Not necessarily calling bullshit on your story, I don’t think, but members of the band regularly carried a beer on stage during the 2002 tour, and Gary Day would regularly spark up a cigarette before the encore and smoked it on stage, back when you could do such things.
Well, what I said is true.
Then again, what I said is what THEY said... and not my personal opinion.
They simply played a Rockabilly concert with the same band that played with Morrissey, but without Morrissey.... and talked a lot about how they could not drink or smoke when Morrissey was present because their contract said such thing... and they certainly didn't like Morrissey at all.
Their contracts were for sure not life-time contracts, so maybe some "rules" got more flexible later. My guess is that the tour must have been quite tense given the opinions that his own band had about him.
Other than that, and this is just a guess, I ASSUME that these kind of contracts are quite usual for solo singers who hire a band. As to give an absurd example, I am sure that a musician hired by Paul McCartney to play with him can't lighten up a cigarette whilst playing, nor bring his own bottle of vodka and drink it during the concert.
So maybe these clauses that made them feel so upset are not so unusual... but that's just my guess.
I liked a lot the new video... And the song is obviously about the Brexit, even if Morrissey publicly says that it isn't about it. "Scene Six: This country is making me sick!"... Which country is he talking about if the song is about a person whom he calls "Jackie"?