Friday 30 October 2009

Mozza: The Pope of Mope


Apparently refreshed and back to normal after last weekend's well-publicised collapse, Morrissey played the O2 Academy in Leeds last night and, I have to say it - he was magnificent.

Vanessa is "the Morrissey fan" in our family rather than me. But, although I had been to see him once before, I'd actually forgotten how good he was.

He is often regarded as the most depressed - and some might say depressing - man on the planet, and the vast majority of his songs include lyrics which back this up.

I had always thought that a lot of his "life is sh*t" stuff was very much tongue in cheek - until I saw him interviewed on one of the music channels earlier this year. And the interview suggested that, in reality, he really is that dark.

But leaving all of this aside, he shook the venue to its rafters last night. Playing a combination of old Smiths songs, a handful of solo hits and tracks from his newly-released album of "B" sides, he gave an energetic and vocally outstanding performance which, right from the outset, had the 2,000-plus crowd eating out of his wavy hand.

Of course, no Morrissey performance is complete without a selection of off the wall one-liners and last night was no different. My personal favourites included:
  • "Home is a question mark" and
  • "What is a song?"
I'll leave you to decide what the heck he was on about.

But, no doubt about it, a great night out and a lanky streak of misery well worth seeing if you get the chance.

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