The Pop Corporation

Frank Ocean is, occasionally, brilliant. Sometimes, you’ll hear glimpses of something approaching genius – ‘Pink & White’ and ‘Thinking Bout You’ are impossibly wonderful – but he can be frustrating. That’s fine. We allow people to be the artists they want to be, right? Provided of course, we’re allowed to be the fans we want to be as well.

If you’re an Ocean stan, then the crumbs of work must be both beguiling and mildly annoying, when all you want to do is throw yourself into his world.

With that, he had a choice slot and a lot of people were very, very excited. Rightly so – if Ocean is capable of brilliance, then there’s every chance he’s going to be transcendent. However, it’s a roll of the dice and this time, a lot of people were left wanting, disappointed with what unfurled, and with that, Ocean’s second performance that was scheduled has now been cancelled.

Let’s look into it.

As these were his first performances in 6 years, the hype was real. Seems like there were big ol’ plans too. There was meant to be an ice rink and huge amounts of performers, skating around the singer, and in our heads, it sounds like quite the spectacle. Graceful, elegant, artistic – it would have suited Ocean’s music.

However, there was an injury suffered by Ocean and he was advised to not play. He ploughed on through, possibly so he didn’t get sued by organisers, but more likely, to give the fans something. Ocean said: “It was chaotic. There is some beauty in chaos. It isn’t what I intended to show but I enjoy being out there and I’ll see you soon.”

A vague kiss off. However, the lack of a spectacle isn’t what left fans wanting more. The fact that he took to the stage over an hour late is galling, and then to be met by a performance that was in part, mimed – well that’s just taking the piss. Thanks to the late start, the show finished without ceremony, thanks to the curfew. Ocean returned to the stage and basically said ‘that’s it, soz’.

So what’s this about a non-existent ice-rink? Apparently, there was supposed to be a custom rink with 100 skaters on it, but reports note that this stage was hastily dismantled hours before the show, and the skaters themselves were left with a nasty taste in their mouth too.

Former hockey players Dan and Chris Powers said they had been rehearsing hard for the show in LA, with over a hundred others; many cut: “Those figure skaters got cut not because there was an ice issue, not because there was something wrong,” Dan Powers said on the brothers’ podcast, Empty Netters. “There was no malfunction. [Ocean] just straight-up was like, ‘Fuck this. I’m not doing this any more.’ And [to] these 120 people [he] had bused out here, he was just like, ‘You guys aren’t doing shit now.’ So it was just like a wild flip.”

“They have a disgruntled look on their face, and they casually mention to us that they just got a phone call and they’ve been cut from the show. So we’re sitting there, like, what the fuck is happening right now?

“These Olympians just got cut from this Coachella performance with Frank Ocean, and they think that we’re gonna go on? You’re saying goodbye to these skaters, but a bunch of dipshit former hockey players are gonna go up on that stage and buzz around? So we’re already getting bad vibes here.”

They added that organisers were “trying to undercover rip out this ice rink stage because they don’t want anyone to know it was there”.

Not great. We’re sure that this is a blunt version of what went down, and you’d hope that Ocean was a little kinder in letting everyone down and will return to this show eventually, so no-one loses out – however, this whole thing feels quite predictable. Nothing runs smoothly with Frank, and that’s fine of a fashion – we just hope no-one’s money got fucked with, and no fans feel short-changed.