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Council ‘seeking legal advice’ over calls to cancel Marilyn Manson’s Nottingham gig

By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter

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The leader of the city council says the authority is taking legal advice regarding concerns over the upcoming Nottingham gig of heavy metal star Marilyn Manson.

Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, is due to perform at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham on November 2 as part of his ‘One Assassination Under God’ tour.

The first event in Manson’s UK tour, which was due to take place in Brighton on October 26, was cancelled in June after pressure from campaigners and an MP in relation to unproven allegations against the singer.

Male Allies Challenging Sexism (MACS) campaigners and Nottingham city councillors have now called for the event at the council-owned Motorpoint Arena to be cancelled.

Alex Norris, Labour MP for Nottingham North and Kimberley, has also written to arena bosses asking for the booking to be looked at again.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service Cllr Neghat Khan (Lab), the leader of the council, said the authority’s leadership “stands against violence against women and girls” – and pledged to write to the Home Secretary regarding the concerns.

However she said the council was taking legal advice in relation to a decision over the Nottingham event, noting the authority had before spent more than £10,000 on legal fees and a settlement after ‘unlawfully’ cancelling a talk by activist Julie Bindel at one of its libraries.

Ms Bindel, a feminist campaigner and author, had her talk at Aspley Library cancelled in June 2022 by the council due to her views on transgender rights.

After taking legal action and engaging in three months of pre-action correspondence, the parties reached agreement on mutually acceptable terms.

The council apologised to Ms Bindel and admitted it had acted “unlawfully” in cancelling her talk, and a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service at the time revealed the council spent £10,680 on legal fees and provided a £569.99 “settlement”.

“The problem is when we had the Julie Bindel situation at the library, we had to do a public apology,” Cllr Khan said.

“It got loads of complaints at the time.

“We’ve had our fingers burnt. We are not getting in that situation again. We have asked for legal advice internally.

“At the moment the stance is that I’ve put the statement out to say it is not really our decision. We are not in a position where we want to pay compensation.

“It is reputationally bad for us. I get other local authorities have done it. We are seeking further legal advice – but I will be writing to the Home Secretary.”

A spokesperson for Motorpoint Arena declined to comment.

Prosecutors in the US said in January they would not file charges against Manson, after a long-running investigation into allegations of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Nathan Hochman, Los Angeles County District Attorney, said the allegations were too old under the law and the evidence was not sufficient to charge the 56-year-old.

LA County sheriff’s detectives had said early in 2021 that they were investigating Manson over alleged incidents between 2009 and 2011 in West Hollywood, where Manson lived at the time.

Manson has repeatedly denied the accusations and described them as “falsehoods”.

After the allegations were made, his previous record label, booking agent and manager severed ties with him.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service previously contacted Manson’s US attorney, Howard King, and his current record label, Nuclear Blast Records, for comment, but has not received any correspondence since.