This is the MEN gig review from The Telegraph in full. BOLLOCKS!!!!!

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Revered tunesmith happy to rest on his laurels;Lynsey Hanley reviews Morrissey at MEN Arena, Manchester:

Spending the past six years in Los Angeles seems to have aged Morrissey. Perhaps he has trouble writing songs about the place.

Looking not a day over 50, Manchester's prodigal son elected to spend his 45th birthday in the company of 20,000 well-wishers in the city that has provided him with more than 20 years of astonishingly fecund lyrical inspiration.

With a single in the top three and a public profile that's rarely been so high or so positive, the former Smiths singer had plenty to live up to, and seemed painfully aware of the fact. As befits a man who has written dozens of exquisitely phrased songs bemoaning the yawning gap between expectation and reality, he had the look of someone whose balloon had just popped because he couldn't stop blowing it up.

"Regrets, I've had a few…too many to mention," crooned the greying cove, screwing his eyes up in awkward mirth and ripping into The First of the Gang To Die from the new album. He moved little, where once he would have thrown himself about the stage as if he was trying to shake off a wasp. The palpable static that filled the air before his appearance dissipated along with whatever it was that was holding up his quiff.

Of course, many were too rapt to notice. There's always been something unsettling about the extreme bouts of homosocial bonding that take place at Morrissey gigs, from the heroic attempts of young men to leap onstage to bear-hug their hero, to the fact that the front third of the audience melts into one giant lump of swaying man-dom as soon as he opens his mouth.

But once the initial excitement wore off - along with the novelty of hearing several Smiths songs, including a brutally funky Headmaster Ritual - what was left was an ageing man who looked content to soak up the adulation without giving an awful lot back.

The single Irish Blood, English Heart was stirring enough, but the undisguised boredom with which his bear-hugging disciples greeted the mid-tempo dirges that make up the rest of the album was disturbing to behold. The rest of us were barely even awake.

What began as a traditional mid-set lull opened up into a chasm of tedium that threatened to swallow up the whole arena. The irony of choosing another Smiths song, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, for the encore, was doubled. Perhaps the light finally has gone out.
 
yup pure bollocks
we may have stopped jumping about at the front for the slow songs but we hugged and sang along to every word and gasped in awe....we bonded during i'm not sorry and then lost our shoes and our wallets during shoplifters
 
What a f***ing idiot, writen by one of Morrissey's scourge's. I hate f***ing journalists who are obviously assigned reviews or interviews with people who they clearly hate before the thing has started.
Next time they should ask someone with an ounce of respect for the man to do a review.
 
This critic's whole argument is based on Moz's age, what f***ing crap, he's MIDDLE aged
 
Or better: a neutral reporter, to prove just how GREAT sat night was
 
it's true though

Moz hasn't been playing a very invigorating set this tour. Most new songs are slow, and if you don't know them very well (who does) it could bore the socks off you.
 
Re: This critic's whole argument is based on Moz's age, what f***ing crap, he's MIDDLE aged

i was there and it was brilliant, reporters more like wankers
 
No it's not, though

Not a very invigorating set? Interesting. Let's see:

First Of The Gang To Die’
‘Hairdresser On Fire’
‘Irish Blood, English Heart'
‘Headmaster Ritual’
‘I Know It's Gonna Happen’
’How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?’
‘Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice’
A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours’
‘Shoplifters Of The World Unite’
‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’

Were you actually there?

> Moz hasn't been playing a very invigorating set this tour. Most new songs
> are slow, and if you don't know them very well (who does) it could bore
> the socks off you.
 
How is 'I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday' invigorating? Were YOU actually there?
 
Just because it's not upbeat doesn't mean it's not invigorating

Songs can inspire vigour without power chords, etc.
 
Re: Just because it's not upbeat doesn't mean it's not invigorating

> Songs can inspire vigour without power chords, etc.

True. But the original poster said: 'Moz hasn't been playing a very invigorating set this tour. Most new songs are slow, and if you don't know them very well (who does) it could bore the socks off you.'

I Know It's Going To Happen Someday is as ponderous as they come. Don't get me wrong, it's a classic. But slower numbers are more likely to be boring if you don't know the song etc
 
Yeah, Yeah, but let's not get pedantic about it, it was a great, great, very *invigorating* gig!
 
Re: Very well written and true Article

Bollocks, Bollocks, Bollocks

How can anyone who's ever liked Morrissey give THAT gig a poor review. It's obvious that Lynsey Hanley (not original 'birth certificate' name, surely?) used to write for the likes of the NME/similar during the mid 90's.

That gig was bloody amazing. Far, far more moving than when I saw him last. The only let down was the slightly muted crowd response - the performance was awesome!
 
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