Posters advertising Morrissey’s new album, ‘California Son’ have been taken down from Liverpool’s public transport network following a complaint from a member of the public.
- READ MORE: Morrissey – ‘California Son’ review
The city’s transport network, Merseyrail, ordered the removal of the posters after the commuter complained about the singer’s political views which have seen him lend his support to ‘For Britain’, a controversial political party founded by anti-Islam activist Anne Marie Waters.
Waters then directly thanked the singer in a personal video message and claimed that his support had sparked a boost in the fringe group’s membership numbers. Morrissey’s support of For Britain was first reported in 2018, when he gave an interview on blogging site Tremr.
Speaking about the decision to remove the posters, Merseyrail said: “Processes are in place for Merseyrail to approve any potentially contentious material prior to it appearing on the network, however due to the nature of this advertisement it did not reach a level of verification.
“Merseyrail will work [with] the third-party supplier to improve this process in the future. Any content used within advertising on the Merseyrail network does not reflect the organisation’s values, and we apologise for any offence the publication of these posters may have caused.”
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The news comes days after Morrissey’s music was banned from the world’s oldest record store in response to his continued support of the far-right.
Spillers Records in Cardiff is refusing to stock the singer’s celebrated back catalogue after the aforementioned performance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon earlier this month.
Spillers owner Ashli Todd told WalesOnline: “I’m saddened but ultimately not surprised that Spillers is unable to stock Morrissey’s releases any longer. I only wished I’d done it sooner.”
Today, Morrissey will release a covers album ‘California Son’ – which features collaborations with the likes of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste.
Reviewing the album, NME wrote: “[Morrissey] may now have created a gulf too enormous to row back from, which is inextricable from the music. ‘California Son’ is the sound of someone in retreat, withdrawing from the world around them, pulling up the draw-bridge, sometimes attempting to engage with the now but only half-heartedly so. In fact, it brings to mind another lyric from ‘You Are The Quarry’: “The future is passing you by.”