British singer Morrissey has cancelled a concert in Valencia after being left sleep-deprived during the city’s notoriously noisy Las Fallas festival.
A statement on his website said: “Having travelled for two days by road, Morrissey reached the hotel in Valencia late on Wednesday. Any form of sleep or rest throughout the night was impossible due to festival noise/loud techno singing/megaphone announcements.”
The statement went on to say that “this experience has left Morrissey in a catatonic state”, and that he would not be performing.
Morrissey is due to perform in two other Spanish cities, Zaragoza and Seville, on 14 and 16 March respectively.
His team insisted that the Valencia concert hadn’t been cancelled but that “circumstances made it impossible to perform”. The singer produced recordings of the noise to justify the decision. The cheapest tickets for tonight’s scheduled show at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia cost €103 (£88).
In a later communique, Morrissey wrote that his hotel was an “indescribable hell. It will take me one year to recover. And that is an understatement.”
When it comes to cancellations, Morrissey has form, including in Spain. Last year he cancelled a concert in the botanical gardens in Madrid. In 2004 he cancelled at short notice after being due to appear at the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, close to Valencia, citing “technical difficulties with his private aeroplane”.
In 2014 he cancelled again, this time in Warsaw, 25 minutes into his performance, complaining that a spectator had shouted something “extremely offensive”.
A year later he refused to perform at a festival in Reykjavik after the organisers denied his request that no meat be served during the event.
Of the 21 concerts booked this year to promote his new album, Make-Up Is a Lie, five – in San Diego, St Louis, Atlanta, the Dominican Republic and St Petersburg, Florida – have already been cancelled and one, at Rancho Mirage in California, has been postponed.
The fanzine site We Heart Music calculates that over the course of his career – including his time with the Smiths before going solo – the singer has cancelled more than 400 shows, including almost half of the last 100.
Despite his many no-shows, Morrissey has a huge and loyal international following. He went solo in 1987 after five years with the Smiths, considered one of the most influential indie music bands in history, and has since produced 14 studio and two live albums as a solo artist.
After its release on Friday 6 March, Make-Up Is a Lie reached No 2 in the UK’s midweek album charts, behind Harry Styles. If Morrissey can maintain that position this Friday, it would be his highest chart placing since 2014’s World Peace Is None of Your Business, which also reached No 2. All but two of his studio albums have charted in the UK Top 5.
Anyone who thinks they’re going to get some sleep during Las Fallas in Valencia hasn’t done their homework. Although the festival officially runs from 15 March until 19 March, the build-up begins long before that with concerts, processions and fireworks.
The various neighbourhoods of Valencia compete to see who can build the most elaborate and spectacular floats, which are then paraded through the city. In the final act, all of the floats are set on fire, amid yet more fireworks.
If Morrissey is still in town on Thursday, he should note there is another firework display due to start at 8.30pm.