Morrissey Cancels Remainder of U.S. Tour, Blames Mismanagement
Morrissey announced Saturday that he must cancel the remaining six dates of his U.S. tour – concerts that were rescheduled dates after the singer’s keyboardist fell ill, forcing postponements – due to mismanagement of tour funds.
In a post titled “There Is a Light That Now Goes Out” on Morrissey‘s fan site/mouthpiece True to You (via Stereogum), the singer revealed that he and his band are in “unrecoverable despair” after the tour’s remaining shows in Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio were “pulled down.”
Morrissey blamed the canceled shows on his management company 360 Management.
“Each date booked would make enough money to pay its way,” Morrissey wrote.
“When Gustavo [Manzur, keyboardist] collapsed at the Boulder show, 360 Management responded with the announcement that all funds had suddenly evaporated. There was apparently not even enough money to transport the touring party to the next scheduled city, and 360 Management faded out as quickly as they had faded in.”
Manzur collapsed backstage on November 14th prior to Morrissey’s sold-out concert in Boulder, Colorado. All subsequent shows were postponed while Manzur recovered from the unspecified illness.
“This is a family, we stay together, and we can’t move until we know what’s happened to him,” Morrissey said at the time. “We’re going to sit backstage for awhile and wait to see what’s happened to him, if there’s any magical cure.”
In Saturday’s post, after listing his favorite stops of their now-wrapped world tour, Morrissey added, “We expect no further chances in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Dallas or San Antonio … nights destroyed by the ephemeral damagers … who do their worst … and slip away.”
Morrissey’s post also took a few swipes at the music industry in general.
“Incontestably, the Morrissey Band is the best in the world. We have been repeatedly done over in recent years by slippery industry incompetents, yet we have always recovered our stride and bounced back like the sea – saving ourselves from those who wish us off the map,” Morrissey wrote.
“We are a disciplined ship and we succeed without any help from the music industry. We continue to live with the optical device of an industry where only scale and enormity of cash is seen as evidence of talent; where the public is thought ready to swallow anything as long as it is done with the punch of five million dollars. The results appear to be continually elaborate comic-strip dumbshows that do not even matter to those directly involved. The true artists must look after themselves whilst the artificially aroused are aided and assisted to the highest ranks without a shred of effort, and the result is … a nest of horrors. And on it goes.”