A BRIGHTON band was tricked into supporting a singer on tour who turned out to have an “entirely fake fan base”.

Tales of Autumn, a hard rock group from Brighton, was promised “exposure and opportunities” when asked to support “popular” Los Angeles solo artist, Threatin, in Camden, who appeared to have more than 40,000 fans.

But it turns out the groupies were paid-for social media followers, most of whom were from Brazil.

The heavy metal rockstar is now infamous for creating a bogus booking agent, record label and hundreds of non-existent ticket sales.

The lies, it is claimed, allowed Threatin to secure a series of UK headline shows with supporting acts including the gig with Tales of Autumn at Camden Underworld, London, where “barely anyone turned up”.

Stefanos Karantonis, 25, singer and guitarist for Tales of Autumn said: “Nothing seemed strange at the gig until the moment he got up to play and no body was there.

“We are up-and-coming so understand why only family and friends were in the crowd, but when he came on and there was just a couple of us and his “manager” filming him it seemed a bit odd for a musician with a huge following.

“The venue closed its doors half an hour before he was due to finish because our friends went home and there was literally nobody watching.

“It’s a bit of a shame because I actually thought he was quite good, but here we can clearly see a bit of narcissism.”

Tom Kiggins, guitarist, said: “We had paid for the train to commute to the gig so promises of exposure and opportunity to network were slashed instantly and we were all left pretty annoyed and out of pocket.”

The video promoting the Los Angeles band’s Breaking The World tour features close-up shots of Threatin, cut with footage from much bigger acts performing stadium sets in front of adoring fans.

The solo-artist promised 291 advanced ticket sales in Camden, according to Tales of Autumn but no-one showed up.

Jordan Dann, 22, drummer said: “When the venue started packing up, the musicians that Threatin had paid to accompany his performance were really confused.

“He clearly hadn’t told anyone about this plan of his.

“We had no idea what was really going on until we saw in the news that the same had happened to other venues in the country.”

In Bristol, Threatin allegedly promised venue manager Iwan Best that 180 tickets had been sold, more than two-thirds of the venue’s capacity, but instead it was claimed the audience consisted solely of the support bands and staff.

He said: “It’s a really extreme version of ‘fake it til you make it”.

The Exchange venue now plans to host an event to help raise money for “everyone Threatin ripped off”.

Jered Threatin, whose real name is not known, has not responded to requests for comment and has changed all his social media accounts to private.

Threatin cancelled his last UK performance in Belfast.