Dave Haslam, the veteran DJ and author who has led criticism of the singer Morrissey for his support of the jailed founder of a British far-right group, said on Saturday that he believed the former frontman of The Smiths had “just crossed the line”.
Speaking after the last-minute decision to postpone a string of Morrissey’s British and European concerts due to begin this week, Haslam rejected fans’ accusations that his public campaigning against the singer’s views was unfair.
“I’ve become more and more concerned about his defending Tommy Robinson and his support for far-right organisations,” Haslam told BBC radio, referring to the founder of the English Defence League, who is serving a 10-month prison sentence for contempt of court. He added that he found it impossible to ignore recent derogatory comments made by Morrissey about the diction of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and other “comments that he has made about black and white people, that they will never get on”.
Disappointed fans with tickets to see the 59-year-old perform have been told by promoters that the process of refunding their money will begin on Monday. One concert, originally scheduled to take place at the Castlefield Bowl in Morrissey’s home town of Manchester a week on Sunday, was to have run alongside a protest event set up by Haslam at the city’s Deansgate Locks. “It might not be coincidence that the venue is just a few hundred yards from where Morrissey is playing,” Haslam had admitted. Titled One Nation Under a Groove, Haslam’s free event will go ahead, with donations, collected at the gate, going to the charity Love Music Hate Racism. On hearing news of the postponed Morrissey gigs, Haslam has offered his fans half-price cocktails.
Ticketing website Gigs and Tours blamed the postponement on “logistical circumstances beyond our control”, while on Twitter Haslam, who was born in Birmingham but made his name DJ-ing at Manchester’s fabled Hacienda nightclub during its 1980s heyday, was clearly delighted, describing the decision as “the best turn of events ever”.
Morrissey’s latest album Low In High School was released in November and he completed a British tour in February and March, but his controversial public comments in favour of Brexit and admiring of both Nigel Farage and George Galloway have met with growing condemnation among even his devoted fans.
The singer’s world tour will continue in Mexico City in November.