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May 09, 2014 Morrissey By Mike Hilleary

Update: Pitchfork reports that a representative for Morrissey has given them the following statement: “Morrissey had nothing to do with this. As long as there was no sound bleed, Morrissey was completely fine with another show going on inside the same complex.”

After getting mobbed by fans onstage as his performance in San Jose, things got even weirder last night during Morrissey‘s newly launched North American tour. While Moz was scheduled to performed Santa Ana’s Observatory, musical artists PAWS and We Are Scientists were set to play the Constellation Room, an adjoining performance space in the venue. According to PAWS things Morrissey apparently demanded that the band cancel their opening set because he didn’t want any sound overlapping into his own performance.

Explaining the events in full in a Facebook post, PAWS writes that “We received a call from the promoter/venue telling us that Morrissey, who was also due to play a show tonight in the larger room at the venue, had requested that no live music be heard during his set. SO, in order to adhere to curfews, this would mean that we couldn’t play our opening slot as it would clash with Morrissey’s and We Are Scientists’ headline show would be cut short and heavily delayed (until after Morrissey’s show). We were then informed that in respect of this cancellation, we had been offered to be paid double our guarantee for our troubles as per a clause in the contract for the show, but it was also asserted that we didn’t really have a choice in the matter; for example, we didn’t really get any sort of option to try and make the show work, it was just very cut and dry. So in short, we were essentially getting paid not to play.”

PAWS continued, “Although all bands in our situation could very much do with the extra money, it didn’t sit right with us that we were essentially, very much literally, being silenced; being bought out, and for reasons that, when explained to us as above, not only seemed trivial but seemed to fit the unfortunate egotistical stereotypes that Morrissey has come to embody in recent years, not least as we had been informed that he has already been noted for cancelling several shows.”

After a lengthy back and forth between the respective camps, a deal was made that both We Are Scientists and PAWS would perform their sets after Morrissey finished his concert. Following this apparent compromise however, “ten minutes before we were about to go onstage, with the show seemingly in full swing and in good health, Phillip and Josh were confronted by Morrissey’s tour manager in our own dressing room. After thinking that everything was FINALLY sorted, this man started screaming at them both, practically squaring up to them and trying his hardest to tear us apart for how big this story was getting, doling out blood-curdling screams to the effect of “I AM THE BOSS OF YOU!” Frankly, beyond being insulting, unreasonable, and to be honest a little hilarious, we simply couldn’t believe that this situation had escalated to this point. Far from a reasonable conversation or settling of differences, this seemed like a ‘telling off’ and to be honest put pretty much everything in context. To feel like you’re being demeaned, disrespected and almost bullied by ANYONE feels terrible but to feel like this is happening and that are hands are tied purely because of the perceived stature of a celebrity, seems utterly ridiculous and frankly, unacceptable.”

In the end all three performances went off without incident, though We Are Scientists certainly enjoyed taking some jabs at Morrissey during his set via Twitter.

The @itsmorrissey show was the laziest, most milquetoast piece of shit I’ve ever had the misfortune of suffering through ten minutes of.

— We Are Scientists (@wearescientists) May 9, 2014

Spent the first 20 minutes of @itsmorrissey set wondering how they got a luau pig into a TopShop blazer. Then I realized IT WAS MORRISSEY!

— We Are Scientists (@wearescientists) May 9, 2014

Turns out the reason @itsmorrissey doesn’t want competing noise is that it might clue people into what singing in tune sounds like.

— We Are Scientists (@wearescientists) May 9, 2014

(www.facebook.com/Morrissey)