Philly’s Jill Sobule tribute concert at World Cafe Live has been canceled
‘Jill would not cross a picket line,’ her management team said referring to the labor issues at the music venue. Other events at WCL have been canceled too.
Jillith Fair, the tribute concert to much-loved singer-songwriter Jill Sobule scheduled for the Lounge at World Cafe Live on Saturday, has been canceled.
Sobule, 66, died in a house fire in Woodbury, Minn., on May 1. She had been scheduled to play a WXPN-FM (88.5) Free at Noon concert at the Music Hall at World Cafe Live on Friday, followed by a show upstairs at the Lounge on Saturday.
After her death, Philly songwriters led by Sobule’s friend Jim Boggia, who was scheduled to act as host, organized a local Pride Month version of Jillith Fair, the tribute concerts that are happening around the country, and whose name is a twist on Lilith Fair, the Sarah McLachlan-led all-woman 1990s concert tours.
Sobule, whose 1995 hit “I Kissed A Girl” is considered to be the first openly gay-themed pop song to ever reach the Billboard Top 20, was a Lilith Fair regular.
» READ MORE: World Cafe Live protests continue as staffers are fired and threatened with legal action
Last week, World Cafe Live workers walked out of the West Philly music venue during a Suzanne Vega concert. A group of protesters — many of whom have been fired — have continued to demonstrate outside the University City venue on show nights, speaking out against what they have called call “unfair treatment” by the new WCL management team headed by Joseph Callahan.
Sobule’s management team posted a message on her Facebook page on Monday:
“We regret canceling this Saturday’s (6.21) Jillith Fair — Loving Jill Sobule show at The Lounge at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia but Jill and the artists playing tribute to her would not cross a picket line. We and the artistic community we are part of have to support workers and their rights, when and where possible."
The show, the post noted, will be rescheduled for another venue in September or October and Boggia will remain the host.
The acts that were scheduled to perform at Jillith Fair Philly include Boggia, Mary Kate O’Neil, Adam Brodsky, Lauren Hart, Cliff Hillis, Tara Murtha, Shea Quinn, David Weisberg, and others.
The Jillith Fair show is not the only WCL event to be moved or canceled. A screening of a new expanded version of Christopher Plant’s now 51-minute documentary Recollections: Val Shively and 50 Years of Collecting Records in Philadelphia, scheduled for Monday was moved to the Franklin Institute.
Although the Sobule show was canceled Monday, it was still listed on the World Cafe Live website on Tuesday morning. When the show does happen, all proceeds will benefit It Was a Good Life Foundation.