Two bands claim solo singer attempted to block them from “performing in his vicinity”.

Professional controversy magnet and sometime solo artist Morrissey is at the core of another brouhaha following his gig last night at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California. The venue contains another performance space which was hosting a gig by US indie band We Are Scientists and Glasgow rock trio PAWS at the same time as Moz’s show.

In a now-deleted message on their Facebook, PAWS claimed yesterday that Morrissey had tried to have their gig cancelled, “because he is playing in another room in the same venue and wishes for their to be no other artists performing in his vicinity.” They added:

“This is an unbelievable act of complete and utter selfishness that should not be tolerated. This rich, has-been, ego maniac acting like a baby throwing toys from a pram. To satisfy his little power hungry brain. A complete disregard for others and a baffling lack of support/respect for young, hard working musicians. People like this, with attitudes like this displays a classic example of why the music industry is still awash with disgusting garbage that should by now have been snuffed out. Pedestals, self righteous entitlement, disrespect and “competition”. Geez. It’s not like we’ve come all the way from Scotland to play for nothin’.”

Chris from We Are Scientists struck a conciliatory note with his own message, saying that Morrissey’s team were concerned about sound overlapping between the two gigs. “When it became apparent that Morrissey’s set was going to overlap with the WAS/PAWS bill, everybody really did agree that couldn’t work — even though the two venues are separated by a reasonably thick wall, Moz fans wouldn’t have been able to hear a lick of what they’d paid to see,” he wrote.

In the end, PAWS and We Are Scientists delayed their performances to avoid an overlap with Moz’s set. But it didn’t end there, oh-ho no.

This morning, PAWS posted another note claiming that Morrissey’s team had tried to force them to delay and cut short their show. When they refused, the venue’s promoter allegedly told them that there was “a very high chance that Morrissey could threaten to cancel,” which would have been disastrous for the venue having invested thousands of dollars into the show.

A compromise was eventually reached, but media coverage of the initial Facebook post angered Moz’s management, who then demanded an apology. “Frankly, beyond being insulting, unreasonable, and to be honest a little hilarious, we simply couldn’t believe that this situation had escalated to this point,” said PAWS.

We Are Scientists have now abandoned their neutral position, posting a string of tweets labelling Moz’s show “the laziest, most milquetoast piece of shit I’ve ever had the misfortune of suffering through ten minutes of” and comparing the singer to “a luau pig [in] a TopShop blazer”.

Feel better now, lads? No official statement from Morrissey’s team just yet. Meanwhile, there’s an unauthorised biopic of Moz’s early life on the way, so that’s something else for him to whinge about.

Moz is playing another show this weekend at Los Angeles Sports Arena, supported by Sir Tom Jones himself. [via Pitchfork]