Apologies to all who were excited to see New Jersey hardcore quintet Gel open for Spiritbox on their upcoming tour. On March 19, Gel took to Instagram to share that they are officially disbanding due to their former guitar player Anthony Webster’s “heinous acts.” Per social media, some of these acts included stealing tens of thousands of dollars, posting nude images of band members on Reddit, and driving erratically.
Read more: The Linda Lindas Launch “Don’t Think” Video Ahead Of Spring Tour
Many hardcore bands and fans shared reactions to the news. Drug Church posted, “VIVA GEL.” Additionally, From Indian Lakes commented, “This fucking sucks.” The Instagram post’s comments were also full of support for those band members impacted by Webster’s actions.
GEL STATEMENT:
Hey everyone, friends and fans — Gel is no longer a band, and therefore will not be playing any of our currently scheduled upcoming shows. The reason is pretty simple at its core; the former guitar player, Anthony Webster, has committed such heinous acts in trying to forward himself in his musical career that he’s done irreparable damage to the band in the process, and it’s affected us as human beings more than we can even attempt to explain, to the point of being completely unable to do the band anymore. Here are some examples of what he’s done:
He’s stolen tens of thousands of dollars from us, and the best part is that he left it all on record for us to eventually find. He spent it on his own rent, personal food orders, and really whatever else he wanted to, because for a long period of time, no one had access to the bank account (or any accounts for that matter) but him, despite numerous attempts to gain access, because you know, we’re a band, and we should have all had access to those things. Oh yeah, he also spent it on a truly unbelievable number of OnlyFans purchases and mysterious CashApp transactions, likely in the same lane.
Read more: YUNGBLUD Drops 9-Minute “Hello Heaven, Hello” Music Video
He posted nude images of band members on Reddit for the world to see. Yup, just casually, for who knows what purpose. Let that one really sink in. He did that all while still in a band with us too, by the way. Luckily, he’s truly terrible at covering up his tracks, so we have the receipts to prove that one too.
He put us in physically dangerous situations numerous times. From talking shit on the band Twitter and getting our van window smashed in with a baseball bat, to regularly driving erratically like a psychopath because he was “upset” for again, who knows what reason (oh yeah….he wouldn’t let anyone else drive either by the way, so we just had to deal with it), and throwing things at us because he’s a little fucking baby and can’t handle himself like an adult, it was always the same with him. Absolute misery and inconsideration for anyone and everyone around him (well, except for the people who he wanted to impress and would feign being a nice guy to…LOL).
Read more: Superheaven “Stare At The Void” In Their New Music Video
Now, I’m sure a lot of people are thinking, well why didn’t you just stop dealing with it? Why didn’t you just leave? If you’ve ever been in abusive relationship, emotionally and/or physically, you’ll probably understand this better. It’s like that, but with your life’s work and passion at the forefront as well. It’s not so easy to just give something up that you care so much about, especially with pressures from outside organizations, people, etc that are all counting on you in some way. We wish that this could have all been easier, and we wish that it didn’t have to end this way — we’re fighters though, and we saw it through to the very end, until it simply couldn’t go on anymore. And we’re proud of that.
On that note, we’d like to send our most sincere and deepest apologies to anyone who this is affecting on a personal level and beyond. We know so many people were counting on us, including Spiritbox, Volbeat, our good friends in Anxious — we are so sorry that we have to end it this way and we truly hope for the best for all of you. Thank you so much to the friends we’ve made over the years, and thank you so much to our fans for always being there for us and showing us how much you care. Take care of each other, and love your friends.
Love, Gel
