What a No-Show Concert Can Teach a Brand About Crisis Management 101

August 19, 1980. Alice Cooper is a no-show at his 8 p.m. concert at the CNE Grandstand in Toronto. Carnage.

Swarming through the Princes’ Gates of Exhibition Place, 14,000 fans huddled in the shadows of the Grandstand’s facade. From mid-August through Labor Day each year, the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) heralds and celebrates the end of summer for Torontians with live performances, food vendors, air shows and more.

In 1980, it was set to be punctuated by one of their most anticipated acts, the so-called “Godfather of Shock Rock,” Alice Cooper, touring his new album, Flush the Fashion, for whom the crowd waited not-so-patiently. The opening act, Toronto-area progressive rockers Zon, did little to whet the appetite for the heavy metal fans. Or perhaps, they did too good of a job, their discordant musical leanings leaving the metalheads in need of a sonic palette cleanser.

An hour passed. Then another. Storm clouds gathered on the humid night. Anticipation turned into agitation. The crowd was on edge. Rumors passed through the sweaty, smoky crowd. Lost luggage, delayed flights, illness, drinking benders and wilder flights of fancy. Finally, Cooper’s lead guitarist, Dick Wagner, announced Cooper would not be attending the show and, to put it frankly, all hell broke loose.

Alice Cooper’s infamous no-show concert in 1980 and the management, or lack thereof, can teach brands a great deal. Herein lies a road map of where not to go and, surprisingly, a few roads running in the right direction. But mostly the former.

“No! I Won’t Cry Out for Justice. Admit That I Was Wrong”

When Wagner broke the news, the simmering tension exploded. Chairs flew, fights broke out and the muddied festival ground turned into a warzone. The handful of police officers tried to quell the carnage to no avail. Some 200 police officers rushed to a scene that would see thousands of dollars in damage and 18 people hospitalized — five police officers included, before sunrise.

By the time effort was made to contain the situation, the damage had already begun. It was reactive rather than proactive, a classic failing in crisis management.

Given the innumerable channels for pitfalls and obstacles facing brands in 2024, it may seem reductive to suggest proactive crisis management. After all, many crises are largely defined by their unpredictability. With public image hits, product recalls, supply chain disruptions, internal conflicts, and cybersecurity breaches, business owners face vulnerabilities on every front.

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However overwhelming it is, that’s a reality business owners must be cognizant of. Implementing contingency plans and briefing your team on them helps get on top of a crisis before it spirals into massive damage and, hopefully, hospitalizations.

“I’m Nuclear-Infected”

So, where in the world was Alice Cooper, really? What exactly happened remains something of a mystery among music lore aficionados. Although Cooper would reportedly offer an explanation later, confirming he was ill, it’s hard to kill music myth. What explanations were offered to the festival goers from the stage some two hours after Cooper’s scheduled start times were rendered largely irrelevant by hearsay. The Canadian tuxedo-clad crowd had by and large heard any number of stories by the time the news was told to them. When the explanation comes from but one voice in a cacophony of them, being an authority on the subject tends to matter little.

Alice Cooper and company lost control of the narrative. Regardless of the extent of crisis business owners or brands are navigating, losing control of the narrative can be a fatal misstep. Successfully navigating a crisis hinges on open, clear, and prompt communication. This ranges from members of the leadership group to staff, stakeholders, consumers, and the general public. Engaging in transparent practices and taking accountability when issues arise well positions brands to change the conversation around them. Even those nuclear-infected can manage, so long as they disclose their condition to their partners.

“I Wanna Be in the Headlines”

Alice Cooper’s career, steeped in controversy and shock rock, was well positioned to withstand any potential fallout from the CNE no-show. That night’s show was part of the tour for Flush the Fashion, an album featuring songs such as “Headlines,” with prescient lyrics about the pursuit of the headlines and the transient nature of remaining in their circulation. This rings even more true in the 24-hour news cycle of the digital age.

For a rockstar, a concert no-show and an ensuing riot may not register as a brand crisis. Particularly among heavy metal rockers, such events may simply contribute to the mythos. The no-show landed Cooper in the headlines. Leveraging brand identity to navigate crises is a bit more nuanced outside of the world of rock. However, maintaining integrity, continuity and a brand’s core values can often transform potential disasters into opportunities for reinforcement of existing client trust and even growth. A crisis places brands in the headlines, which is where they want to be, and it’s up to the actions of leadership to determine if the headlines will sing their praises or herald their demise.

“We’re All Clones”

“Clones (We’re All),” a single off of Flush the Fashion, as the name implies, suggests an interchangeable uniformity of the human condition. The irony is that Cooper’s success navigating crises such as his CNE no-show stems from the fact he is anything but uniform, anything but a clone.

When the “Godfather of Shock Rock” no-shows, it isn’t a catastrophe for his brand. When your unique value proposition involves on-stage guillotines, buckets of fake blood, electric chairs, and a series of equally eclectic on-stage antics, deviations from expectations are, in themselves, expected.

This isn’t to suggest your next brand crisis can be solved by the CEO shredding a solo in the boardroom, although it couldn’t hurt to try. Instead, it speaks to carving out a unique value proposition that is your quintessential calling card. A strong identity and value proposition can help bolster every respect of crisis management from contingency plans to communication and coming out on top of the headlines.