Frankly, I would be. But when I was at college in Preston in about 1987 the Smiths played the Guild Hall. For about 10 minutes. Until some idiot threw a sharpened coin at Moz at landed him in hospital. fwiw a work colleague saw him at Brentwood earlier this week and, although he enjoyed the gig, he complained that Morrissey only played 75 minutes including the encore.

Two songs does not constitute a gig, so I presume refunds for tickets will be given, but it would be lovely if people sued him for the cost of trains, petrol, time, babysitters etc.

plays longer that 75 mins. Think he claimed once that if he sang longer than 80 mins a night he would get lockjaw and die. Or something like that.

Went to see Fun Lovin Criminalks once and Huey got a bottle which smashed him full on the head about halfway thru. he still played the gig, albeit w\o his usual humour and actually apologised for being grumpy. Ended up having a few stiches for his trouble.

Moz is a flouncing ponce I'd say

and she was abso-bloody-lutely furious. The C-word was bandied freely around.
He doesn't half give his fans a hard time.

Lemmy taking offence at that, but Steven has made himself a target

..are way behind him. And if he's ever invited back I suspect he wouldn't pull the same stunt, plastic or glass.

'Something Is Tickling My Skull' at the time?

One fan said: "I'm just shocked and really disappointed. It takes just one idiot to ruin what was going to be a fantastic gig. We just hope he comes back to Liverpool again.

"We know drinks get thrown at a lot of gigs but he was hit pretty hard and looked shocked when it happened. I'm disappointed but I'm not surprised he refused to come back on. There's so many disappointed people here."

Echo Arena spokeman said: "We are reviewing CCTV evidence to ascertain exactly what happened. We have a strict policy of no glasses being allowed in the arena and we also decant all drink from bottles into plastic glasses at events of this kind."

It will be interesting to see whose pocket this comes out of. I suspect it will be the fans, as always. Surely this goes with the territory when playing in front of a friendly rowdy bunch of loyal fans. A real trooper would have dealt with it from the stage and the miscreant would have been thrashed by roadies, er, I mean removed from the Arena. That's how Freddie sorted out a knifefight in front of him at Leeds Uni.

with a 'twisted sphincter' then?

I don't agree with people throwing stuff but by all reports this was half full plastic glass that barely touched the guy. The fact he pulled out of Wossie on the radio this morning due to being ill suggests that he may have used the incident as a get out of jail free card.

imagine turning up for a meeting at work and someone just threw a mug at you the minute you stood up to give a presentation.

How many of you seem to think that artists should just accept being assaulted. Is it the X-factor smiley happy robots that have stopped people thinking of singers as real people?

How long before the first Hitler Downfall on Morrissey walks off in Liverpool clip?

a gig is hardly like a meeting, behave!

lets get this right. He's 50 yrs old, collapsed on stage last week, and some clown launches a pint pot at him.

What was in it? I dont know, and lets be fair, neither do you. If you want someone to continue after getting hit on the head by a missile, go and watch someone else, because the world and his wife know that it aint gonna be morrissey.

Dont blame Morrissey, dont blame the venue, blame the idiot who decided that after spending £35 on a ticket, he'd throw a pint at the guy performing. Dont slate the artiste, slate the moron in the crowd.

adoration for him. He's revelling in their touchiness and gets a bit splashed with beer. Probably not malicious. He could have said something (a la Dee Snider) but he doesn't. He flounces off.
I'm well aware of the Costello "Suit of Lights" song, but if you court the adoration of the masses, you can get knocked about. It's hardly a new phenomenon is it?
If he was that ill, why didn't he cancel?
I'm not defending the idiot that threw the pint btw, but Morrissey seems to continually test the loyalty of his fans.

Morrissey probably felt that the glass that hit him was half-empty, but no Mozza, it's half-full...

ill then

Morrissey walked off stage at the Portsmouth Guildhall on The Smiths's Meat is Murder tour back in 1985 when some idiot gobbed a greeny at him and it landed right in his open throat;yuk!(Pompey was very late in accepting punk was finally over). He came back on stage after about 10-15 minutes, only for the PA to fail towards the end of the gig. Full power was resumed fairly quickly but it was a very odd night.

...a Morrissey quote from about 1985, back in the day when he was camper than Su Pollard wrapped in tinfoil.

I couldn't find it, but in it he extolled the violent, almost animal riotousness of Smiths "disciples" (as he called them) at their concerts.

Fast forward twenty-four years, with the money in the bank, with him built like a shick brithouse and with a posse of minders that Nick Griffin would turn down for being too psychotic, and all of a sudden it's tears before bedtime when there's a spot of the old "back of the head with a plastic cup" going down.

This from the man who was once so besotted with thuggery that he dedicated one of his albums to John Bindon.

Pffff...

Something happens and within an hour or two you can watch it from the comfort of your armchair\hovel

I've had worse paper cuts. Petulant old sod!

Oh Reggie Kray, do you remmber my aim?
Irish stout, English blood
I started a pint that i couldn't finish
Thats how people throw up
Something is grazing my skull
There's A Light Ale That never Goes Out

etc etc etc

Last two Guardian tweets sum up this nonsense:
Fans in uproar after Morrissey storms off during performance http://bit.ly/1As643
And perhaps more saliently:
Being shot at while trying to disarm a bomb – just a day at work http://bit.ly/3iEPg6

He just didn't fancy it. A Sunday league-style hangover-induced 'injury' if ever I saw one.
Did it once or twice myself.

surely he can afford a decent towel. Recently he's been hit and returned to the stage. I wonder what makes this so different?
Also he's a petulant miserable sod as anyone who knows him will tell you. That's why he's got no friends.

As I said above - I was right near the front - saw it all - he calculated it was wrthing of going off - trousering the cash with no come back - and legged it (no doubt rubbing his hands with glee inthe dressing room) What an arse

i don't blame him. I just don't understand why someone would do this.I saw Bob Dylan at the Echo Arena this year where a fan tried to get on stage, luckilly the bouncers managed to wrestle him away. Now he might just of wanted to shake Dylans hand i don't know but imagine if it was something more sinister we could of been denied the Christmas album.

In King Kenny's Court.

Always going to end in tears or triumph. Sadly the former.

at the Olympia Terry Hall was hit with a similar missile in a similar manner. His reaction? A terse 'Thanks, knobhead'
I can't understand why anyone would go to a gig and throw beer a the stage (esp given the arena's prices)but this is a bit of a non event - are we using the phrase 'truculent and unreliable' on this?

is okay in 8 year olds but he just looks daft. He must have faced and coped with similar situations hundreds of times in his performing career.

If you encourage a crowd to participate you have to accept that some idiot will go too far. So you might stop and have a word, but you don't flounce.

Oh please, Mozzer, you spend half your time encouraging participation and adoration and some tosser chucks a plastic glass. I loved the Smiths, but a vaudeville act desperately topping up his pension plan does not entertainment make. Heaven knows you're petulant now.

If Robert Fripp detects a camera flash, he's off the stage in a trice. I have a live recording somewhere, the last 30 mins of which consist of the crowd wondering he's gone, and someone from the road crew explaining that they've let Fripp down, they've let the band down, and worst of all, they've let themselves down...

Back in the good (bad) old days at Reading, I had the utter pleasure of seeing Meatloaf taking a still-steaming shit parcel to the mooey.

Pretty much made my day.

It was his own fault. He'd just dodged a 2 litre bottle of piss chucked maliciously at his noggin, and was looking somewhat over pleased with himself.

I think he might have flounced off, the big girls blouse.

claimed he supported Mozza once and was backstage when Moz came off in a terrible state as someone had thrown a sausage at him. I'd like that to be true as Metallica had a whole pig thrown at them bit by bit at Donington once.

and let's not forget Joe Jackson and the Crystal Palace swan.

I once saw him throw a pint pot into the audience. A big glass one, full of drink. I do think he was toasting us but let go and was all apologetic.

So there is some kind of sport for chucking stuff at artists for whom you have paid good money to go and see. In what sense is that (a) sensible and (b) acceptable? No matter who it is, or what their past record is, a performer deserves respect as a basic human right. Is there anyone here who likes having a pint of lager thrown at them under any circumstances?

I'm not even a fan of Moz particularly but I don't blame him for walking off.

but to abandon an entire evening because of one idiot and waste the time and money of several thousand people rather than just ejecting the fool and changing your shirt?

Walk off, fine - that sends a message to anyone other tools but to leave the building smacks of oversensitive petulance.

and he is dull and he is plain.

Next!

of 'A Song From Under The Floorboards'?

reached the end of the road?

He's knocking on a bit, he's not been well, he's been making the same record for 20 years... I say that as a bit of a fan. This smacks of burn-out to me. The plastic glass wot broke the camel's spine. Maybe. I understand people being peed-off about it, but this kind of behaviour comes from somewhere, surely?
Or maybe enough with the amateur psychology...

What is it with performers and Liverpool audiences? Here's what happened when Goldfrapp played at the University this time last year...

He's an odd sod. Always has been; always will be. He's not like other people, even other artists who are odd in their own way. I'm not a particular fan of his but I have come to respect him in the same way that I respect John Lydon - you realise it's not an act and that they are really that peculiar and, from this, we can derive pleasure. Mozzworld is not as Wordworld is. If he wants to have a petulant flounce and be all tortured.. hey.. it's his own fanbase he's alienating.

He's an odd sod. Always has been; always will be. He's not like other people, even other artists who are odd in their own way. I'm not a particular fan of his but I have come to respect him in the same way that I respect John Lydon - you realise it's not an act and that they are really that peculiar and, from this, we can derive pleasure. Mozzworld is not as Wordworld is. If he wants to have a petulant flounce and be all tortured.. hey.. it's his own fanbase he's alienating.

...couple of songs in, gets a plastic beer bottle on his bonce, mid-song.

End of the song he says "Don't throw that shit on stage"

end of...

until he's let you down."

Or so Mr. Hepworth said in one of the podcasts. Fortunately, I've never been a Morrissey fan, so I couldn't care less. But as a Liverpool resident, I would like to sue the Manc bastard for the mobile phone meltdown I got last night from various idiots who actually went to the gig last night.

Would the world be a better place without this people botherer? Yes I believe it would.

why should he put up with it?

Who would?

This idiot's behaviour outside a concert hall would result in a night in the cells.
That said I think Moz should offer everybody else at that gig a refund.

But sorry, this drunken carry-on is unacceptable. I don't blame Morrissey for walking off.

Maybe we should turn the noise down to a safe level and insist on all-seater venues. Scan ID cards at the turnstile and ban anyone who whoops during the quiet bits. Let the kids get up at the end to sing with Widow Twankey.

It's rock'n'roll*, not a bus queue. Whipping up the crowd is part of the show. One idiot goes too far, you dial it back a bit. You don't storm off like a prissy diva.

*barely, but for the purpose of this argument let's say it is.

Are these whingers (Goldfripp etc) real? Do they not use lightshows, quite often with strobe lighting?

I remember going to a Jam gig where at one point spotlights were turned on to the audience during a drum solo. I was quite dazzled in the same way as you can be a camera flash. Did I walk out of the gig complaining about the band? You guess

On Morrissey, my view is a) he was entitled to walk off b) the idiot should have been ejected and c) he should then have resumed the gig. If he is ill, then he should have cancelled, not looked for an excuse.

get a waft of the hot dog stand outside? Arf!

Surely a sharpened gladioli stem is more potent than a plastic pint pot filled with, what looked like, good old H20.

It is something about Liverpool with Moz though. He was absolutely bombarded with bottles at Wembley Arena on a support slot he did for Bowie. Think it was around the time of Kill Uncle and it remains one of the best Morrisey/Smiths shows I've seen.

Throwing stuff and gobbing at the acts was what it was all about.

Even the Bangles soldiered on while being bottled to death at the Milton Keynes Bowl in 1986.

The big ponce.

Daphne and Celeste at Reading one year - troopers, the pair of them.

Before he claims verbal assault if someone shouts at him and flounces off again.
Bet there would still be people saying he shouldn't have to put up with it and he has every right to leave the stage.
Why are performers able to steal fan's hard earned money in this way?

Hmm, he fancies a night in. Pays someone to lob something relatively safe. Flounce excuse activated. Job done. Money banked.

Perhaps I'm just cynical....

has been wrapped in cotton wool for so many years by the extreme sycophancy of a section of his fanbase and collegues that anything that threatens to upset the delicate balance of 'Moztopia' results in flouncing.

With his band, management etc tiptoing round him with the fear that a wrong word or action will result in a P45it hardly surprising that incidents such as this unbalance the chap.

This was a fun account of a glimpse into his world
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/...

1. Clearly no-one should throw anything at anyone, even Morrisey.
2. He was right to walk off if he couldn't make a point in any other way.
3. He should have walked back on after a break to calm down and allow for stewards or whoever to try and chuck out the offender.
4. 10,000 people, 9999 of whom DID want to see him perform is just too many people to let down under such circumstances.
5. If the gig had been on The Wirral, this would never have happened (local joke)

Motorhead - Manchester International II 1991. Ugly crowd (even for Motorhead) Glass lobbed at stage. Lemmy "If anyone chucks anything else we walk off and we don't come back." Nothing more chucked. Great gig.

That's what a pro does.

I was there on Saturday. The idiot throwing a plastic tumbler should have been thrown out and Moz should have dried his suit (and his eyes) and carried on with the gig. My first gig this year was HMHB and the last was Morrissey. I know who I will go back and see.
Oh, and the version of This Charming Man was atrocious. Pity he still uses a tone-deaf pub rock band to play such wonderful songs.

but I saw The Smiths at The Lyceum in 1984ish and he had a seriuosly bad throat, you could tell he wasn't right but by my recollection he stayed on for well over an hour and gave us more than our moneys worth. Of course then he was on the way up and in his twenties. By now buying a Morrisey ticket is a risky venture at best, he's 50 he doesn't need it and if he doesn't fancy it that night, well it's a chance you take.

My second point is what is it with this chucking half full pints of beer at gigs? Oasis at Wembley I could understand, even though there were hundreds thrown, they had to find something to fill the last 2 hours after The Enemy and Kasabian had been on. But at Green Day at the O2? Or at a Morrissey gig? Surely there's a time and a place for such tomfoolery? Maybe I am just getting old.

I’ve never been able to fathom why Moz seems to attract such a loud, loutish element to his live shows. Alright, he’s flirted with the whole gangster/boxer/skinhead thing throughout his solo career, but there’s always been a core of sensitivity there. God alone knows why that would draw the beer-throwing boneheads.

At the Manchester shows in May, I deliberately went for a circle seat to avoid the rowdiness downstairs. At 5’10 and 18 stones plus, I’m no stripling, but I’d rather not spend my evening being barged into by some lagered-up moron bellowing Moz-related football chants.

Perhaps they’re all middle-class students living out their sad fantasies of geezerdom…

The Chief Executive of Liverpool Arena compared the placcy glass throwing to the LUFC/beachball incident - the act of one person spoiling it for the many. Flip, I thought it was the referee's fault for giving the goal in the first place 8-}

and the idiots would never have done that,, oh, hang on, they did, sorry

As in "Super...", not 'trooper', as in the song by Ian Maiden.

It doesn't take much reading between the lines to realise that the famously sensitive Moz is going through a bit of a 'funk' at the minute.

Being hit by a missile (regardless of it's material and / or contents) was probably all it took to tip him over the edge.

There would definitely be something in his contract to say that security is the responsibility of the venue and any infractions could lead to "instant termination of the performance" or similar legalese.

As a long-term Moz fan I've had 2 gigs cancelled in my time, but both were before the event so I didn't lose any money, and I feel for the fans here, it does seem a disproportionate response, though in black & white terms he was completely entitled to make that exit...

To paraphrase 'Chinatown', "Forget it Jake, it's Morrissey..."

Morrissey chucks bloke out of gig.

"But I love you!" shouts bloke.

"Well love me outside," responds the Moz.

All the action is in the third clip, although it's worth watching the beginning of the first one to get an idea of the chap's supposed grievance.

Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/21/morrissey-diary

"My manager rings. "I've got you a gig in Eastbourne tomorrow."

"Not interested," I say. "My back's killing me and I'm too old for all that standing up and singing lark."

"It'll be fine. It's at an old people's home and there'll be only 30 there. Or 29, if nice Mr Briggs doesn't make it through the next 24 hours."

"Sounds more like it. They won't be all pissed and rowdy, will they?"

"Nah – they're given their meds at 6.30pm, so they'll be good as gold."

"I still want a rider in the contract. Just in case. Anyone caught bringing Horlicks into the gig gets slung out. We don't want them spilling it or throwing it at me, do we? And it'd be nice to start early: I'm good for nothing next day if I'm up after 10pm."

The band arrives in Eastbourne in time for a bracing walk on the seafront and a cream tea on the pier, then we head for the Peace Haven Rest Home where I change into stretch cords and slippers before going on stage. "Hello-o-o-o, Eastbourne!"

"Could you speak a bit louder?" says Mrs Adamson in the front row. "My hearing aid isn't working well."

"I'd rather not," I reply. "I can't stand too much noise."

We kick off with a quiet version of Everyday Is Like Sunday that gets the place rocking and I'm about to start the second number when Mrs Adamson interrupts again: "Can we stop now, dear? We don't want to miss Corrie. Why don't you join us?"

"What a great idea," I say.

Today Eastbourne, tomorrow Torquay Crematorium. Blinding tour."

..even a limited tour any longer. All this talk about a lack of respect, poor behaviour by the fans etc. is a smokescreen. I was at the infamous Roundhouse gig in January 2008 where he flounced off the stage after 3 songs complaining of a dodgy voice box, only to let Messrs Ross, Walliams & Brand offer up their seemingly insincere condolences. A near riot ensued because Ross in particular appeared to be taking the piss. People had paid good money to attend, and in some cases travel long distances to the gig. Those who'd made the mistake of paying over the odds for tickets to touts outside also knew they had no redress, unlike the rest of us who at least got a full refund. Walking out on gigs almost seems to be a commonplace for Morrissey now. I'm surprised that anyone except the most diehard is prepared to take a punt on him now. He really should jack it all in now before his reputation gets completely shredded.

that the bloke in Hamburg got left over spite from the Liverpool incident. And look at Boz acting like he was squaring up for a bit of the Queensbury Rules. Back in your box, big fella, pies are coming later.

Morrissey's world is a very strange place indeed. Can't have helped that the place was half empty

I'm just disappointed that Mozzer seems not to have realised that hamburgers are called hamburgers because they originated in Hamburg, just as frankfurters (hot dogs) are so named because they originated in Frankfurt.

It's bloody tragic watching the decline and fall of a once celebrated wit and unique songwriter. Bloody awful albums, pub rock versions of once great songs and now, humiliating an audience member very publicly as part of the entertainment. I can scarcely believe it is the same once charming man.