Eric Clapton joins Van Morrison in ‘anti-lockdown’ crusade



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Music icons Eric Clapton and Van Morrison announced on Friday the release of an upcoming track protesting government restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the UK, the latest in a series of ‘anti-lockdown’ songs written by Morrison.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Clapton recorded Morrison’s song, titled “Stand and Deliver,” and it is slated for release on December 4th. artists announced.

“Eric’s recording is fantastic and will clearly resonate with the many who share our frustrations,” Morrison said in a declaration via his group Save Live Music.

The idiosyncratic singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland, now 75, has been criticized this year for emerging as a vocal critic of UK measures adopted to slow the transmission of COVID-19. Morrison focused on the effects on the live music industry – proceeds from new single with Clapton are intended to support Morrison’s Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund.

Yet in his crusade to keep musicians at work, he called on people to “fight pseudo-science” in a country where more than 66,000 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19. In September, Morrison released his first three songs lamenting the measures, prompting the Northern Ireland Minister of Health to call the music ‘dangerous’.

The most brutal to date, “No more lockdowns,” opens with the lines: “No more lockdowns / No more government repression / No more fascist police / Disrupt our peace.” Another, “Born to be Free,” shouts: “The new normal is not normal / This is not at all normal.”

In one of the singles, the BBC’s disinformation watchdog team noted an allusion to a debunked conspiracy theory linked to the infectious rate of the novel coronavirus.

Additionally, the attention the announcement garnered caused social media to focus on racist statements Clapton made at a 1976 concert expressing support for the National Front, with many on Twitter reminding the world of his call from the stage to “keep Britain white.” Clapton, who has blamed his drug and alcohol addiction for his behavior, has since expressed remorse for the position: “I sabotaged everything I got involved in,” Clapton said. “I was so ashamed of who I was.”



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