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Eric Clapton supports Van Morrison’s Save Live Music campaign

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 30 September 2020

Eric Clapton has lent his support to Van Morrison’s Save Live Music campaign – although he’s not made it clear if he’s completely on board with Morrison’s new conspiracy-theory-pushing singles.

Morrison, of course, announced plans to release three new anti-lockdown singles over the course of a month, as part of his campaign to get live music up and running again. The first, ‘Born To Be Free’, was released last Friday, with two more to come in October. He also performed three shows at the London Palladium last week, although seemingly decided not to perform the new songs, despite previously saying that he would.

“It is deeply upsetting to see how few gigs are going ahead because of the lockdown restrictions”, says Clapton. “There are many of us who support Van and his endeavours to save live music, he is an inspiration! We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess. The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover”.

Clapton is currently scheduled to tour Europe in May and June next year, so is clearly hoping that things can be all sorted – with or without Morrison – by then.

Morrison himself adds: “Thanks to everyone who came to the Palladium shows and who have supported the new single. The gigs were great and proved that live performance can operate safely. Now we need the government to ease restrictions further and instil confidence that venues are safe and enjoyable places to be for everyone”.

Morrison is calling for venues to be allowed to open again at full capacity, claiming that this can be done safely despite the ongoing pandemic. Although reading through the lyrics of his new songs, that’s not because Morrison is consulting different scientific studies to the government. Rather, he believes that COVID-19 is not, in fact, a dangerous virus, and everything that’s happened over the last six months has been a fascist attempt to control the population.

Still, his London Palladium shows adhered to current regulations and were therefore socially distanced affairs – more so than planned as, according to The Guardian, a significant number of ticket holders did not turn up to see him perform, possibly because of the widely reported second surge of COVID.

The concerts did not, therefore, prove that venues can be safely reopened up at full capacity. And with all the empty seats on show, it doesn’t seem like Morrison’s new songs have convinced all his fans that COVID-19 is nothing to worry about either.