MORRISSEY
– FIRST DIRECT ARENA, LEEDS
SATURDAY,
24 FEBRUARY 2018
Vocals:
MORRISSEY
Guitars:
BOZ BOORER
Guitars:
JESSE TOBIAS
Bass: MANDO
LOPEZ
Drums:
MATT WALKER
Keyboards:
GUSTAVO MANZUR
Support:
None
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| Flyer for Morrissey UK Tour Dates 2018, not including the added shows at Brixton Academy and the London Palladium |
There was a
buzz of excitement when the announcement was made that Morrissey would be
touring dear old Blighty again in early 2018, and in particular because the
tickets went on sale a mere 2 weeks before his new album “Low In High
School” was due to be released. LIHS would prove to be a
triumphant return to form for His Very Mozzerness, and so far has spawned the
excellent singles “Spent The Day In Bed” and “Jacky’s
Only Happy When She’s Up On The Stage”, with “All The Young People
Must Fall In Love” due to follow in early March 2018 at the time of
this here piece being penned. UPDATE: "My Love,
I'd Do Anything For You" would appear to be the next
track that will be released as an A Side, sometime around 23rd March
2018. Keeps me on my toes does that one!
The
build-up as the weeks and months went by was so exquisitely intense; the levels
of elation and exhilaration grew and grew. Seeing and hearing news of the
US shows at the tail end of last year as the (first stage of what will
hopefully prove to be a worldwide?) tour started just added to the
anticipation.
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| Low In High School sleeve |
I was, very sadly, unavoidably detained at work when Moz and the gang did a special show for BBC 6
Music at Maida Vale Studios in that there London Town
around the time this was all happening, as, although I applied for tickets, you
can bet your bottom dollar my efforts were unsuccessful. Boo! So, I
watched it during my lunch break. Great timing! Other than the
reference to the ongoing UKIP Leadership saga (yawn!), it was from what I
recollect a fairly uncontroversial affair. Unless you count the
fantastic “Return of The Black Panthers” tees that
the guys (apart from Mozzer) all sported. WANT! Sam “Esty”
Rayner, if you’re reading this, can you sort one out for me, PLEASE?
Wouldn’t say no to a nice black beret, either! Ta, love!
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| Flyer for Morrissey at Maida Vale Studios, BBC 6 Music October 2017 |
Time duly
did as I wished, and the day soon arrived when the tickets for the UK tour went
on sale (on 3rd November 2017 at 10 am). As
opposed to the previous occasion when I found myself sat in front of a computer
with about 5 tabs open for different ticket providers and a finger hovering
over the ubiquitous F5 key to enable that all-important refresh function, if I
was able to get hold of some tickets in this instance then it would be a mere
18 months by the time the gig came around since I last saw Moz come out to
play. When I did the same thing back in 2016 to get tickets for what
turned out to be Mozzer’s only UK show of that year in my beloved Mancunia at
the Arena, a record-breaking 21 YEARS had passed since I’d
seen that charming man live in action! I can bear a grudge with the
best of ‘em!
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| Tickets for the First Direct Arena Show in Super Leeds! Yaaas! |
I set about
booking a hotel as near as possible to the Arena in Leeds for Jay and I as soon
as I’d landed the tickets, but changed my mind about 3 times before eventually
settling on one closer to the train station a matter of days before we were due
to go. I always did like to live dangerously! Besides
which, I’m a tight Yorkshire, curmudgeonly old bugger nowadays doesn’t tha
know! HOW FUCKING MUCH for a room PER NIGHT? On yer bike,
son! I saved the best part of £50 by shopping around, so
ner! I’m not made of ruddy money, you know!
As the day
of the gig rapidly approached, I was delighted to find out during the same week
that there would be a MPorium UK Pop Up Shop, AND a Vegan
Feast Festival hosted by the Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen which
was just around the corner from the Arena. Huzzah! And indeed, get
in! I was getting proper giddy by this point, and posting like a good ‘un
on my various social media accounts to let the whole world know just how much I
was looking forward to once again seeing the Beautiful Bastard that is Mozzer
in the flesh!
Finally, it
was the weekend! MORRISSEY DAY, Part 2! For me,
anyway! I was up stupidly early, surprise surprise, and before long Jay
and I were on the train to Leeds in the early afternoon. I wore my Manchester
Arena 20th August 2016 Albert Finney official tee (paired
with a red hairclip) underneath my black Moz Harrington jacket and
a scarf to keep me warm. It was damned cold out, but the sun was shining
so that made me very happy! Once we arrived in the esteemed county of my
birth (a momentous occasion, don’t you know!), we made quick work of finding
our hotel and checking in, then immediately set off to walk over to the
Belgrave.
On the way,
we bumped into a few of my Moz Army chums including Andy Waind, Matt
Page and Charlie Holden which was great, and we had a
natter with them for a few minutes. They’d just come from the Pop Up Shop
as it happens, but Andy decided spontaneously that he wanted to go back for
seconds so he accompanied me and Jay the short distance left to the Belgrave.
When we got there, we met more Moz Army pals, George Bray, Sheridan
Whitehead and Cheryl Prophett, which again was
lovely as it’s always nice to put faces to names.
We found
the spot in the Belgrave where the MPorium was set up, and after much
deliberation I decided to chance the lucky dip, three t-shirts for £15
offer. And boy, am I glad I did! I got 2 of the Camden Pop
Up tees from the event held a few months before which I was rather
pleased with, but the undoubted bargain of the day was the Boxers tee which
I was absolutely thrilled with as I’d planned to get one anyway from the
website that would have set me back £25! So I saved £20 just on that
one! However, the much sought after limited edition (I think!) Detention
Crew tees which had been widely advertised as being available
were not as they hadn’t been delivered, and nobody seemed to
know why. As Toyah (Wilcox) once said, it’s a mystery!
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| MPorium Pop up Shop decor at the Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen |
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| MPorium Pop up Shop Merchandise at the Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen |
Once I’d
spent some of the dosh I’d put aside especially for buying merchandise goodies,
we had a wander around the Belgrave which was a hive of activity as loads of
people were sampling the delicious vegan fayre on offer. We were
starving by this point, so Jay got a slice of pizza with lots of veggies and no
cheese, and I treated myself to a “dirty” (hee hee!) Canadian delicacy called
a “poutine”, the standard one by the name of “The Montreal”. It
consisted of chips, cheese curds (vegan, of course!), and a gorgeous mushroom
gravy, with a few chives thrown on top as a garnish. Fucking lush it
was, a very Northern (England) dish too if you ask me! FIT!
After we’d
satisfied our hunger pangs, Jay and I went for a stroll and slipped down some
Leeds side streets in an attempt to actually find the First Direct Arena.
We literally went all around the houses (and several huge blocks of flats)
before discovering it was 2 minutes from the Belgrave! D’Oh! Well, I
guess it was an opportunity to walk off all the lovely food we’d not long since
scoffed, anyway! As we passed the Arena, some hardcore fans (I’m possibly
looking at YOU, Marianne Price and Katie Griffiths?)
were already outside braving the elements to queue in the freezing winter
wonderland. For those about to ROCK, we salute YOU!
When we’d
got our bearings, we walked back through town and stopped off at a couple of
record shops. We went to Relics Records where we ran into more of the fantabulous Moz Army gang (Paul Rhodes and Stuart Kirk) and had a chat
about what we’d bought from the MPorium, and then Crash Records which I
used to frequent on an indecently regular basis decades before as a teen along
with its mate Jumbo Records, as well as the regrettably
defunct Big Tree Records in my native Huddersfield before Manchester stole
my heart! Crash had a sweet deal whereby they were giving away
freebies. We bagged (see what I did there?) some fabulous The Queen
Is Dead totes simply by flashing our sacred Moz tickets for the show
later.
We decided
it was time to meander back to the hotel after this, to chill out for a bit and
change. I donned my second tee of the day which was a Manchester
Arena 20th August 2016 Morrissey Yellow Shirt bootleg,
lovely little number it is! I matched it with a pretty yellow flower hairclip
as I have a thing for items of clothing and accessories going together, then we
headed out to get some scran before the start of the evening’s entertainment.
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| Me in Zizzi, about to tuck into my rather healthy Green Goddess Salad |
Immediately
after we’d been sated, we walked back up to the Arena and, after we’d gone
through the security checks set up outside and entered the foyer, we made our
way over to the Merchandise stall. I indulged myself with a green Mozzer
LIHS hat and scarf to go with the burgundy ones I’d
already bought from the site a few months back, as well a blue slipmat. I
think it’s always reet grand to have a splendid souvenir from a gig!
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| Me and The Almighty Spacelord of Ashton-under-Lyne, aka Mr Jason Edward Cooke, esquire arriving at the Arena |
We got some drinks from the bar (there was absolutely
no drama this time I’m pleased to report, unlike at Manchester Arena where Jay
and I had to deal with a cheeky little Neo-Nazi Bizzatch trying to jump the
queue!), then made our way to our seats in the lowest level tier. The
view before and below us of the stage and the crowd in the standing area which
was rapidly increasing in size was a wondrous sight to behold. The
recently deceased actor and exhibitor of fine sartorial elegance, the late,
great, Peter Wyngarde (best known for playing the role of the
suave and sophisticated Jason King), stared out at us from the huge
backdrop. Many old tracks were played as Mozzer’s devotees filed into the
auditorium to find their places, and the atmosphere became ever more electric.
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| Peter Wyngarde Stage Backdrop, and crowd gathering in the Standing Area |
Another
member of the Moz Army posse, Richard Blant, came over to say hi
which was really sweet, and I also stumbled upon more members of the crew, Justin
Williams and Dave "Saucy" Fendley when I
nipped to the loo just before the videos started. It was marvellous to
meet so many like-minded people, and especially those I’ve become friendly with
in the “virtual world” as Jay so eloquently put it earlier.
It seemed like
no time at all before the video montage kicked in, which featured the likes
of The Four Tops, James Brown, the New York
Dolls, Dionne Warwick and the Ramones to
name but a few. My personal favourite was The Human League performing
that great new wave electro anthem “Sound Of The Crowd” (Phil
Oakey’s hair was legendary!). I got a bit carried away
enthusiastically mimicking the ace 80s arm swinging movements so deftly
demonstrated by Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall which
attracted a few stares here and there. Fuck it, I was enjoying my little
self and nobody was going to stop me!
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| My VERY happy little face, with dimples beam deployed to generate enough electricity to power the entire Arena! |
The setlist
was nothing less than brilliant, and as well as drawing heavily from the new
album LIHS (“Jacky’s Only Happy When She’s Up On The Stage”, “I Wish You
Lonely”, “I Bury the Living” and “Spent The Day In Bed” being
but a few that were given another welcome outing), some classics were also
thrown into the mix. “World Peace Is None of Your Business”, “The
Bullfighter Dies”, “Jack The Ripper”, “Suedehead”, “Hold On To Your Friends” (wow!)
and “How Soon Is Now?” (double wow, no, in fact, make that
Holy Mother of FUCK!) all got an airing which was wonderful to hear.
Morrissey’s voice was SUBLIME throughout the night, so powerful: it soared like
a majestic eagle. The lad’s on bloody FIRE at the moment!
Another
Smiths track that was performed was “I Started Something I Couldn’t
Finish”, something which was an absolute honour to experience (“I
grabbed you by the Heinz Baked Beans”, I absolutely LOVE that!). The
other non-Smiths cover played apart from Elvis Aaron Presley (The
King!) was a rousing version of “Back On The Chain
Gang” by The Pretenders which I really enjoyed
despite not being a major fan of theirs (sacrilege, I know!), and the old photo
of Chrissie Hynde on the backdrop was cool, too.
Morrissey
was in fine form all evening, and seemed incredibly happy to be in Luxurious
Leeds. When introducing the band, he cheekily claimed that Boz was from
Skipton! Funny man! A somewhat poignant thing Mozzer said though
which gave me (and everyone else present, I’m sure) food for thought was “The
more we try to forget, the more we seem to remember”. That’s some
incredibly profound shizzle right there, y’all!
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| Sincere apologies for the shite quality, but here's Mozzer in action! Woo! |
All too
soon, the show was drawing to a close. When the familiar strains of “Everyday
Is Like Sunday” rang out, I can’t deny that I became VERY emotional,
for that is the song that changed my entire LIFE, FOREVERMORE! The whole
venue sang along, after which Moz and his merry men left the stage for a brief
time.
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| Final Backdrop Image of the night, Mozzer in "Day Of The Dead" Guise |
Having said
all that, MASSIVE respect is DUE to those
hardy souls on the frontline, as it were, willing to risk life and limb to get
their eager little hands on a piece of history! I was very lucky to
recently be given the opportunity to see and smell a piece of Morrissey’s shirt
from his Aberdeen show on this tour that was attended by the proud owner of
said fragment of clothing (Katie Griffiths as mentioned before, who
works in the fantastically eclectic (and eccentric!) Empire Exchange in
Manchester with her gigging companion Paul), and I can
categorically state that the inherent dangers involved in obtaining such a
precious thing are well worth it! I was expecting it to understandably be
a full on Sweaty Betty affair fragrance-wise, but no, blow me if it wasn’t THE
most damned divine cologne that’s ever hit my nostrils in my entire life!
I believe it goes by the name of Incense Avignon and is made
by Comme des Garçons, ruddy gorgeous stuff it is!
Anyhoo, I
digress, back to the matter at hand now. The houselights came up as soon
as IBEH had finished and the band had departed from the stage for the final
time that evening. Jay and I wearily made our way out and decided to go
straight back to our warm and cosy hotel room rather than head over to the
Aftershow event we had tickets for as it was fucking perishing, arctic if the
truth be known, and we were fecking well knackered! This little kitty
likes her home comforts, and I refuse to apologise for it!
What, I
hear you ask, did we get up to when we got back to the hotel? We turned
in for the night and slept quite soundly, well, apart from the rowdy buggers
making a racket coming and going from the pub next door keeping us up, anyway!
The next
morning, we checked out (my tee for the day was a The Queen Is Dead
bootleg) and went to a lovely establishment called Roots and Fruits for breakfast
(my scrambled tofu was scrumptious!), then we wandered over to Jumbo Records
for a mooch and a browse! We then headed over to the station to catch our
train, and on the journey back we came upon yet another fully paid up member
of the Moz Army, the very charming Graham Chard. It was
fantastic to have met so many top peeps over the course of the weekend, and
helped to make our visit to Leeds a very memorable one, along with our Steven
Patrick OBVS!
So then, to
sum it up, we had a FANTASTIC, EPIC night! To have been fortunate enough to see
Mozzer again was ALWAYS going to be a PLEASURE, and NEVER a CHORE! As
well as being the perfect host, the man is a bona fide COMEDY GENIUS!
ANGIE J
COOKE nėe LEWIS
Manchester,
ENGLAND |
| My draft version of this here piece in handwritten and typed formats |
MORRISSEY
– FIRST DIRECT ARENA, LEEDS
SATURDAY,
24 FEBRUARY 2018
The full setlist
for the concert is as follows:
1) You’ll Be
Gone (Elvis Presley)
2) I Wish You
Lonely
3) Suedehead
4) Jacky’s Only
Happy When She’s Up On The Stage
5) Home Is A
Question Mark
6) Munich Air
Disaster 1958
7) I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish (The
Smiths)
8) Who Will
Protect Us From The Police?
9) World Peace
Is None of Your Business
10) Jack The
Ripper
11) Back On The
Chain Gang (The Pretenders)
12) I Bury The
Living
13) When You
Open Your Legs
14) If You
Don’t Like Me, Don’t Look At Me
15) Spent The
Day In Bed
16) My Love,
I’d Do Anything For You
17) The
Bullfighter Dies
18) Hold On To
Your Friends
19) How Soon Is
Now? (The Smiths)
20) Everyday Is
Like Sunday
ENCORE:
21) Irish Blood,
English Heart
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| My spoils from a truly memorable weekend!
For more reviews of the 2018 UK and Ireland Tour dates, as well as lots of other Moz-related delights, please do check out my friend Marianne Price's blog: http://mozzermatters.blogspot.com/
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