I have a short review of the gig if anyone's interested. It was amazing, but that was inevitable really. Morrissey was on top form, full of energy and passion as always. I saw him in Italy at the beginning of the tour and this one was just as good, it's remarkable that standards haven't dropped five months in. In fact, the setlists are now longer, 20 songs instead of 17. He obviously enjoys doing the shows - I think he once said that he feels most alive when performing on stage, and I feel most alive when he's performing on stage too, so long may they continue.
A few of the things he said... "Tonight will be death, or dishonour." "Do you know how old I am? I'm 32." "I'd like to say thank you to Caaadiff, whatever happens, I love you."
The highlights for me were Trouble Loves Me, World Peace, The Queen is Dead (Some lyrics were changed, 'her very lowness with her head in a sling,
I'm not sorry but it sounds like a wonderful thing.' 'So I checked all the registered historical facts and I
wasn't surprised to discover.' 'I swear to god I
still don't know what drugs are'. What She Said, Suedehead (I think he said 'you had to sneak into my room
just to see my utter gloom.' Paris, Stop Me, Sunday, I'm Not a Man, Bullfighter Dies, First of the Gang. Ok so the whole gig was a highlight (of my life).
The power (?) went off during Speedway, after 'you won't smile until my loving mouth is shut good and proper forever'. When it came back on he carried on as if nothing had happened, so perhaps it was deliberate, I don't know.
Anyway the subject matter is clearly cheese... so onto that... I didn't see any cheese panini's being sold. So that's a relief, as it's true that there's as much cruelty, if not more cruelty, in the dairy trade as there is in the meat trade. Like humans, cows produce milk for their babies, but because people quite like it on their cereal or in a light snack such as a cheese panini, the calves are taken from their mothers and killed, some are shot at birth and some are exported abroad and killed at the slaughterhouse for the meat trade (veal). The females are made pregnant over and over again, while living in horrific conditions, going through the heartache of having her babies taken away, and then she herself is killed for meat at the end. Banning meat products (and being so passionate about it that gigs are cancelled if venues don't comply), while allowing dairy products is of course hypocritical, this is a fact not an opinion. But like I said I didn't see cheese panini's (and you can get vegan cheese by the way).
Meat is Murder was written before the horrors of the dairy (and egg) industries had been exposed at large. (See
http://www.whitelies.org.uk/resources/video-footage/dark-side-dairy
and
http://www.viva.org.uk/what-we-do/our-work/chicken-eggs) It was before the internet FFS. Just because Morrissey (along with the majority of us) wasn't vegan then, doesn't mean he isn't now. If he isn't yet, it's only a matter of time, as with his morals he couldn't possibly continue to eat cheese etc after seeing the footage. I have faith...
One more thing - what's with this obsession with how many 'youngsters' there are at his shows? I don't hear this being said about other (older) musicians after their gigs - Bowie, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Led Zeppelin, The Who, etc, so why him? It's ridiculous. Music is timeless and ageless.
