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Thursday April 06, 06
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05:30 PM - Plans for the future tour, were all I saw on Channel 4
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It's evidently Morrissey's UK TV station of choice at the moment. Is he into Hollyoaks, I wonder?
Morrissey had a 30 minute graveyard slot tonight, performing four songs and supplying answers to Edith Bowman. He seemed surprisingly at ease for the interview portion of the programme - maybe because there wasn't a studio audience around? It wasn't exactly a classic interview, but the questions posed were relatively on-the-ball; Morrissey wasn't exactly over-effusive, but his answers were full, generous and non-facetious.
Others with better memories than me (or at least video recorders) will, I am sure, give fuller reports of what was said in a few hours' time. But it was nice to hear Moz say such kind words about his British fans - on their rationality and their intelligence. Kind words albeit, I think, words largely undeserved, at least on the former front. I feel rational about most things, but Morrissey - no.
Onwards:
I felt the sound was slightly on the crappy side for the performance part of the concert. Mikey was definitely too prominent in the mix. Mind you, going by what happened at Koko, when all the acts apart from Moz consented to repeat parts of their set so that the TV people could get the sound right, I suspect that again Morrissey would only perform the one time. It's not a complaint; just an observation. Or not even that really: just speculation.
The Voice was also slightly shaky during You Have Killed Me, but the other songs were much stronger. The songs not shown on The Album Chart Show were televised (The Youngest, I Just Want To See The Boy Happy), so at last the British television audience got to see Moz shaking his maracas (they're still green) and approving of his trombonist. Although, to be honest, tonight's trombone performance didn't really merit such approbation.
But Still Ill was just marvellous tonight, it made genuinely thrilling television. I'm going to be hearing it again very soon, too, and without the intermediary services of the cathode ray, which is a really fantastic feeling. Good night, chaps -
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Wednesday April 05, 06
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06:04 AM - Oh, to be in Paris...
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... now that Moz is nearly there.
Less than a week to go now; the fact that today is my last day at work before I submit myself to grand Mozzery is making it seem slightly more real to me. Tomorrow morning I will collect my Al Pal ticket and retrieve my ROTT LP from the post office.
I'll also try and write something of greater substance here, but that's no promise.
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Monday March 27, 06
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06:46 PM - HE DID NOT CANCEL
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The first date of the tour to run by me, and Morrissey did not disappoint. What a day - I gained a new job, another toy panda, a new friend as well as seeing El Moz - how the hell can I begin to describe this to you? Maybe a track listing:
You Have Killed Me
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
I Will See You In Far-Off Places
Filmed at Koko, in the southern bit of Camden, this concert will be televised in the UK at the end of the week. In fact, it will be the only piece of UK TV promotion - Sanctuary adverts aside - in aid of the new single. I feel privileged to have been there.
I nearly wasn't. I had the world's worst tube journey getting to Mornington Crescent from White City. Well, I know you don't care, but I had to change routes four times, was delayed by all of twenty minutes and was on the verge of committing acts of extreme violence immediately prior to reaching the venue. The great British travelling public had a lucky escape, although I must admit that I was quite inexcusably rude to certain people, including - sorry to say - one or two old age pensioners. Oaths were emitted at high volume; I'm sorry, but it couldn't be helped. All in all, my efforts at remaining composed and possibly-almost-sophisticated-if-you-squinted-a-bit entirely blighted, nay nixed, by London Bastard Transport.
If it had just been me on me own I may not have even got in, but I had two dear friends, to whom I had gifted tickets, who had a word with the guy on the door on my behalf, so we could all just walk in as soon as I got there. I feel truly fortunate to know such lovely people. They don't share my sickness, but they did this wonderful thing for me all the same. I'll have to get them both tickets to Al Pal or something.
ANYWAY, so I have laboured, I have suffered, I have benefitted from the kindness of dear friends and I am in. The four of us look around Kokos. There are people here, but not many discerable Moz fans. Where the hell was everyone...??? I do, however, recognise the rentinue of great lumbering blokes camped out on the bars at the front row. Some of them quite familiar faces. Ah yes, I think, it's been a while since I saw Morrissey in concert, but this is what it's like. I haven't got a bar to hold on to so I will get truly squished.
Friends retire to the bar, while I plan to get myself on the other bar somehow. I cajoled another friend of mine to get as close to the stage as we could, and we got in the equivalent of second / third row, right in the middle, behind the Moz lookalike (the 23rd?). And there we stayed.
THANKYOU BTW, to the lovely, lovely man who voluteered to move back so that we could budge forward. Giving quarter to short female persons should always be applauded in a concert situation. Actually, I got the impression that he was not really much of a Moz fan, so it probably wasn't a huge sacrifice for him, but I was touched even so.
And then, all of a sudden, Morrissey was there. Black suit, red shirt, looking like Morrissey. Not overly excited to be back in Camden, I don't think, but there to go through the motions for the camera with just the necessary amount of aplomb - such a pro. He looked better than I had been led to expect; he's a big guy too, these days. I was close enough to see the blues of his eyes, which is always good. My friend got a glance from him as he took to the stage. But she did turn up to the venue at a decent time, unlike me, so she deserved it.
Lack of Mozaddict critical mass means that the audience side of it doesn't really get going. Response is ecstatic in some parts of the audience, but there's not much of a feeling abroad generally. Everyone says rooted to the spot. Unfortunately, I think it's difficult to get away from that if you're filming a TV programme, although that's obviously precisely what Channel 4 are trying to do with this programme.
The voice, I am relieved to say, sounded superb throughout. I think it's fair to say that Moz has recovered from the flu. Despite the lack of audience action - how I missed the pushing and shoving - I think this will make a very good TV recording.
Atmosphere notes done; specifics to follow:
YHKM - Moz changes lyrics to "Tony Visconti is me"
TYWTML - this really sounded excellent; I think it's one of those songs that really comes into its own in the live setting. The coda was very effective; possibly the best bit of the entire gig. Oh, and Morrissey got his maracas out. They were green.
IJWTSTBH - ditto; the addition of trombonist was hugely appreciated by the audeince, but Moz standing back to listen to him was even better: he had this look on his face which was pure 'Ah, yes, just listen to my trombonist'. It doesn't readily lend itself to description, but you'll see it soon enough.
One bit of Moz banter before the last song - Moz asks the audience about Lynn Perrie. Can't remember exactly what was said, but I do remember finding it in me to say something astonishingly stupid. Ah well. If you're going to do it, you may as well be recorded doing it.
IWSYIFOP - Moz changes words to "hard for our flesh to combine", which I think is now pretty standard for this song. The sound was a bit dodgy in the first verse, to my ears. I think this one needs to, uh, rock a bit harder. You'll see what I mean when the TV recording's broadcast. It has the potential to be absolutely enormous, and it's almost there - there's this amazing, overpowering bit of FX half way through in the "Destiny, for some..." verse. The whole thing needs to have that intensity, in my worthless uneducated opinion.
Some of the less Moz-literate members of the audience were visibly shocked by the "If the USA doesn't bomb you" line.
And that was that. Off went Moz. We cheered Boz as he left the stage and he gave us a thumbs up. Some other bands came on after that, but I don't care and neither do you. I was in the bar busting brain cells and gibbering.
The evening went on, of course, in similarly entertaining vein, but I'm not going to write about it here. A good day, all in all. I am actually happy.
& I'm really looking forward to Paris. It's less than two weeks to go now. In fact, I can't help looking around the house to see what I could sell to get me more tickets. I will stop myself doing that, but still - I'm a hopeless case, and I don't care.
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Saturday March 25, 06
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01:04 PM - Addendum
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In the light of recent cancellations and noncomittal phone calls to 3DD, I now think it more likely that Morrissey will not be in Camden on Monday, but I expect I will be outside the door of Koko's before I find out for sure. Oh well, at least it's on the way home...
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Thursday March 23, 06
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03:53 AM - I've added an item to my itinerary
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Thanks to the info on the main board, I have managed to land myself tickets for the recording of The Album Show at Kokos on Monday. And it was all so incredibly easy... I'm amazed and will be walking around in a daze for the rest of the day.
So next week, I may even be able to make a non-trivial entry in this journal...
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Sunday March 19, 06
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02:25 PM - Reader, Beat Author
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I was moved to pen a grumpy email to The Observer offices this morning. For your amusement:
Subject: OMM 31 - "Papal Attraction"
Douglas Coupland confesses that he managed to hold out for 15 years without deigning to conduct an interview. May I suggest that he not return to attempt another in the near future? Fouling up a Morrissey interview is quite some feat, but he certainly managed it in your last issue. Morrissey can occasionally be glib and unrevealing at interview, it is true, but he's always entertaining, and can be genuinely illuminating given creative questioning. If your interviewer feels that his distinctly commonplace observations about the work - not to mention his hangover - are more worthy of public dissemination than the word of his distinguished interviewee, then he needs his head examining.
All best, etc.
& yes, I do know I'm a pompous idiot, but I actually can't help it...
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Friday March 17, 06
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09:39 AM - My Life is a Series of Dull Logistical Problems
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If my life was (nearly) a Moz song title, that would have to be it. It never gets old and its relevance never fades.
I've managed to clear a little of the backlog since I posted here last, anyway, and at least my arrangements for the April dates are now settled. So Paris, Killarney, Dublin, here I come - well, pending renewal of passport, here I come.
But these kind of travel logistics I actually rather like. Possibly I suffer from a slightly trainspottery disposition, but there's something I really enjoy about trawling timetables and locating the right connection to drive me onward. I remember my parents having an old copy of the Thomas Cook European Train Timetable around at home, and I used to spend merry afternoons on the sofa, mug of tea marking a ring on the armrest, planning fantastic journeys to places I'd never seen.
It's not just exoticism, I think - making travel plans has a way of making almost anywhere seem quite alluring. Well, maybe not Portsmouth, but I'm looking forward to the whole London-Truro-Cheltenham on three consecutive nights thing, silly though it is.
Travelling to see Moz on tour also satisfies another long-missed childhood pleasure. In some ways, London is a fantastic place for live music - although, now I come to think about it, there is a strange lack of really good venues - but it does spoil you terribly.
Everything is free to those who are willing to invest a bit in the blag, and this encourages a sense of tiredness and cyncism. Or at least it certainly does with me. Very rarely do you make bookings for something months in advance, and then spend those months really looking forward to it, investing those arrangement with a sense of importance.
I don't think it matters with most artists, but the last time I saw Moz in London - getting on the tube after work to pick up a ticket I'd bought from the box office the night before - it was strangely anti-climactic. It was partly due to the venue, I suppose, but not entirely. I'm all for making life slightly more extraordinary and if Moz isn't worth the effort, I'm not sure who is.
Incidentally, on the off-chance that anyone reading this *is* going to the Cheltenham gig and planning to get back to London or Oxford afterwards, please do let me know how you're planning to do it... thanks!
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Wednesday March 08, 06
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06:27 PM - See The World - Fly Morrissey
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Now I've said it, I feel duty-bound to record it; I'll do my damnest to see this journal through to the end of May. You have my word.
For reasons I'll try to explain in due course, I'm going to be attending enough concerts this time round to make keeping a tour diary seem almost worthwhile, and here seems like a better place to do it than most. So here we go.
At the time those Palladium tickets originally went on sale, it all seemed so far away. I was slightly agog today to realise that the first date on the tour is actually on Monday. Monday! And still I have travel arrangements to finalise... a surprisingly large number, in fact. As of now, I have tickets for, and am definitely going to attend, the following concerts:
11/4 - Paris Olympia
13/4 - Killarney INEC
15/4 - Dublin Olympia
1/5 - Alexandra Palace
19/5 - Portsmouth Guildhall
21/5 - London Palladium
23/5 - Truro Hall For Cornwall
24/5 - Cheltenham Town Hall
27/5 - King's Lynn Corn Exchange
I half-feel I should be trying to get tickets for the second day in Dublin and at least one other of the Palladium gigs. Ooh, and Reading would be nice, wouldn't it?
But I also worry that I may already be overdoing things. I have noticed, for instance, that I am attending more dates than many who post on the discussion board. For me, this is venturing into new and strange territory. I am dusting off various pieces of mental furniture, and they're a fair bit wierder than I remembered them being.
Usually - like most of the other regular visitors to this site, I suppose - I get myself to between two and four concerts on each tour. Since I moved to London in 98, I don't think I've actually left this city in aid of my interest in matters Moz. Although, admittedly, to a gal what lives in the East End like mysen, Brixton and Kilburn seem like a pretty long way away... really.
[An aside:
I was aware of the demands of tradition in my teenage years, and was immersed in Smithdom to a frankly unhealthy extent. I came to London with the intention of brushing all childish quiffs aside and left my even-then hugely impressive collection of Mozzerabilia in the unloving arms of my parents. I think I took the albums with me, but that was it. Very determined I was. So who, then, do you think I met within a few days of moving here? Isn't life just laughable sometimes?
Asides aside...]
Are you still with me, non-existent reader? I was just about to attempt to explain myself. There are, I think, at least three reasons why my gigging tally has risen so spectacularly for the ROTT tour. As tradition dictates, I'll start with that which cuts least close to the bone.
Whatever other accusations are slung my way, the one that I could never hope to rebuff - I would never even try, and I do like a pointless argument - is that I am a southerner. From the East End to the wilds of Essex, to the tames of Dorset and back to the East End again, I am a Southerner - irreedemably and incorrigibly so. I couldn't say I'm proud of it, but neither am I ashamed.
The past few Morrissey tours have not been great for those of us on this particular side (no rights or wrongs from me, please note) of Watford. Lots of opportunity to get yer Mozzer fix in places like Blackpool and Blackburn, not so great for Bournemouth and Bath. Even had I been minded to leave the capitol, my choice of provincial venues would have been pretty limited.
I know that at this point there will be snorts of derision and accusations of feebleness. I am aware that the UK is not the biggest country in the world geographically, but that is missing the point. The Watford Gap is primarily a mental gulf. The North of England is strange to me: people speak strangely there and keep strange customs. Don't even speak to me about Scotland...
I know in my heart that this is bad. I think it's probably partly the impact of a generation of very expensive train fares. I have no doubt that now we have megabus, future generations of Southerners will not be quite so parochial as me. Well, that's an exaggeration, maybe, but you get the idea.
(BTW: Despite all the localist reservations I'm expressing here, I do have great admiration for those who rountinely drive through the desert for hours and cross continents to see Morrissey in concert - it's an extraordinary, wonderful and fantastic thing. I take my beret off to all of yous.)
Not only are the locations better for me this time round, so are the actual venues. Lots of small places, standing room only. I've seen Morrissey seated (me, not him) before, and it lacks something. Lunacy cannot take full hold unless the crowd is rowdy, squashed and generally less than comfortable. I'm convinced of that. And there are benefits to being right at the front of the crowd, crushed right up against the barriers, which we all know about and I surely don't need to go into here.
While it's true that all the concerts save one that I'm going to are standing room only (or at least, I will be standing), the fact that I'm also travelling outside the UK means that the above is not a completely sufficient explanation for my actions. So onwards we go, into the breach.
I always meant to buy tickets for a number of dates on this tour, but not necessarily so many as I have done. In fact, I would have probably just gone to the Palladium dates had I been able to get tickets for all three of them, even though for me that's a distinctly sub-optimal venue. But I didn't get any Palladium tickets, and so I panicked. I am a simple lass, you see, not too smart with me cash, and a tour promoter's dream. At each possible juncture, I committed myself to more and more. In short, I got carried away, and was pleased (? maybe) to discover that I didn't actually care. The threshold was probably passed when I realised that I was actually going to Truro. From thereonin I knew I was going to hell in a Ryanair handbasket.
But why the panic? I am twenty-six. I first saw Morrissey in concert in 95 and have lived through quite a few tours since then without being (too) excessive about it. And at times when I had more disposable income than now, too. What the hell is wrong with me?
At this point I have to make a confession which will diminish me in the eyes of the very few who haven't already made sound conclusions as to the extent of my idiocy. I didn't go to any dates on the Quarry tour. None of them. Even though I could easily have wangled a lot of freebies during Meltdown in particular, I chose not to take advantage of it.
I imagine I will return to this subject, but all I can say is that I made a deliberate decision to blank off a lot of the Quarry palaver. All of it, in fact, other than actually buying the LP. And I mean that in the most literal sense: the record was hanging around on my shelves for at least two months before I worked up the strength to unsheath the vinyl and introduce it to my turntable.
No exaggeration, I promise you. I don't think I stopped caring as such, and I certainly wasn't unaware of what was going on, but I didn't read any of the interviews, see any of the TV appearances - nothing. Since I fell back onto the waggon, I have of course caught up with all the paraphenalia and the songs that go with it. And how it rolls on. That's what makes this deeply strange for me in retrospect: I've always been a bit over-dedicated to this particular cause if anything and yet I was definitely AWOL last time round.
Am I explaining myself at all well here? I suspect that fundamentally it's something I don't quite understand myself. I can think of certain reasons why it happened that way, but none of them really get to the core of the matter for me. I was poor and busy then, but I'm poor and busy now, so what gives?
All I can say is that I was either in remission or denial - and I'm not even sure which, to be honest. I think the degree of publicity around YATQ wrong-footed me somehow, but I'm damned if I can pinpoint exactly why. But in any case, it does get me closer to the reason why I'm going to 9 (and probably 10 or more, I shouldn't wonder) dates this time round. Which is what I intended to explain.
Enough! Prolix should be my middle name. As the kids in this part of the world say, 'this is long for me'.
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