Russell Brand live shows cancelled as charities sever ties with comedian over sex allegations

Russell Brand’s live stand-up tour has been cancelled as a number of charities sever ties with the comedian following allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Promoters of Russell Brand’s Bipolarisation stand-up tour said on Monday they were postponing the remaining shows in the wake of claims of sexual abuse made against him.

A statement from the promoters of the tour said: “We are postponing these few remaining addiction charity fundraiser shows, we don’t like doing it – but we know you’ll understand.”

Managers at the Theatre Royal in Windsor, where he was due to perform on Tuesday night, were reported to have been in crisis discussions hours before the announcement.

A statement from the theatre management said: “Theatre Royal Windsor will be offering ticket refunds in line with our Terms & Conditions of sale.”

Plymouth Pavilions in Devon had also said its management had been “in talks with the tour promoters” and was due to contact ticket holders over the comedian’s scheduled performance at the venue on Friday night.

Mr Brand was also scheduled to perform at The Civic At The Halls in Wolverhampton next Thursday evening.

The shows were not billed as “addiction fundraisers” by any of the venues, or Mr Brand’s official website, which simply listed them as “live dates” – though Plymouth Live previously reported the gig there was “in aid of” a charity that provides women-only accommodation in the city.

The 48-year-old comedian was on a UK tour with his live stand-up show Russell Brand Bipolarisation, billed as an event focusing on “Rules and rule breaking! Democracy and freedom!”

He performed a sold-out comedy gig at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in north-west London on Saturday night and was due to perform three more dates before the end of the month.

Meanwhile a number of charities have announced they have cut links with Mr Brand in the wake of the allegations.

Noreen Oliver MBE, founder and managing director of BAC O’Connor drug addiction centre in Staffordshire, said the charity had severed all ties with the comedian and actor and would be removing reference to him on its website.

Mr Brand has been a key supporter of the charity in the past, with part of the proceeds from the sale of his book Recovery: Freedom From Our Addiction going to the centre. The charity has also taken part in Mr Brand’s Community Festival in Hay on Wye.

But founder Ms Oliver told i: “The focus of our services is and will always continue to be the client’s treatment and the services we offer.”

She said the charity had “severed all ties with Russell Brand” and “our IT team is in the process of removing all References to Russell Brand from the website”.

Earlier, foodbank charity One Can Trust in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, said Mr Brand was no longer its ambassador following the “extremely serious allegations”.

On Sunday, women’s charity Trevi said it had “ended its association” with Mr Brand while foodbank One Can Trust said on Monday it no longer had him as an ambassador.

Organisations have sought to distance themselves from the film, television and radio star in the past 24 hours following an investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches in which four women alleged they had been sexually assaulted by him between 2006 and 2013.

Mr Brand has strenuously denied all allegation and said his relationships have been “always consensual”.

His publisher Bluebird, a Pan Macmillan imprint which has been releasing titles by Mr Brand since 2017, said on Monday it was pausing all publishing with the performer.

His latest book, Recovery: The Workbook, was due to be published in December but the publisher said “these are very serious allegations and in the light of them, Bluebird has taken the decision to pause all future publishing with Russell Brand”.

Mr Brand posted a video statement on social media on Friday refuting the allegations.

He said he had received “two extremely disturbing letters, or a letter, and an email, one from a mainstream media TV company, one from a newspaper, listing a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks, as well as some pretty stupid stuff like, my community festival should be stopped, that I shouldn’t be able to attack mainstream media narratives on this channel, but amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.”

He added that he didn’t mind the use of “my books and my stand up to talk about my promiscuous, consensual conduct in the past, what I seriously refute are these very very serious criminal allegations.”