after forking out $150 for tickets to an orchestral performance of Hans Zimmer’s Hollywood soundtracks, which attendees described as “bad cruise ship karaoke”.

A second concert has garnered similar reviews – and complaints.

Fabrice Laroche attended The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit – The Concert at The Opera House in Wellington on Monday night.

“The whole performance was a scam, [there was] no original film score, but instead some poorly played bootleg medleys or soundalikes,” Laroche said.

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The Germany-based promoters, Star Entertainment Gmbh, advertised the orchestra as offering “almost 100 performers” but only about 25 performers made it on to stage at The Opera House, Laroche said.

AI generated film scenes displaying Lord of the Rings lookalike landscapes played throughout the performance, which only added to the cringe, he said.

Laetitia Leroy and her partner paid $130 each for the concert and said it was a “total disappointment”.

Another attendee, Vanessa, said the audience sat through songs that held no relation to the movie franchise, followed by repeated bagpipe performances in a futile attempt to cheer up the crowd.

”By the end we were basically just cringing and laughing at it,” she said.

Lucy Gray took her fiancé, a diehard LOTR fan, to the concert and said many were left feeling shortchanged.

“The people beside us left after 15 minutes. Many more left before half time. In the venue space at intermission people were complaining about how they used their savings to pay for this experience,” Gray said.

Star Entertainment Gmbh’s concerts have resulted in legal action from The Lord of the Rings’ soundtrack composer Howard Shore, who released a statement on his website condemning the concerts as substandard.

Star Entertainment Gmbh has been approached for comment.

Adding insult to injury, the concert allegedly played a spliced-together video sequence of the late Lord of the Rings’ actor Christopher Lee, which made it appear as if he was introducing pieces of music.

Lee, who played the character of Saruman in the hugely successful film franchise, died in 2015.

Holly Blackler was at the concert and said the inclusion of the video segments was “uncomfortable” and felt as though the organisers were capitalising on the authenticity of the late actor.

New Zealand actor Bruce Hopkins, who played the role of Gamling in the Lord of the Rings, hosted the concert.

Gavin Downie, a production manager with more than 30 years of experience, said Star Entertainment Gmbh had desperately attempted to recruit him for the Auckland date of the Lord of the Rings on May 13.

After applying for the job to see what it was about, he said he quickly encountered countless red flags when reading online reviews from people who had worked at the company. He quickly withdrew his application.

What followed was continued attempts to coerce Downie into piecing together an entire production just over a week before a show at the Auckland Town Hall. This included asking him to organise the hire of symphony instruments, lighting, trucking and rehearsal space.

“It’s just a cash grab to basically sell some tickets to people who will be a fan of something, this week it’s Lord of the Rings, last week it’s The Hits of the 80s and next week it’ll be something else,” Downie said.

On Monday, Consumer NZ communications and campaigns manager Jessica Walker said Star Entertainment Gmbh’s disastrous Hans Zimmer concert on Sunday night appeared to be in breach of consumer protection laws and ticket holders were likely entitled to a refund.

Sunday’s concert and the Lord of the Rings fiasco has led to widespread calls from attendees for refunds, but that has proved to be difficult for many.

Boris Kirov applied for a refund for his ticket to the Sunday concert but Ticketmaster replied to his request:

“Ticketmaster sells tickets on the strict condition that all sales are final, there are no refunds, exchanges or cancellations except when required by law.”

Ticketmaster has been approached for comment.

A spokesperson for Wellington NZ, operators of the Opera House venue, said they were trying to track down the concerts’ promoters.

“We are sorry to hear of the disappointment for some customers that attended the concerts, that the performances did not meet with their expectations.

“It is the responsibility of the promoter to address any feedback with regards to their event including the quality of the production.

“We have contacted Star Entertainment and are awaiting a response from them,” the spokesperson said.