Eric Clapton: I'll Cancel Shows Over Vaccine Policy

Singer says he won't play UK venues where proof of vaccination is required
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 22, 2021 10:20 AM CDT
Eric Clapton Won't Play if Vaccine Proof Is Required
Eric Clapton performs at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2014.   (Photo by John Davisson/Invision/AP)

Eric Clapton is no fan of a new policy in the UK that will require people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations for entrance into large venues and nightclubs come September. "I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present," Clapton wrote in a Wednesday statement shared by Robin Monotti Graziadei, the same London-based architect and film producer who in the spring shared a letter in which Clapton, who has peripheral neuropathy, complained that AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine left him unable to use his hands and feet for two weeks. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the vaccine passport policy on Monday, hours after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in the UK.

Young people flooded into nightclubs, but Johnson warned such people that "some of life’s most important pleasures and opportunities are likely to be increasingly dependent on vaccination." "By the end of September, when all over-18s will have had their chance to be double-jabbed, we are planning to make full vaccination the condition of entry to nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather," he said, per the Guardian, which describes "an immediate backlash from Conservative backbenchers and the entertainment sector." "Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show," said Clapton, who's next scheduled to play in the UK, at London's Royal Albert Hall, in May, per the Guardian. (More Eric Clapton stories.)

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