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Athens, Greece (Nov. 6, 1999)

...and if i seem a little ecstatic well that's because i am- a review

Posted By: gladioli <[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, Nov. 7 1999, at 10:30 a.m.

A statement first: This was the most amazing night of our lives. I’m using plural cos I know I’m speaking for all the Greek fans!!

The sold-out (1700 tix) show was scheduled to start at 10 pm. My boyfriend Christos “Vic” and I were the first to arrive outside the venue at 3pm. We had traveled from London to see le Mozzer in our country so we wanted it to be special. Luckily enough, the moment we arrived there we saw the tour bus stopping outside the venue for some entourage-people to get off; no-one very important although we saw Gary, Boz and Spike sleeping in the bus and Alain was waving to us laughing. He seemed to be happy! We found out that they had just arrived from the airport from Salonika where they had played the previous night. The bus left after 2 minutes and we saw a guy on a motorbike following them (he later came to me and said: “if you find me a ticket I’ll tell you in which hotel they are.” I couldn’t find him a tic of course cos I didn’t know anyone who wanted to sell theirs, least of all me! And in any case we did find out where they were from a guy who works in the club, they were at Hilton International- the poshest hotel ever!

Our friends Basil “Mortimer” and Nikoleta “Melmoth” arrived after a while. They had seen Moz the previous night in Salonika and managed to meet Robbie (a guy from his crew who’s very close to him) who was terribly kind and took to the Man some presents our friends had bought for him and brought back to them signed singles as well as two t-shirts, which Moz signed with “Morrissey Wishing”. The great thing is that Nikoleta also put an envelope (together with the other wonderful presents she sent him) with our photos from 2 years ago at the Battersea concert and wrote comments on the back. So now Moz will have our pics on his fridge!!!

The four of us were alone outside Rodon club until about 6 pm when the first people arrived. We were standing in the front of the doors because we Greeks are not very fond of orderly queues and we wanted to make sure we were the first to go in. We talked to a lot of lovely people while waiting there and we also met Julia from True to you, who was terribly nice.

By 7:30 pm there was a queue of some 100 people and thing had started to get tense in a good way. All the people we know were there and everyone was really excited. Remember: Morrissey had never played Greece before and it was a very special occasion for the hundreds of fans. The security crew had come out and as we were at the front we had the chance to talk to them for a bit. Apparently it was the first time that they were so very organised at Rodon club although it is the main venue for pop and rock concerts in Athens! One guy told us that he should have played for 3 nights- the demand for tix was overwhelming!

Just after 8:30 pm (what seemed to us like a century) the doors opened and we were the first to get in. The venue was full very very quickly which surprised the club people who said they’d never seen such an eagerness to see an artist before! Another great comment I heard from one of the photographers who were waiting in front of the stage: “God,” he said “this is amazing! I’ve never seen something like this before. And the audience is so different, people seem to be special.” I thought that was a great thing to hear from someone who had nothing to do with Moz and his fans.

The support act, Konstantinos B., was great. He came out at 10 pm with his synthies and great lyrics and although the majority of people didn’t seem to know he was playing (it hadn’t been anounced in a true Greek way!!) he got a very enthusiastic reception from the audience because he is very respected and he’s a lovely guy. He did his very discreet set in 20 mins knowing that everyone was dying to see Moz – patience was not in the air!

When the preshow tape started playing I started to realise what I was doing there and my heart was beating fast. He came out just after 11 pm. “Athina, we are here to play for you – So take it!” People went totally mad at that point! He looked so unbelievably gorgeous and in good spirits… Here is the set list, not in very good order I’m afraid:

- (Drums from) The Operation
- You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
- The Boyracer
- Billy Budd
- Reader Meets Author
- Is It Really So Strange?
- Hairdresser On Fire
- Trouble Loves Me
- Lost
- Tomorrow
- Break Up The Family
- Now My Heart Is Full
- Meat Is Murder
- Alma Matters
- November Spawned A Monster
- Speedway
Encore: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

He was wearing a white shirt, dark blue jacket and matching trousers. No Mexican belt: his belt had HECTOR written on it. No WestHam Boys Club T this time either. He was fantastically fit, seemed happy and confident, gave us the impression that he was singing for each and everyone of us. Here are some things we can remember: he was chatty and was responding very well to what the audience said (he replied to me twice!).

After You’re Gonna … I said to him: We love you, Stephen – and he replied: I don’t believe you!
Just before Billy Budd I think, he said: “It’s great to be here after all these years. I’m so glad you waited, so very glad you waited all these years!” which was a fantastic thing to say.
Nikoleta and I said to him: Where is your WestHam t-shirt?-he didn’t get it the first time, so we said it again and he said: Oh, it’s true, I’ve got one but you won’t see it.
People were shouting song titles and one of them said: Mute Witness. Moz said: What? The guy said it again. And Moz said very surprised: Mute Witness! Why?? And laughed! It was a very funny moment!
He did the banana thing again which made people laugh, and when he threw it, Thodoros caught it, I think- he later tried to get him to bite it without much success!
Basil “Mortimer” shouted to him: You handsome devil, you! And Moz smiled- a very naughty smile!
When people started shouting MORRISSEY-MORRISSEY he said: You know that one but this is called Lost.
The stage was only about 1 m. away from the front row where we were and although it was impossible to jump on the stage because of tight security he touched our hands loads of times. I’m ecstatic to say that at some point early on in the show he came in front of me, looked me in the eye and gave me his hand which I caressed: such a soft lovely hand. We touched another 3-4 times and I must admit I was very tempted to take his ring from his hand but then I thought it would be very embarrassing if it was something very special to him!
Some people had flowers with them (chrysanthemums) which he took and threw back to us. He also did that we the cigarettes he got from the crowd.
We were just in front of Alain who looked fab as usual and gave me a few smiles. At some point I said to him “Thank you, Alain!” and he seemed to appreciate it and blinked. He probably recognised me from when he saw me outside the venue earlier that day.
The encore was something special: the Man came out in a sailor’s outfit!!!!!! He was amazing! We were hoping that he would throw the top to us but he didn’t. He left the stage saying We love you, thank you thank you thank you! The band left a minute later and Alain was shouting We love you and made a bow which drove people insane!

I think Moz has never been better: his voice is sublime (Break Up The Family was a work of art), his quiff is up there in the sky (!), his face and body look divine… Meat Is Murder was so powerful he may have convinced the least vegetarian-oriented people in Europe (the Greeks) to stop eating meat. He did convert me! It was an AMAZING performance!

The show lasted for 1 hour and 30 mins, and people did not seem to want to leave the venue. We met people whom we knew were not massive fans who were literally awestruck: a friend of mine who was always making fun of me for loving him madly, he came to me and said: Marianthi, he’s God-nothing more nothing less!

Now we’re heading off to London for the four shows. It’s going to be fab, we know but it’s going to be different- yesterday’s show was a dream coming true and nothing can take is away from us!

We left the south again, we traveled north again… See you in London!

Millions of thanks and kisses to: Mortimer and Melmoth, Yota, Julia, our two Turkish friends who traveled from Istanbul for the two Greek gigs, Thodoros, Nikolas, Dimitris… everyone we met who made this soooo special! THANK YOU!

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