Mark clashes with mayor
SINGER AND SIR PETER IN CLASH OVER ZOOM CALLS, STUDIO PLANS AND LEADERSHIP
SINGER Mark Morrison’s ambitions of bringing greater harmony to his home city of Leicester have run into turbulence after he clashed with mayor Sir Peter Soulsby.
The pair have fallen out over the singer’s plans to tackle knife crime in the city by opening a recording studio to help young artists get into the music industry.
But Sir Peter says the city council is being asked to bankroll the scheme and is sceptical about its benefits.
“There are a lot of questions about whether that would be good use of public money,” he said.
“I am not sure the link has been shown between us setting him up in a recording studio and stopping knife crime.”
Mr Morrison, who grew up in Highfields, hit back, saying: “I bet he didn’t go and meet the 15-year-old who was stabbed in the park. I bet he didn’t donate money to his fundraiser.
“Instead he spends thousands on art (graffiti) to go on the walls.
“Why didn’t he give that money to youth in this city who would have done it for free, or taken that money to pursue their own dreams and ambitions?
“It has never been about money or politics for me, it’s about principle, and he’s trying to play me.” Morrison said he tried to speak to the council about buildings that were councilowned and available but had no response, leaving him frustrated.
Appropriately in the era of social distancing, the arena for their disagreement was video conferencing platform Zoom.
The singer said an earlier meeting to discuss his Macklife Studios Creative Hub had gone well and he had begun to search for a long-term base in the city.
But the planned Zoom call to further discuss the project failed to take place, prompting Morrison, best known for his 1996 hit Return of the Mack, to take to Instagram criticising Sir Peter.
The pop star said he waited for an hour to receive an invite to the call before giving up.
He said: “I’m an old school guy. I’m more of a ‘pick up the phone’ kind of guy, and so is he.
“So I invited him and his minions to my balcony for tea, which is socially safe, and we would be further away from him than the TV cameras I’ve seen him giving interviews to are.
“He declined. This man needs to come out of office. I always give people the benefit of the doubt and I accepted him with a blank screen.
“But he has shown me in a matter of weeks that he is not a man of his word.”
Sir Peter said the call was set up but that Morrison and his agent did not ring in, so he also gave up after half an hour of waiting. He said: “The thing about the Zoom meeting is odd.
“He and his agent never showed and they never e-mailed or phoned to say why. We waited for half an hour and nothing.”