US folk singer Michelle Shocked announces talk on ‘gay-bashing’, but not welcome at proposed venue
Singer Michelle Shocked, who caused outrage last week over a sudden anti-gay tirade during a concert, announced on Twitter that she would give a talk on the “effects of gay-bashing” this weekend, only for the venue to respond that she wasn’t welcome.
51-year-old Shocked went into a “full hate speech” said one attendee, Matt Penfield, leaving audience members in disgust.
Venues subsequently cancelled all but two of the concerts planned in her tour, after news of the incident spread on Twitter and in the media.
On Friday Shocked posted to her Twitter account that she would be appearing at one of the venues anyway.
She announced a gig at McCabe’s club in Santa Monica on Saturday 23 March, where she said she would give a “speaking engagement” on the “Effects of Gay-Bashing on the L.A. Mayoral Race.”
McCabe’s responded by posting on Twitter: “Contrary to reports from Michelle Shocked’s twitter account, McCabe’s will NOT be presenting her this Saturday.”
The store also promised to refund tickets to Shocked’s cancelled gig.
McCabe’s concert director Lincoln Myerson said that the first he had known about Shocked’s “speaking engagement” was when the club started receiving calls about her tweet.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “Had Michelle attempted to talk to me I might have attempted to work something out with her.
“But for her to go rogue on this shows that she’s her own sheriff. If she wants to do it at the park down the street, she can do it there, but she can’t do it at McCabe’s. I’m not intending to clean up this mess for her. I wish I could get on and tweet, ‘Hey, it’s at her house — here’s her address.'”
“She’s not welcome at McCabe’s,” he added.
It has yet to emerge whether Shocked went through with her plans to try to attend McCabe’s yesterday.
