Campaigners are calling for a nightclub to cancel a performance by a controversial reggae star over his alleged homophobic lyrics.

Brighton and Hove City Councillor Simon Williams is urging the Concorde 2 in Madeira Drive to ban Buju Banton, who has written lyrics about killing gay people, from playing the venue on July 5.

The dancehall artist is only allowed to perform in the UK if he does not play the homophobic song Boom Bye Bye.

Coun Williams said: "Buju has performed openly murderous anti-gay songs including one of his biggest hits Boom Bye Bye which advocates the shooting of gay people in the head.

"A performance by him in such a gay-friendly city as Brighton and Hove would be inappropriate and damage community relations. This is not about censoring genuine creativity, but no artist with any humanity would want to sing these words. His words incite the shooting and murder of people because of their sexuality and he continues to sing them."

According to the gay rights group Outrage! Buju played Boom Bye Bye at a concert in Jamaica as recently as last year and refused to apologise for the lyrics in April this year.

His record label forced him to issue a statement, but he refused to apologise and cited his Rastafarian religion as the basis for his beliefs.

Last year Coun Williams ran a campaign with gay rights groups to have "murder music" banned and removed from retail outlets in the city.

Coun Williams said: "If he had sung these songs and referred to black people in place of gay people he would rightly be arrested for incitement to hatred."

But Buju's publicist Debbie Ballard said: "He made this track when he was 15 years old but he's 36 now. He had never travelled out of Jamaica and people refuse to look at it in a cultural context."

She added: "The man will be coming into the country with a legitimate work permit and will get on and do his job."

Coun Williams has informed Sussex Police.

Arthur Law, of Spectrum LGBT forum community, said: "It is particularly provocative of the Concorde to book it when he has a record for inciting hatred."

Alison Hildyard, office manager at the Concorde 2, said: "The council have given permission for the promoter's posters to be put up on the official council poster sites. We've heard that the gig is trying to be stopped, but The Argus is the first to have approached us about this."