I was browsing Richard Jacques's web site earlier because I absolutely love the Headhunter soundtrack and I saw this bit of news from June 2005*: "HEADHUNTER will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on July 6th, 2005."

I have a vague memory of Video Games Live being cancelled, or am I wrong?

If I am wrong, was Headhunter's theme actually played, and does anyone have a recording of it?

http://www.richardjacques.co.uk/news.html

* I actually can't tell if it's June 9, or September 6... I think the former. Silly Brits.

It wasn't cancelled permanently.  After the Hollywood Bowl show, they scheduled a few dozen shows across the whole country in a really short time, but ticket sales were so low that they had to cancel most of them.  So they went back and created a new tour plan which was slower, not as ambitious, and more likely to build word-of-mouth and high ticket sales.  The tour dates page shows the new schedule.

Anyway, I was at the Hollywood Bowl show, and yes, "Jack's Theme" from Headhunter was played, and it was one of my favorite parts of the whole show (and I wasn't the only one--I distinctly remember going into the bathroom at intermission and overhearing someone else say the same thing.  Not bad for a game that no one really played.)  It was played by the orchestra, plus a guy named Irwin on what looked like a drumset of synth pads instead of real drums.  The video screen cut between shots of the orchestra and shots of him playing the electric percussion, so it sounded really close to the album version.

Plus, I got Jacques to sign my VGL poster and Headhunter CD, and paid him my compliments as to how much I loved the Headhunter soundtrack.

Ahh, yes. It's coming back to me now. Of course none of the upcoming venues are in the south. I guess the closest is Chicago, which is 10-11 hours away, which is a bad day anyway.

That's awesome about you getting Jacques's autograph! Do you know if there was a cd release of this performance?

Their split with Clear Channel Communications is what caused the cancellation of their original tour.   (Tommy:"We have NO control over what bigger corporations decide..")

So they had to find smaller alternative venues through the William-Morris agency for their current tour instead, since they didn't have access to the Clear Channel owned venues anymore.

December, 2005
"1.  Mystical Stone Entertainment, LLC and Clear  Channel Entertainment have decided to dissolve their joint venture, VGL  Properties, LLC and revert all ownership back to Mystical Stone Entertainment,  LLC. Co-creators Jack Wall & Tommy Tallarico are very grateful to Clear  Channel for the opportunity to make their 4 year dream come true.  MSE  with the help of top booking and marketing agents at William-Morris are  currently putting together a schedule for 2006 which will include various  dates around North America."

There was no CD release of the show, though they hope to do such a release in the future.  Rights issues, as always, are a big obstacle.