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Morrissey
meets his audience, and plenty of them made the most of it, I do have to
say (I lost count of the number of people who surfed the crowd to get a
brief touch of their idol). One girl who made it onto the stage must have
watched Sable on Channel 5's WCW wrestling show, as she leapt onto Moz
and executed a perfect scissor-lock around his waist. Somehow, Morrissey
managed to stay on his feet while vainly trying to sing (the security weren't
having any of that, and prised her apart from the recipient of her affection
pronto). Where I was standing, that incident got laughs aplenty.
"Well
tonight Matthew, I'm going to be - BILL HALEY!"
Best
known to his nearest and dearest as Boz Boorer.
The
Moz gets to grips with adoring public once again. As well as having to
endure some jostling behind me, one neanderthal security lady kept standing
in my way on purpose when I tried to take a pic (boo!), hence another blurred
photo for you to peek at.
Another
fan gets helped towards the back door (the security
didn't
waste time prising them apart from Morrissey).
Moz
tugs at the heartstrings (and his T-shirt) during 'Now My Heart is Full'.
It's amazing to note how strong his vocals have become, a far cry from
the yodelling style that made my oldest brother Cornie (a funk, jazz and
fusion fan, with some good old-fashioned soca thrown in, I'll have you
know) do derisive mimicking of his singing when he first heard The Smiths
on the old 'Crown' "portable" radiogram of mine that I'd repaired after
it had spent years down in the basement of my old home (but he can talk,
his pop cassettes included 'Money For Nothing' and 'Invisible Touch'!).
All of the songs were beautifully sung that night, and the audience sang
along too (including me!).
Gary
Day (bassist with tattoos. Does he have a swallow on his neck, I wonder?)
& Boz giving it some during 'Meat Is Murder', one of three Smiths song
performed that night. It was lovely to hear those songs again, as they
were a huge chunk of the soundtrack to the tail-end of my adolescence.
Other old faves played were 'Break Up The Family' (from 1988's 'Viva Hate'),
'Billy Budd' (off 1994's 'Vauxhall & I')
and
'Is It Really So Strange?' (b-side off 'Sheila Take A Bow',
the
first Smiths single I ever bought).
Before he did 'Meat Is Murder', Moz referred to the Windsor's golden boy
(Prince William, to those in the know) and the foxhunt debate, before repeating,
almost mantra-like, "The Slave Trade, the Holocaust, the meat industry".
For an encore, he did 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me', which
had the whole of the Forum singing and swaying as one (while Jill and a
lady behind me tried - in vain - to get on the stage).
The show finished at that point, and with Frank Sinatra crooning 'My Way',
I broke my habit of the last few years and bought a lime-green tour T-shirt
(my mum approves of it, the pic on the front isn't "satanic" in her eyes!).
Unchaining my little red Moulton from
the
rails outside, I tiptoed past the vendors and their posters/T-shirts, popped
into a local chippy (I had nothing with meat, I have to add!), before cycling
off towards home.
