To be fair, I can see where he's coming from. This ilness was flu, it's not really related to her chemotherapy so it's not as if he's being especially insensitive. She's done plenty of shows recently without her cancer treatment having a negative effect on her performance. It would be pretty patronising to suggest that his criticism of her professionalism is invalid simply because she had chemotherapy, especially when that treatment ended well over a year ago.

That said, this cancellation is just one of those things that you have to accept simply because performers are human too. While it's not demanded by the terms of ticket purchase, for such a high-profile (and costly) performance, some gesture of goodwill wouldn't go amiss. People likely expected around 2 hours of a stage show, and got 30 minutes. If she'd cancelled outright there would have been immediate refunds or rescheduling announced, but going on stage despite being unfit to perform a full set she's effectively delivered the performance and leaves the promotors in a far better position to tell anyone asking for a refund or compensation to fuck off.

I'm not saying I'd be all over the BBC site raging against the Kylie machine if I was in his position, mainly because there are better things to get pissed off at (especially on the BBC site - the "Have Your Say" discussion about Cloned Animals is tear-inducing in both its hilarity and stupidity) but I think anyone who did get annoyed about it would be justifiably so.

I can imagine their frustration, yes, but any treatment for a serious condition doesn't mean that the person is anything like as healthy as they were before they got ill. No doubt the chemo that Kylie's received has saved her life, but at quite a cost to her general health, and I'm not that surprised that the stress of touring a fairly intensive show has resulted in her picking up a throat infection.

You could justifiably question the wisdom of Kylie going on that tour after what is really quite a short interval in medical treatment terms, but that's a different issue. She would obviously not want to disappoint her fans and realise the substantial investment in the tour, and so I would be surprised if she had gone on the tour in anything but good faith. The fact that she tried to start that show but couldn't carry on after 30 mins seems to indicate that she really didn't want to let the various parties involved down, rather than some perverse impulse to cause the attendees to be out of pocket.

So, yes, Mike Edge is still a twat. I have a mother who has renal failure, and although her treatment means she can go day-to-day looking well as anyone else, her recently suffering an amputation shows how fragile her health really is. It's not easily predictable when someone in Kylie's position might get ill, either, so critising the poor woman shows a staggering lack of sympathy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting she went on stage with any malicious intent to cheat people out of a refund, just that it was a poor error of judgment not to cancel, and one that's ultimately going to end up hurting the fans because of the scruples of the promoters. It was ultimately her call, and she's got to be responsible for the decision to walk on stage despite being unfit to perform. That makes her a valid target for people's grievances.

Look at it this way - if you turned up to a restaurant you'd booked over a year in advance only to be told that the chef had gone home ill halfway through the starter, and thanks for your custom but there's going to be no refund because you already ate your soup, well, wouldn't you be upset? I'm sympathetic to cancer sufferers/survivors, but it's certainly shouldn't be a get-out-of-jail free card for any and every subsequent mistake.

> She went on stage unfit to perform

Of course, no one has ever done a concert with the flu before have they? As Tanya pointed out the fact she tried to do the show clearly illustrates that she hoped to be able to do the whole thing!

I do see your reasoning. Likewise, I do understand why he or indeed anyone would be annoyed. It's this idea that because she had flu she shouldn't have stepped on-stage because OBVIOUSLY she wasn't fit to do the gig that (pardon the pun) is bugging me.

At some point a decision would have been made to either cancel or perform. Given the dreadful time she's been through, she decided once again to soldier on and made what turned out to be the wrong decision but it seems clearly done with the best of intentions. Personally that for me would have counted for something.

He's still a twat. The use of half hearted implies that he wasn't really trying or wasn't giving the best perform she could given the circumstances. He knows this for a fact of course.

Once again, I'm not questioning her intentions, but we're left with the facts - Okay, she tried, but ultimately she overestimated her ability to perform. I don't see anything especially twattish in being upset that the gig you put a lot of money and time into attending was less than half of the expected length because of a mistake by the artist. When Pete Doherty fails to turn up to a Babyshambles gig because he's instead decided to spend the evening eating heroins, the overwhelming emotion is definitely not concern for his health during this period of extreme illness, as the ensuing riots attest. That's from people who often WERE getting their money back.

I mean, I don't think anyone's in the wrong here. People make mistakes and life goes on, but to suggest Mike Edge should just smile and be grateful for the 30 minutes he got for his custom is perhaps overly charitable.

Oh totally he has a right to a) moan and b) be upset. It was the tone of his comment and his implications that I felt warranted the 'twat'.

Yes, I think Karl's hit the nail on the head, there. It's not that he didn't have a genuinely understandable grievance - it's the way he voiced it.

I mean, would it have been less of a disgrace to have walked off after one song, thus giving people an even shorter show? That seems to be what he's suggesting. He seems like about the only person who would criticise her for trying to carry on (after, as has been said, the possibly ill-advised decision to do the show in the first place) rather than moaning about her stopping.

The twat.

Incidentally, her show apparently contains (or contained?) a lengthy segment with Cybermen in...

*pinch me*

He's a twat for forking out 6 x £55. Concert/theatre tickets are a complete rip-off.

I wish kyile would fuck off - she had cancer and recovered (well done) what on earth does she deserve to named in the new years honours for? Plenty of people have to battle breast cancer it's a horrible thing but she is no different to any other woman that has to suffer the horrible effects. I wish she would stop been made in to a marte. She makes shitty pop songs that she doesn't even write

"she is no different to any other woman that has to suffer the horrible effects"

she's better looking, probably