Morrissey is a Ridiculous Prima Donna

Cafe Society
1

The fragile former Smiths frontman just canceled a concert in Valencia. Apparently he was kept up all night by street noise. Apparently there is a major festival going on so that was entirely predictable, but whoever booked the hotel did not do their homework.

OK, fair, it seems a bit precious to say that you can’t play rock and roll without a good night’s sleep, but he’s not young anymore. His manager’s statement that he was left in a “catatonic state” by the sleepless night seems a bit over the top, but it could be worse…oh wait.

In a later communique, Morrissey wrote that his hotel was an “indescribable hell. It will take me one year to recover. And that is an understatement.”

Coincidentally, that’s how I feel after listening to a Smiths album.

Apparently cancelling concerts on short notice is no new thing for Morrissey:

When it comes to cancellations, Morrissey has form, including in Spain. Last year he cancelled a concert in the botanical gardens in Madrid. In 2004 he cancelled at short notice after being due to appear at the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, close to Valencia, citing “technical difficulties with his private aeroplane”.

In 2014 he cancelled again, this time in Warsaw, 25 minutes into his performance, complaining that a spectator had shouted something “extremely offensive”.

A year later he refused to perform at a festival in Reykjavik after the organisers denied his request that no meat be served during the event.

Of the 21 concerts booked this year to promote his new album, Make-Up Is a Lie, five – in San Diego, St Louis, Atlanta, the Dominican Republic and St Petersburg, Florida – have already been cancelled and one, at Rancho Mirage in California, has been postponed.

(all quotes from the Guardian)

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I love the Smiths, and if Johnny Marr were to recruit an army, I’d be first in line to enlist. But Morrissey has always been a ridiculous cockwomble and is only getting worse. He famous now for cancelling more appearances that he actually makes. He may now be worse than Lauren Hill in that regard.

Since 2012, Morrissey has cancelled or postponed over 200 concerts, with some estimates putting the total closer to 400 throughout his career. His cancellations in 2026 alone have already exceeded the number of shows he played early in the year, covering dates in Valencia, St Petersburg, Rancho Mirage, San Diego, St Louis, and Atlanta due to reasons ranging from illness to hotel noise.

3

This is completely on-brand for Morissey. It’s perhaps one of the most Morissey things Morissey could do.

I’d say it’s peak Morissey, but I actually doubt it is.

The man has spent decades telling us who he is. This shouldn’t be especially shocking.

4

Hah. I was at Las Fallas last year. Noisy doesn’t begin to describe it. Depending on where you are in the city, you’ll basically be hearing fireworks until very late in the night. Like up to M80 firecrackers right outside your hotel window (true story). It’s definitely not conducive to tranquility and I guess it could be quite disturbing to people with certain trauma histories. The festival has been happening over the same dates for centuries, though, so someone should have done some better planning.

5

I love(d) the Smiths, but Morrissey has been a mess throughout his whole career. Did you know that he is also a rampant and raging racist and xenophobe? I didn’t listen closely enough in 1988, but already on his first solo album “Viva Hate” (sic) one could have told that from the song “Bengali In Platforms”. And it got worse and worse over the years. These days, I have nothing but contempt for the guy, though I’m still able to enjoy old Smiths records. But solo Morrissey? Forget it.

6

He’s still not in Sly Stone’s or George Jones’ league, I don’t think.

I saw him in the 90s on the Your Arsenal tour and he was great, BTW.

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You mean in terms of cancelling concerts (“No Show George”)? Don’t forget that these two guys were serious drug addicts, while Morrissey AFAIK is straight edge. He’s just all other kinds of fucked up.

8

I’ll roll my eyes at prima donnas who complain about anything and everything. It won’t keep me from listening to their music, although I’d think twice before buying a ticket to a show that will probably be cancelled.

But like you say, Morrissey is much, much worse than a prima donna. He was not great to start with (although he kept it under wraps mostly). But he’s gotten worse and worse for the last 20 years. The dude is hate speech personified now. It has severely curtailed my Smiths listening, and I used to be a big fan in the 80s.

9

As I said, I can still listen to and enjoy the Smiths, but only because I never spotted Morrissey’s xenophobic leanings in a Smiths song. The first time I noticed that was his solo song “Bengali In Platforms”. Maybe Johnny Marr was the corrective in the band against such outbreaks.

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I tell myself that too and listen occasionally. He’s (apparently) a solid dude. (Please don’t tell me if he isn’t.)

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I think Marr is a decent guy. Look who he has worked with since, the Pet Shop Boys, Matt Johnson (The The), good people like that.

12

He is human and he needs to be lo-uh-oved. Just like everybody else does.

13

Evidently the luck he had made a good man turn bad.

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Yeah, Morrissey is 30 years past his sell by date, he was going nazi in 1992, and in 2018 was supporting the “For Britain” party, where the real Nazis go when kicked out of the more mainstream extreme right parties. He makes Kid Rock seem a progressive.

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The sycophantic slags all say "I knew him first, and I knew him well”

16

Wow, I thought he was just a silly person. I had no idea he was actually a Nazi.

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whenever I read shit like that - I wish him that he has to get up 5:30h every day and walk 10 blocks in the dark to a bus-station to ride for a long time to get to a job that pays slightly above min.wage … like millions of people have to …

… and then the same thing in reverse after a 12 hour shift.

a$$hole

18

Morrissey has been doing things like this since the 1980s. Some things never change.

19

I read the thread title and had to check if this was a zombie thread…from like the 80’s.

20

Saw Johnny Marr open for Blondie in Birmingham, UK.

When he arrived at the “requests” part and asked, “What should I play next”? Almost everyone was shouting, "How Soon Is Now?! and I, wearing a Judas Priest t-shirt, shouted, “Big Mouth Strikes Again!!” from the 40th row, yet his pedals and inclination were to his signature song. Also did “There is a light that never goes out” and who is this Morrissey again?