White Lies frontman Harry McVeigh has attacked plans for late singer Michael Jackson’s planned fifty date UK tour as ‘exploitation’. Speaking to Gigwise, McVeigh said the gigs would have been “hard work for anyone”. The band’s bass player, Charles Cave, also criticised the tour, saying: “He definitely wouldn’t have made it through the fifty shows. I think maybe he would have done four or five, if he was lucky.” He then described Jackson’s death as a “very sad day”.
Pressure on Jackson to prepare for the fifty dates at London’s O2 Arena, which would have been his first UK dates for over ten years and were due to begin this July, have been cited by some friends of Jackson as one of the reasons for his reported declining health before he collapsed on Thursday.
White Lies were speaking to Gigwise at the Glastonbury festival, where they played the Other Stage yesterday. Commenting on their performance, Cave said: “It’s good now we’ve been told we played well, but we didn’t know how it was going to be received.” White Lies’ set included a cover of tonight’s headliner Bruce Springsteen’s classic ‘Dancing In The Dark‘.