Yesterday, prominent metal booking agent John Finberg of First Row Talent was accused by multiple women of various degrees of sexual harassment. Today, two of the artists that he was affiliated with have officially parted ways with him, Nightwish and Battle Beast. Update: Shortly after publishing this story, we were made aware of more artists dropping Fiberg including Amorphis, Delain, and Swallow the Sun. Their statements below.
Finberg's accusers all have relatively similar stories. He would act aggressive with them, feed them alcohol at shows, make wild promises about how their bands could open for Nightwish, and when the women rejected him, he would offer non-stop abuse via text messaging, and one woman even claimed he tried to call her job and tell them that they are working with a terrible person. Beyond the abuse, MetalSucks' expose also highlighted various shady business practices that his booking agency employs that end up ripping off artists he works with, and overcharging Canadian fans for tickets purchased through his VIP site, EntertheVault.com.
Well, he has two less artists on his roster as of now, including his biggest act, Nightwish. The Finnish symphonic metal band made a quick, short announcement that they parted ways with Finberg writing on social media:
"Nightwish have ceased to employ Mr Finberg and have severed all contact with him and his company."
NIGHTWISH & TILL DAWN THEY COUNT LTD
Another Finnish act, Battle Beasts also announced they are no longer doing business with Finberg writing:
First Row Talent is no longer booking Battle Beast in North America or anywhere in the world.
Abuse, racism and sexism have no place in music business nor anywhere else for that matter.
Love,
BATTLE BEAST
Amorphis writes:
“Amorphis does not accept any form of bullying, harassment or racism. Due to current allegations against First Row Talent Agency and John Finberg, effective immediately – John Finberg does not represent Amorphis in the United States, Canada or any other territory.”
Delain writes:
“Delain ceased to employ John Finberg and his company during their last USA tour in 2019. First Row talent and John Finberg are no longer booking Delain in North America, Canada or any other territory. Delain does not accept any form of harassment, bullying, sexism or racism.”
Swallow the Sun writes:
“From this day on First Row Talent Agency does not represent Swallow the Sun in North America. We will inform you later about our upcoming tour.”
Perhaps most shocking is reading the comments on these posts, especially the Nightwish one, have multiple women coming forward publicly saying they experienced the same problems with Finberg.
We will keep you posted on any further developments.
