Every time a major news story breaks, it seems that providence dictates that Morrissey is always playing a concert in the immediate aftermath, allowing the former Smiths singer to pass comment. It was only very recently he courted outrage in drawing a comparison between the July massacre in Norway and the treatment of animals by major fast food chains. Now, he is offering his two cents on this week’s London riots.
Morrissey played a show at Brixton Academy on Sunday night (August 7), a day after violence occurred in Tottenham. He took particular aim at British prime minister David Cameron, saying, “Does anyone think that David Cameron has been to Tottenham? I don’t think so.”
He also took the opportunity to address the London student riots against rising tuition fees last December, saying, “In what our slanted media called the student riots, Charles and ‘Camel’ came face to face with the British public, without the protection of Buckingham Palace or the police And what happened to them, I couldn’t stop laughing about for weeks – no, months.”
Other reactions to the riots from musicians include MIA, Example and arguably most eruditely, Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, who wrote on Twitter, “Where the fuck are the Bullingdon boys? What’s wrong you cunts? Would you only end your holidays if it were Fortnum & Mason being looted?”
