Morrissey on avoiding Brisbane and only playing in Australian venues where no meat will be served
BRITISH singer Morrissey has revealed why he won’t perform in Brisbane on his upcoming tour - and why he only plays in venues where no meat is served.
Music Tours
Don't miss out on the headlines from Music Tours. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Queensland tour is dead ... for Morrissey.
Hecklers have stopped the British singer from “feeling welcome” in Brisbane.
Morrissey has routed an Australian tour in October that visits only Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Newcastle and Wollongong.
In an exclusive interview Morrissey explained his unconventional tour path.
“I didn’t want to return to Brisbane because I’ve played there twice and on both nights I was heckled, which doesn’t bother me that much, but even if I reply with something snazzy, the heckler always wins because the night has been soured and we no longer feel welcome. That’s life.”
The former Smiths frontman is bypassing Sydney after playing four Sydney-only shows at last year’s Vivid Festival. He last played Brisbane in 2012.
“I suppose there are people who think of Australia only in terms of Sydney and Melbourne, but I’m not one of them.”
As with his Vivid Festival stint, all the venues on his Australian tour will only be able to serve meat-free food, both in backstage catering and food on sale to the public.
Morrissey, 57, said he will now only play venues who agree to this part of his contract.
“I wish more artists would adopt this,” he said. “But we go to China this year and it’s such a flesh-eaters paradise that we feel certain there will be skewered dog for sale somewhere. The halls in Taiwan and Iceland would not go flesh-free, so we refused to book the dates. It’s a matter of humanitarian progress.”
Morrissey has promoted vegetarianism and protested against animal cruelty since the Smiths’ 1985 album Meat is Murder. The song remains in his live shows, performed with a visual backdrop of graphic footage secretly filmed inside abattoirs.
“There are laws of protection for dogs, so why not for cows? If you can be prosecuted for cruelty to a dog, then why not a cow? Doesn’t everything have the right to lead a natural life? Animals have nothing at all but the enjoyment of their lives ... so why take that away from them? It’s the flesh-eaters that are the true cranks, and the farmers who look upon sheep and cows as their property. If you have a cat you don’t refer to it as property. It is morally wrong to make money from the death of any living being.”
Morrissey will play Festival Hall in Melbourne on October 22 (tickets $99.15), Thebarton Theatre in Adelaide on October 26 ($100.15), Canberra’s Royal Theatre on October 28 ($99.45), WIN Entertainment Centre Wollongong on October 29 ($97.60) and Civic Theatre Newcastle on October 31 ($100.65).
A presale for Frontier Touring members starts August 3 at 2pm and ends on August 4 at 4pm. General public tickets go on sale this Friday at 10am.
Originally published as Morrissey on avoiding Brisbane and only playing in Australian venues where no meat will be served
Chaos as Ticketek hit with ‘ongoing issues’
Customers and ticketholders have been left fuming at an extended outage on Australian ticketing agency Ticketek’s website.
‘F**king painful’: Glass Animals frontman’s shock injury revelation
Dave Bayley spoke about the moment he sustained a horrific injury at a past concert, while Coldplay’s Chris Martin and pop star Olivia Rodrigo revealed their near-misses.