Latest news with #TheQueenIsDead
Hindustan Times
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Why did Morrissey cancel Stockholm show? Fans left fuming after The Smiths alum's last-minute decision
British music icon Morrissey has pulled out of his scheduled concert in Stockholm at the last minute, citing exhaustion and a lack of industry support as the reasons behind the abrupt cancellation. The 66-year-old artist, known for fronting The Smiths before launching a solo career, was slated to perform at Hovet Arena on Monday, June 23. Morrissey canceled his Stockholm show last minute, leaving fans infuriated(Getty Images) Just hours before fans were set to gather, a sudden announcement confirmed that the show would not go ahead. According to a report by ARY News, in a statement shared on his official website, the singer addressed the physical and emotional strain he and his team are facing: 'We are travel-weary beyond belief,' he admitted. 'We've visited six countries in one week, and there is no support from any record label to help us continue.' Fans were formally notified of the cancellation with a message stating: 'Due to exhaustion among the band and crew, the Morrissey headline engagement at Hovet has been cancelled. Refunds will be available at the point of purchase.' The cancellation adds to a growing list of last-minute show withdrawals that have troubled Morrissey's recent tours. Although his fan base remains loyal and ticket demand is high, these abrupt changes have led to rising frustration and criticism. 'Don't book the tour then,' one infuriated fan wrote on X. 'He doesn't even care to give a good excuse anymore. And the silly me bought tickets for Montreal concert in September,' another added. Despite the disruption, Morrissey affirmed that the European tour is not over: 'The wagon rolls on to Berlin, 27 June,' he confirmed. 'With the grace of God we will all gather.' ALSO READ: Morrissey puts autobiography on hold 3 days before release About Morrissey Morrissey first became famous as the lead singer of the band The Smiths in the 1980s. The band released several popular albums like The Queen Is Dead and became known for their emotional lyrics and unique sound. After The Smiths broke up, Morrissey started a solo career, releasing albums such as Viva Hate, You Are the Quarry and World Peace Is None of Your Business. He is known for his strong opinions, poetic lyrics and loyal fanbase. Although often controversial, Morrissey remains one of the most influential figures in British alternative music. FAQs: 1. Why did Morrissey cancel his Stockholm concert? Morrissey cancelled his concert in Stockholm due to exhaustion and a lack of support from the music industry, as mentioned on his official website. 2. What did Morrissey say about the music industry? Morrissey criticised the music industry for offering no support to his tour, saying, 'There is no support from any record label to help us continue.' 3. Will Morrissey's tour continue after the Stockholm cancellation? Yes, despite the cancellation in Stockholm, Morrissey confirmed the European tour will continue, with the next stop in Berlin on June 27. 4. What is Morrissey best known for in music? Morrissey is best known as the lead singer of The Smiths in the 1980s and for his solo career with albums like Viva Hate and You Are the Quarry.
The Herald Scotland
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Why must I whisper so quietly about my love for Morrissey?
Yet, in a rush to "cancel" Morrissey, we risk discarding one of the most brilliant and idiosyncratic lyricists and vocalists of modern music – an artist whose contribution will arrive in history as more important than any polarising or contrarian statement he is so eager to express. Read more: Morrissey is not a politician or someone with any institutional power, so to hold him or any artist to the same standard is a strange allocation of moral righteousness. He is certainly saying the opposite of what I believe, some of which I find rather vile, but then I also realise that the personal opinion of an artist matters little in the grand scheme. That's not what he's here for, ultimately, and not what should be judged at the end of it all. The ability to judge art on its own terms further eludes us, and many are happy now to rewrite the narrative of Morrissey and his contributions. Detractors who cannot help but give The Smiths their due credit have no issue reducing the critical role he played in the group, as if doing so assuages the guilt of their enjoyment from any controversy of his they might not like. Johnny Marr, Morrissey, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke of The Smiths (Image: Getty Images) 'I listen to The Smiths for Johnny Marr's guitar' is a sentence often banded about to distance the band and their significance from their main figurehead. With all due respect to the intricate, melodic guitar lines of Marr, the personality, substance and concept of the group was fully the brainchild of Morrissey. The emotional tilt? Morrissey. The artistic direction of faded soap opera actors, Warhol freaks and classic film stars that adorned the group's iconic covers and aesthetics? Morrissey, through and through. The mindset that informed the well-revered artistic impulses of The Smiths remains in his recent work, yet this turn towards right-wing controversy has tainted and perhaps blinded the perception of it. 'Spent the Day in Bed', a single from 2017, features the chorus refrain of 'Stop watching the news because the news contrives to frighten you, to make you feel small and alone', a sentence that would not be surprising loudly proclaimed from the mouth of Alex Jones. Yet it is the same kind of definitive cultural statement that could be seamlessly placed on The Queen Is Dead or any other beloved record, where its inclusion would not raise eyebrows at all. Read more: His past work, seemingly once perfectly understood at some point in time, sees unfair re-interpretation through his recent views. 'Bengali in Platforms', from his 1988 debut solo album Viva Hate, is a classic Morrissey character sketch of a Bengali boy struggling to fit in after immigrating to the UK. What was once a song that seemed highly empathetic to the plight of the outsider is now highlighted as an example of Morrissey's racism perpetuating through his art. But one wonders if those staking that claim have even bothered to listen to the song and have considered the slightest bit of nuance within it. 'He only wants to embrace your culture and to be your friend forever,' he sings, very unlike a man who would eventually sport a For Britain pin on his blazer. The contentious climactic line of its chorus, 'Shelve your Western plans and understand / because life is hard enough when you belong here', could very well be the artist extending sympathy to the further alienation that immigrant status creates for life in the UK, where the grass is not necessarily greener per se, and where moving in the world cannot fix the inherent contradictions, despair and loneliness of the human condition. Yet taken at face value, the song goes from a considered and nuanced portrait to just a flat confirmation of Morrissey's boorish proclamations. That is a shame. Read more: Morrissey is currently happy to play the provocative villain surrounded by pitchforks, something that he has always done in different ways, and it's obviously not helping his case. His record deal with Capitol Records ended in 2022, with an unreleased album called Bonfire of Teenagers stuck in purgatory while his former label holds onto the rights. Perhaps this is what being cancelled is, but to think someone like Morrissey can be in any way a victim in this scenario is hyperbole. He is a figure that can exist rather comfortably outside of the mainstream music industry, where he does not have to answer for any of his beliefs or opinions. Regardless, he is still the holder of quite an artistic legacy, and attempts to rewrite this will essentially be in vain once the cultural moments shift yet again.
The Guardian
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Salty Brine review – daring diva mashup with hella pizzazz
On his last London visit, Salty Brine mashed up the Smiths' album The Queen Is Dead, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and episodes from his own life into a pretty extraordinary show. But not a unique one – Brine has made 21 such confections as part of his Living Record Collection project, which now brings These Are the Contents of My Head (The Annie Lennox Show) to Soho. If I found this one less remarkable an achievement, the feeling was offset by admiration that Brine's Smiths show was clearly no fluke; that he's created a striking and confident collage-cabaret genre all of his own. Maybe that last one worked so well because Frankenstein described the form as well as the content. The fit is less neat here, as our drag-queen host splices Annie Lennox's album Diva, a recording of Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall, Kate Chopin's feminist novel The Awakening and (I'm almost done …) tales from his own mother's failed marriage. In this telling, both the novel's heroine and Brine's mum are women struggling to free themselves from marriage and societal convention. Tripping in and out of song, family anecdote and scenes from Chopin's southern gothic, with additional characters played by scene-stealing pianist Ben Langhorst, Brine's gumbo doesn't stint on rich ingredients. The results can feel overcooked, the individual flavours hard to distinguish. In a show that trucks exclusively in big emotion, Brine's mother's experience (and his own, navigating his parents' divorce and coming out) is rendered every bit as melodramatic as Edna Pontellier's. The songs of Lennox and Garland sometimes illuminate those stories, and sometimes don't. But they're always delivered with limpid loveliness by our host, or with hella pizzazz should the moment require. That roof-raising voice of his, not to mention the sexual frankness, as Brine drapes himself over this audience member or that, may not be the perfect match for Chopin's tale of clipped and frustrated womanhood. But why quibble, when it's easier to be swept along by the bravura of the enterprise, a lush hymn to dreams of freedom and a feat of idiosyncratic connection-making to put Adam Curtis in the shade. Salty Brine: These Are The Contents of My Head (The Annie Lennox Show) is at Soho theatre, London, until 26 April
