View full sizeKieth Urban's website says the kickoff of his summer concert tour will take place in Biloxi, not Mobile as originally planned. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)After announcing last month that his 2011 summer tour would start in Mobile, country music star Keith Urban now apparently will instead deliver the June 16 performance at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi.
The initial announcement was made Nov. 22 on Urban's website, www.keithurban.net. The listing on the site was changed late last week, with no reason given.
On Monday, Civic Center officials were at a loss to explain the shift. “We can’t say anything because we don’t know anything” about the decision, said Mary Lee McCrory, the venue’s marketing manager.
McCrory said that the show was being promoted by Birmingham-based Red Mountain Entertainment and that the decision to relocate the show had presumably been made by that company. She described Civic Center officials as “very frustrated.”
Red Mountain did not respond to several calls Monday.
At the time of Urban’s Nov. 22 tour announcement, McCrory said that the Civic Center had been asked to reserve several days in June but that no actual contract had been signed, and details had yet to be resolved.
The Civic Center management typically does not announce shows until a contract has been signed, but in this case, Urban’s publicists broke the news.
At the time, it was not clear how many days of rehearsals were planned before the June 16 show and whether other Civic Center bookings would conflict with possible rehearsal plans.
Urban's site did not list prices or an on-sale date for the Biloxi appearance. Music industry news source www.billboard.com previously reported that tickets for the tour would begin to go on sale in early to mid-February.