Polemics over Morrisey’s Rimini cancellation

The biggest dissapointment of this summer season in Rimini, at least to an indie-fan, was the sudden cancellation of Morrissey’s planned two-date appearance at Rimini’s legendary venue Velvet.

There had been rumours circulating about Morrissey’s health for some time, given cancellations of London Shows in May. Promoters and Morrissey himself re-assured fans at the start of June that shows on the European tour would go ahead. Then, like a bombshell last friday the news was announced curtly that due to ‘un-resolvable reasons’ the two Rimini shows were being cancelled.

This week Morrissey apparently posted the following to a trusted fan-site:

The two Rimini concerts were cancelled for production reasons. Put simply, the venue could not accommodate our PA system or lights, etc.
The concerts are not cancelled due to health problems.
I understand that another venue is being sought, but as yet I know no more than that.
I would like to stress once again that I have no association with the sites called Twitter, FaceBook, myspace, flickr, or MorrisseySoLow – so therefore anything written on these sites is not in my name or by my hand. The site called itsmorrisseysworld is designed by and controlled by Universal Music Group.
Thanks in advance to everyone who will be in London this week.

The Italian promoters have, thus far, avoided making any serious statement about the situation, other than pointing out that the decision to cancel the shows was taken by Morrissey and his management – not by them. They have yet to respond to the charge that the venue was unsuitable for Morrissey’s production.

It seems very strange, though, given that Rimini’s Velvet has consistently over the last twenty years promoted concerts from a wide range of big Italian and International touring acts (this blogger, for example has seen Tool, Rufus Wainwright, dEUS, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to name but a few in the last couple of years).

It also seems very strange that this apparent technical problem was only discovered days before the concerts. There’s an animated discussion on this Morrissey fan site, where plenty of fans suggest that the real reason for the cancellation was poor ticket sales.

Who knows – the only thing for certain is that the fans have been let down.