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Artist News Gigs & Festivals
Morrissey cancels remainder of US tour following new health scare
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 11 June 2014
Morrissey has been forced to cancel the remaining nine dates of his US tour, after contracting a respiratory infection.
Moz’s official Facebook page expressed “great sadness”, while semi-official fansite True To You said it was “unimaginable sorrow”. The exact level of misery remains unclear, though who to blame seems 100% certain – according to True To You, anyway.
The site claims that after support act Kristeen Young’s set at the Kight Concert Hall in Miami on 31 May, she “confessed to ‘a horrendous cold’, the symptoms of which were passed on to Morrissey”. Young was, the site goes on, asked not to attend the next few shows while she recovered, but instead opted to quit the tour entirely.
Young, however, denies that she made Morrissey ill, or that she had a cold with which to make him ill at all. In a statement on Facebook earlier today, she said: “I did not ‘confess to a horrendous cold’. On Monday, 2 Jun, I had an allergy attack that was over within sixteen hours. I went to a doctor, an allergy specialist, who gave me drugs for allergies… and they worked”.
She goes on: “It is incorrect that I ‘decided to leave the tour completely’. I was asked to leave. [I] was called by Morrissey’s booking agent, Dave Tamaroff, and told that there would be a new support band in Boston. I am very sorry that Morrissey is not feeling well. But I will not tolerate these lies – particularly about my health. This is really too much and bizarre”.
So, that adds a whole extra layer to the story. Sadly for that new support band, whoever they were, the Boston show never took place, having been postponed, along with a Washington show earlier this week. However, after consulting doctors it was decided that Morrissey would not be well enough to perform any of the final dates on the tour. The two postponed dates had already been rescheduled for 24 and 25 Jun, though these dates have now also been cancelled.
This is the third time in the last eighteen months that Morrissey’s health has caused him to cancel live shows. In March last year, he cancelled another US tour due to a variety of medical problems, including pneumonia in both lungs. The singer later revealed that doctors had advised him to retire from performing live altogether.
Then, in July, part of a South American tour was cancelled after Morrissey and his security guard contracting food poisoning in Peru, with the remaining dates later pulled due to financial problems.
This is the second big tour date cancellation for US music fans this week, with Paul McCartney also announcing that he would be forced to cancel the first two weeks of dates of his upcoming US tour. The former Beatle is still recovering from a virus that saw him hospitalised while in Japan to perform. In a statement, McCartney said: “I’m sorry, but it’s going to be a few more weeks before we get rocking in America again. I’m feeling great, but taking my docs’ advice to take it easy”.
Maybe both of them should give up on the whole live performance thing altogether. There are plenty of other things they could be getting on with. For instance, I’ve just come up with the pitch for a new TV show where they team up and solve crimes, called ‘Mac n Moz’. It’s perfect. The story basically writes itself. And just imagine the theme tune.
