Apologies for coming to this late. It struck me as quite an unusual Morrissey gig, and I wanted to give some thought to why this might be so, before posting.
Firstoff, the venue itself was heeyoooge, not quite stadium/arena level but not intimate either. The Alexandra Palace felt weirdly like being at an outdoors gig but, uh, under glass; I couldn't decide why it had been chosen, whether there might be some particular Mozzine resonance? In any case, getting there necessitated a Tube trip to Finsbury Park, a short train ride then a surprisingly rural (for London) walk up a hill. View from the top was nice, and having to trek there - in the company of fellow pilgrims - added to the sense of faint religiosity, like climbing to a hill temple.
Actually, I was quite surprised at how... I dunno, straight the audience seemed compared to the more obviously queertastic mix at the Royal Albert Hall a few years back. Perhaps this is a reflection of Moz's triumphant return to the mainstream. There was the usual gratifying sprinkling of ageing Teds in dark denim, and the occasional splendidly-brylcreemed dyke. Apparently Will Self was there, but I didn't see him. Nearest thing to celebdom was an Attitude journalist in an alarming anorak.
Anyway, there was the usual cranking up of anticipation before he came on (eclectic pre-Moz music included You'll Never Walk Alone), but perhaps not as intensely as I've seen in the past - again, possibly a result of the larger venue - before La Moz appeared. Black shirt (later change to white, then finally yellow, with teasing glimpse of bare flesh and shirt tossed into the piranha pit as per usual) and fairly resilient-looking quiff, greying attractively. Boy band (Boz Boorer, in particular, turning to pork) in matching t-shirts. Theatrical en masse bow to the audience, "for what you are about to receive, may you be truly... sorry", then straight into First Of The Gang To Die, a good stompy singalong starter, then You Have Killed Me, which sounded excellent.
And here's where it was unusual. After You Have Killed Me and The Youngest Was The Most Loved (the new single but, sadly, no "there is no such thing in life as normal" choir of children onstage), came the first Smiths song of the evening, Still Ill. Later he played Girlfriend In A Coma and How Soon Is Now? as a big crashy finale. Predictably, there was lots of jumping around from the diehard Smiths fans - and yeah, there was something magical about hearing those tunes sung live again - but... for me, something about the mix didn't work. The lack of Marr, maybe, or the fact that Morrissey's vocal style has evolved since those days. Either way, the Smiths songs sounded slightly tinny to my ear compared with the lusher, more orchestral Ringleader material.
Also, I may have been in the minority there, but I'd have liked less reworking/reanimation of Smiths classics and more from Morrissey's solo oevre: where was Suedehead, Every Day Is Like Sunday, Now My Heart Is Full, etc., etc.? The playlist was mainly the new album (which was fine - I Will See You In Far Off Places, Life Is A Pigsty and In The Future When All's Well all sounded fresh and, in the latter case, even bouncy) plus, interestingly, Trouble Loves Me, from the much-maligned Maladjusted album and a rousing encore (Morrissey stagily having to be 'dragged back on' by his band) of Irish Blood, English Heart, in which "the English are sick to death of Labour" took on a particular piquancy.
(He didn't sing one of my favourites, Dear God, Please Help Me, possibly because of the more sexually explicit lyric. Alternatively, I have a theory that Morrissey avoids certain tracks in his stage show - Sunny, Come Back To Camden, Swallow On My Neck - because they're about specific lovers, or love objects, and he finds them too intimate for public performance. But that could be bollocks. Or "explosive kegs".)
In terms of audience banter, La Moz seemed in an ever odder, more ambivalent mood than usual. There was the usual slightly embittered preoccupation with supposed mistreatment (after Girlfriend In A Coma he commented, "Radio 1 gave that no airplay at all at the time... nothing's changed") and a barbed thankyou to his fans for Ringleader's "week in the sun... I see the album's now been deleted". As is his wont, he altered the lyrics of several songs for largely impenetrable reasons (in You Have Killed Me, the second line became "Fellini I'll be"; in You Are A Work Of Art, after "and I would give you my heart, that's if I have one", he added "and I do"). Conversely, he explicitly denied the Morrissey's-in-love media speculation around Ringleader - "so if there's someone out there...".
Perhaps it was the contrast of Smiths songs and new material which jarred slightly; I'm not sure. Perhaps it was the mainstreaminess, which mapped onto more imposing stage security and, as a result, no clumsily homoerotic stage invasions - which have been a hallmark of previous, smaller Moz gigs, and which I missed here. Don't get me wrong: it was a good concert but, for me, a little unsatisfying in a way I can't easily put my finger on. Perhaps it's just that, when it comes to Morrissey's body of work, we all have our individual ideas of what is and isn't canonical - and, on this occasion, he didn't play enough of my Morrissey songs. |
