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X-Posure Listener Blog 6 - Morrissey

added 08 August 2011 at 17.35

Read XFM listener Catherine Ellis' blog on Morrissey's Brixton gig here.

"Having last seen Morrissey during the day on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury (some time around the First of the Gang to Die period) and, admittedly, being a bit of a fair-weather Morrissey fan, I was looking forward to hearing a few hits and hopefully a few controversial “you omnivores will go to hell” comments.

Brixton Academy (sorry, O2 Academy Brixton…) is my favourite gig venue so I had high hopes, although this was the first time I’ve seen a gig from the Circle.

Being a novice I got there far too late to get a decent seat and had to stand right at the back. Not a huge problem – view wasn’t bad and the sound was good.

A backdrop of the Italian actor Anthony Franciosa provided the visuals. It was a subdued, Sunday night crowd and the Circle certainly appeared to be the place where “the fans who remember The Smiths” were hanging out.

First song - Smiths’ crowd-pleaser, ‘I Want The One I Can’t Have’ - got things off to a good start, followed by ‘Irish Blood English Heart’. The crowd perked up considerably.

I felt that there then followed a fairly long lull, as new material was interspersed with lesser known tracks. Enjoyable, as Morrissey’s haunting vocals rang out clearly through the Academy but, as I say, I was waiting for the hits I could sing to. "

Half an hour later, old classics, such as ‘Every Day Is Like Sunday’ and ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’, got us all singing along again. But not before a couple of “Morrissey musings” were shared with us.

Mind you, after his recent, interesting and contentious take on the horrific Norway massacre, I did find “Do you think that David Cameron has ever been to Tottenham? I don’t think so” a little bit lame.

A “Meet Your Meat” video accompanied Meat is Murder - presumably designed to shame us all into giving up our KFC. It didn’t really achieve the required impact, as Mr Franciosa was still staring moodily out at us from the screen (which meant that you couldn’t really follow the video images) but, ah well, the thought was there.

All in all it was a decent Sunday night gig. Finishing with ‘First of the Gang to Die’ made me leave with a smile on my face and a tune in my head. Good stuff."

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