well, yes. another gig, look you see, so another excuse (or reason) to place here pictures and, indeed, video (yes we've got a video) from it. but, also, no "ordinary" gig. if any gig (or concert) is ever ordinary. this instance saw me tick off (yet) another from the list of those artists i wish(ed) to see, for it was no less and really not more than Morrissey.
an entirely unexpected chance to see him too. kind of. this was no tour postponed for plague reasons, yet also it didn't (immediately) seem to be a tour undertaken to promote a new record. it has turned out that the latter is kind of the case, but we shall get to that. well, yes if you read on. very much an added bonus was that, after years of wishing to see Moz but being unable to mostly via distance (early on, age, of course), there he was doing a gig within walking distance from my lodgings in place of exile.
tickets for this "were" easy, at least for moi. on the day they went on sale i was fortunate enough to make a late start to verk, so purchased them with little fuss. just as well that i did, for the venue, with a capacity of around three thousand (3000) reported them all sold out within the hour. my assumption was that the venue seemed a trifle small for Morrissey, but then it is also a venue which once offered a stage for The Rolling Stones and (not at the same time) The Beatles. also, Morrissey has played smaller venues in this area. difficult to know his precise audience, but we shall get to that.
my sixth (6th) gig of the year, then. or 7th if one includes a comedy show. certainly just the six ones which featured predominantly music. and yes, this one happened a mere 8 (eight) days after i went to bear witness to Ian Brown. quite a but like last year, i suppose, when i saw the Manics and then Nick Cave within about 3 or 4 days of each other.
i would say, overall, there were two excellent and amazing things of being able to go to a Moz gig. the first of these is, of course, that i actually got to see him. i have been fortunate that, over the years, it is so that i have just about seen all of my "idols" that it has been possible to. certainly not all of them, but perhaps i may get a future chance. second would be in a picture, later.
sadly this may all become a moaning sounding blog post (and who knows maybe all my posts are), but there are one or two "gripes". an airing of the grievances then. first of these would be of a nature of how short this gig was. less than 90 minutes, i think, is what it clocked in at. whereas no, didn't expect him to do three or four hours, well, a regular gig would be around 20 songs, or just north of the 100 minute mark. true, the length of a gig, like an album, is no real measure of quality, but it did feel like he took a decision to deliberately cut this one down.
yet, though, quality over quantity, perhaps. above is a video (of poor quality) of the opening tune, which was that classic off of The Smiths, How Soon Is Now. certain artists what went on to be solo after being in a big band - Ian Brown, for instance - flat refuse to do songs from then. well, not Moz, who in fairness did write all the lyrics, so presumably is quite Noel Gallagher of them all. indeed a couple of Smiths songs featured, but this was the most well known. along the way we got Frankly Mr Shankly, and one i can't recall, and Sweet And Tender Hooligan as a surprise encore.
the other thing what was excellent about the gig, aside from being able to (at last) say that I saw Morrissey live and in concert? my companion. i asked James if he would like to go, since it was close to his home (my former), and he immediately said yes. no, he wasn't really aware of the musician and did not do too much research into him, but had "heard of him" and was curious. so, with his consent, a recent rare picture of him, with me, before the gig.
fair to say that he has not become a big massive Morrissey fan on the basis of the concert. but, at the least, he did say that he enjoyed the experience. and the smart tea (dinner, if posh) that we went to beforehand. with, i believe, particular emphasis on the cocktails.
not unreasonably, then, the set was dominated by works of the solo career of Morrissey, rather than too many tracks from a band he was in north of 35 (!) years ago. and quite a solo career catalogue to choose from. indeed we got songs such as Irish Blood, English Heart, We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful, Every Day Is Like Sunday and, as illustrated below by video, one of my favourites and a kind of recent one (think nearly 20 years old now?) First Of The Gang To Die.
unexpectedly we did not get to see or hear a performance of Suedehead, his first big solo hit. this feels like a huge, massive disappointment, as i was of the understanding that it was a staple of each set. but then also no The More You Ignore Me, no You're The One For Me Fatty and probably a few dozen others. certainly there are "only" so many songs you can do in a regular gig, and perhaps he gets bored about doing ones again and again. but, you know, still. largely my biggest disappointment was no performance of easily my top tune by him, being The Last Of The Famous International Playboys. oh well. i would say maybe some other time, but there will be no such thing.
his (Morrissey's) lurch quite some way to the "right" of mainstream politics has been well documented. a somewhat unexpected path, but there he is on it. the assumption i had made was that whatever fans he had left were like me, either just shrugging at this and moving on so long as the music was good, or being apologist and rational, saying that speaking his mind was what made him who we was, and now disagreeing with chunks of what he says is no reason to abandon him.
i confess to being somewhat naive with this thought process. what i did not allow for in my thinking, or for that matter anticipate, was that this more to the right Morrissey might actually attract new fans; ones inclined to be of a quite right wing frame of mind. oh. no, i didn't expect a Morrissey audience to be all animal loving vegetarian hippies, but also i didn't quite expect a significant number of rather strong political views leaning to the right of the spectrum.
quite a few others, presumably, did not expect this. i was certainly not keeping count, but it did feel like this gig had a good many more "walk outs" than was the case with the "controversial" tape gig of Ian Brown the week before. true, i have heard "reports" of some behaviour, and saw some of it myself, but maybe i should not pass on hearsay.
easily the most baffling part of the gig (other than it seemingly being cut short) was the amount of people who appeared not to give a flying f*** about being there. leaving aside the two f*****g idiots near us who started headbutting and punching each other (such happens when people who can't handle a drink do so anyway) there was a staggering number of people just hanging at the bar, drinking away. no real issue with people who want to do that, but not sure why they would wish to purchase a not cheap concert ticket to engage in that. surely the money for the ticket may have been better used at a pub, if that's all you wanted?
maybe it's just me, and i am possibly getting on the a bit old side for gigs, at least in the sense of going and standing as i do. or, maybe not. by all accounts there were "incidents" in the seated areas too. it would be a cheap shot to list artists that i would expect to have a "rowdy" audience, and one that i will not take. just surprised that a Morrissey one would.
back to the songs and there were, oddly, some "new" ones. he has a new album, but it has not been released as such as yet as he has failed to secure a deal with a record label prepared to release it. some of this, one would think, would be due to his penchant for arguing and fighting with such labels. as in that time he went on tour wearing a t-shirt saying "F*** Attack Records" whilst signed to them. but, also, the one new song, Bonfire Of Teenagers, is going to court even more trouble than would be usual or within tolerance for a Morrissey record.
he, Morrissey, is unconditionally Manchester. it was inevitable, perhaps, that at some stage he would address the Manchester Arena bombing. this i get. i am not sure in doing so his attacking those who in a spontaneous move began singing Don't Look Back In Anger, or the artists who performed it after the event, is all that wise. that he has always spoken his mind and been prepared to accept consequences for that was always the appeal, as was touching subjects few others dare. in the past he has made some comments and statements (probably f*****g dozens) i have disagreed with. but, this one. seemingly mocking the way the people of his home city chose to stand together, to mourn, to stand defiant, to be as one voice in response, feels - for the first time ever - like he has crossed a line. it was family and friends of the victims singing it, Moz, not just pop stars you (likely) don't care for.
let me end on a relative high note, sort of, then. one more song what he did that i was very delighted to see and hear him do is an all time favourite. from what i recall this gem got relegated to a b-side, which is odd as it is one of the most intriguing, brilliant things from him, ever. some prolonged footage from the gig of Jack The Ripper, then.
rather than just follow the standard lines of the infamous killer, then, Morrissey goes full tilt subversive, trying to understand the psyche and character. casting Jack The Ripper as someone alienated, unable to connect with love, driven to madness by it, is very much a Morrissey interpretation. provocative, a little out of the ordinary, potentially dangerous and likely to cause debate. exactly why i have been a fan of him for so very long.
quite a lot of the comments he made as the gig went on were of a nature suggesting that he "wouldn't be around" for very long. not sure if he meant that just to our gig, or in a wider sense. rumours have always circulated of health struggles, but here he was in fine voice and seemed fine. but, who knows. yet what i do know is, all things being equal, if a chance came up to see him again, no, i would not take it. let this be a lesson, then. glad to have seen him, but if his gigs now really are just a magnet for lager louts and those seeking affirmation in their political outlook, let me just stick to the tapes, thanks.
any more gigs for me this year (2022)? none planned, as it happens. should i make it over to 2023, then yes, i do have some lined up. if something really smart looking turns up then yeah, but i would think all concerts likely to happen will have already been announced. probably not, then, no.
don't look back in anger, i heard him say.
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