PRIMORDIAL vocalist Alan "Nemtheanga" Averill has checked in with the following update:

"Last week I/we had to cancel Dong Open Air in Germany.

I was going to leave making a statement regarding this but due to the ridiculous amount of negativity and back-biting I've been not only reading on forums, guestbooks and our MySpace page, let me make a few things clear.

We cancelled Dong Open Air in 2007 because we were recording an album. We also cancelled Metal Healing in Greece as well during the same time period. Anyone who knows anything about Primordial knows we don't churn out an album every year and the window of time we booked in Foel Studios last summer was the only opportunity we had to record To The Nameless Dead. It's unfortunate we had to cancel both festivals but obviously recording an album takes priority.

I agreed to do the show in the summer of '08 as recompense for the '07 cancellation but try as we might we simply do not have a band available to fulfill this committment.

So listen up all you anonymous keyboard hacks and monitor snipers, you think it's about money? You think we can play every show we are offered? We never made a living from Primordial. We have incredible difficulties even getting together to rehearse let alone play shows. What we have confirmed is about 50% of what we get offered. We are all aged between 30 and 36 years old and with that comes commitments, work, families, mortgages, bills, mouths to feed and mundanities of life we cannot avoid.

I shouldn't have to defend our actions; it is always disappointing to have to cancel shows and we apologise for that, but that's life. If I was to post or blog every shitty fucked up, underhanded negative thing that's happened to this band since 1991 then you would be sick of reading them after one week.

We don't treat matters like this lightly. I tried for months to find a solution but we simply don't have enough band members. We have Gerry from MAEL MORDHA helping us when we can and without whom we would play even less shows but having anymore session members would feel even less like the 'real' Primordial.

The pressures on bands now by promoters, booking agents, magazines and the competition now in the industry in general is huge. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and we are getting offers not only for 2009 but 2010. I get pressured to sign a contract now for shows in 12-15 months, who knows what can happen then? Someone has to start a new job one week before and all of a sudden can't play, there are a myriad of reasons why and it's never simple so we ask for your understanding not your contempt. Of course it's more positive then being offered nothing but everyone is trying to stay ahead of the game, CD sales are down and everyone in every backwater of Europe now has a festival of their own. We are not a professional band — we never were and never will be. If you place professional demands on a band that is not pro, then sometimes the train will derail. It's unfortunate, but we are human beings, not machines, and sometimes other things in life make standing on that stage impossible. If we could make a living from this and not have to work, then fair enough, but as I said before, we don't.

I'd like to thank the people at Dong for their patience in dealing with us lastly. However, until you know the details behind decisions like this, then take some time to think of the human element before you step up to your keyboards like the brave new world warriors you are and take a shot at us. Shit happens, take it like men."