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September 22, 2002

The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get

Waiting outside the Royal Albert Hall you would not be mistaken for thinking that the 1980s never ended. A group of fans dressed like Morrissey wait impatiently, with their noses pressed against glass, for the doors to open, anxious to finally get a glimpse of their idol after three long years. One is wearing a hearing aid, mimicking Morrissey’s famous appearance on Top of the Tops on which he wore one as a sign of solidarity to a deaf fan. Many in the queue are wearing Morrissey or Smiths t-shirts and some fans have even brought gladioli along with them.

Inside the atmosphere is electric. As the lights dim, a John Betjeman poem is played over the PA – Morrissey is never one to miss an opportunity for pretension. A football chant goes up from the crowd “Mor-is-ee! Mor-is-ee! Mor-is-ee!”. The sound of peeling church bells finally ushers Morrissey and his band on stage to a frenzy of screams and rapturous applause. The band explodes straight into ‘I Want The One I Can’t Have’ and the crowd goes mental. Fans try to get onto the stage to touch Morrissey, but are rapidly stopped by security.

Tonight Morrissey is dressed completely in black with his trademark quiff, looking a bit like comeback era Elvis. He may be greying slightly around the temples and have put a bit of weight on round the middle, but he still looks every inch the popstar. He seems camper, especially writing around the stage on his back during ‘Meat Is Murder’.

Morrissey is as droll as ever, “David / Bacharach would have shit to have written that” he quips of ‘Meat Is Murder’. When a new song, ‘The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores’, receives a polite reception from the audience he cattily remarks “Don’t worry, we’ll bring an applause machine if we play it again”.

Much of tonight’s material is from ‘Viva Hate’, Morrissey’s first solo album. ‘Suedehead’ and ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’ go down a storm with the crowd, everyone singing along with gusto. ‘Late Night, Maudlin Street’ is particularly moving live and is dedicated to the late Katrin Cartlidge. Of the new material the Los Angeles gangland tale, ‘The First Of The Gang To Die’, really stands out with probably the best chorus since ‘Suedehead’. Sadly, the same cannot be said of ‘Mexico’ with the embarrassing chorus “If you’re rich and you’re white / You’ll be alright”. At the end of the gig Morrissey, following the showbiz rule ‘Always leave them wanting more’, returns for a one song encore of the Smiths classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ which leaves the crowd cheering long after he has left the stage.

Morrissey is a man who can sell out two nights at the Royal Albert Hall within hours, but who amazingly hasn’t had a record deal since 1997. He now has the band and the material for a new album, so let’s hope this tour is the start of a comeback for Morrissey.

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Posted 11:27 pm by matthew — Comments (0)

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September 17, 2002

The Dig

*blows dust away*

“Wow, look at this, I think it’s a genuine web-log circa 2002. I haven’t seen one of these in years, do you think it still works?”

“Doubt it, have you forgotten about the Great Autumn Post Drought of 2002? I heard that some websites just, well, dried up.”

“Simply incredible.”

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Posted 2:15 pm by Wrighty — Comments (1)

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