Cliff Richard googled Morrissey after agreeing to be support act

CLIFF RICHARD has agreed to support former Smiths frontman Morrissey at a concert in New York - but had to look him up on Google afterwards to check what kind of music he played.

The 73-year-old Summer Holiday singer will open for Morrissey at the Barclays Centre on 21 June, while Sir Tom Jones has agreed to support him at the Los Angeles Sports Arena on 10 May.

The concerts form part of Morrissey's 25-date US tour, which comes a year after the singer was forced to cancel 22 US dates due to illness.

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In an interview with the BBC, Richard said he jumped at the chance to perform in New York where his chances of singing to an audience of 15,000 were "pretty much nil". He explained: "People don't know me in America. That's why I had no problem saying yes."

At first, Richard thought the offer was a joke or that there was an ulterior motive, but he was assured that Morrissey was a genuine fan.

Richard admitted he could not name a single song or album that Morrissey has made and at one point struggled to remember what band he had been in.

"I can't say that I've followed his musical career but I've followed the success," he said. "I've googled him a couple of times now and I'm thinking, I could be a fan."

While Morrissey often has very strict vegetarian rules surrounding his gigs, and has even compared eating animals to paedophilia, Richard insists he will not be giving up meat for the concert. Asked if he would go vegetarian for the day, Richard said: "Certainly not. No, of course not."

He added: "I like to think he might eat some meat when I arrive, but I wouldn't expect him to. So I don't think he'd expect me to be vegetarian. If I found he was offended by people eating meat then I won't eat it in front of him... but I'll have a chicken curry afterwards."