the whole audience felt like you and nobody turned up.

It would serve the prat right with his track record of flouncing about cancelling gigs and TV appearances at the last minute.
He has an utter disdain of his own audience so deserves nothing in return.

of things I'm not going to do, not going to see Morrisey is one I am going to do

...he is going to play the Smiths' singles start to finish followed by his ten best solo tracks.

Enjoy your evening elsewhere.

Was it just the setlist he's been playing that put you off? Does he usually do a greatest hits set but surprisingly hasn't been this time?

Or was it the huge hassle of booking train tickets and a hotel?

Sorry if that's a touch sarcastic, but it seems bizarre that you would book to see him and then suddenly it's a no-brainer to cancel.

How quaint - wish I had known I would have queued for weeks for those little beauties. Second thoughts, what's on the telly?

I'm going Saturday - not seen him before live but thought it was one to do before (1) he gets any older (too old) (2) if 50% of the set is classic Smiths or Morrissey then it will outshine 80% of anything else available on the live circuit and (3) its part of my programme to see all the old hands this year as a send off just in case they fade away (Morrissey followed by PSB then Pogues, Amsterdam then Bunnymen lined up - back to the 80s!!!) Hitchcock and McNabb been and gone - want to go and see Billy Bragg Friday this week but it clashes with Squire (yes - THAT SQUIRE - guilty ex mod secret revealed) There's so much on in the North West this year its like being a 13 yr kid in a sweet shop (after learning I'm not the dad)

so it it the air of arrogance, pure laziness or the ability to sell on ebay (for profit)that made you take the ''no brainer'' decision. Stay in you bore.

The reason he sells out gigs year after year without having to do a greatest hits set is that he is consistently great live.

it's a fair point about his band in my opinion

his band have all the subtlety of a herd of elephants as they trample over his catalogue and studiously avoid anything that requires any lightness of touch

Still, enjoy, he can still be more entertaining than most

I've gone to things that I thought I ought to go to.

I've done the same as you and bought tickets for a gig and then life has taken over and the thing that I thought would bring me so much joy seems like a chore.
Recently I've decided that it doesn't matter if the mood doesn't suit the event.

The tickets have gone to someone else who really wants to go, you've saved some cash and doing something you feel like doing.
I think it's called the path of least resistance. Oftentimes it's a good way to go.
Enjoy your alternative to Morrissey.

yours,
claire rayner.

you take your chances -it is party of the rock 'n'roll thing

the odd gem among the dross is what makes it worthwhile. It could be the gig of a lifetime.

And if you are a fan of the man -notwithstanding misgivings, then i reckon you have made the wrong call.

Much as I adore The Smiths and the early Morrissey solo stuff, it has taken me some time to accept that he isn't the same bloke who sang those sublime songs and wrote the witty and brilliant lyrics. I tried to like the 'comeback' albums, but in truth found them largely lumpen rhythms with second hand Morrissey-isms. Now in the current Word i read that according to him 'nothing really matters'. Oh, the death of musical ambition. I have come to the view that he employs pub bands because that is how likes it, he is the star, they are the hired hands who don't offer any resistance. To this day, he still harps on about the court case, dismissing the input of Joyce and O'Rourke, and seemingly oblivious to the glory that Marr brought him. And to think Marr's next idea for The Smiths was a kind of suite of songs a la Scott Walker - not a pub rock band. That unfulfilled promise is truly a waste of talents, and an illustration of how the whole is greater than the parts, something Mozzer seems entirely unable to understand. His voice seems to find it hard to emulate that soaring lyrical quality he used to have, and makes him sound like a parody of his former self. Sad, sad, sad.

the setlist has been sprinkled with a fair few Smiths tracks - he is clearly playing to fans of a certain age. Slacks and blazers ... http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/morrissey-live

I thought his voice was still great but as you say the band lack the subtlety required to do justice to that older material. I wonder if even Marr could still carry it off though?

It strikes me that all the Eighties acts who have soldiered on lost their bloom many years ago.

Curiously, the same isn't true of the acts who preceded them at the tail end of the Seventies. I gave up on Elvis Costello a long time ago, and I can't be doing with Paul Weller and never could, but I can't say I'm as thoroughly tired of them as I am with their Eighties counterparts. Hell, even Lord Sting of De Doo Doo Doo, irksome though he obviously is, has never quite managed to be as relentlessly boring as your Mozzas, Lennoxes and Bonos.

He's done them for years.....probably since the Kill Uncle tour and the Bowie support slots...

Everytime I've seen him, the new album tracks are far in the minority to his back catalogue and ever increasing numbers of Smiths songs mullered by Boz Boorer and the gang.

He's an old tart, knows it and plays to the crowd just as much as AC/DC, Springsteen or U2.

Love him, but he's been a heritage act for some time now.

The drummer is incredible, and has brought new dimensions to How Soon is Now and Death of a Disco Dancer.

People have a weird rosy tinted view about how the Smiths were live. They tend to think of the records rather than the live band. The Smiths could be crap live at times, all over the place.

... when he play's Hartlepool Borough Hall.

A chance to see someone with the musical history he has, in my home town, is a rare thing indeed (sold out in 3 minutes).

I can see why you've decided not to bother with it all, I went through the same thought process when I went to see The Magnetic Fields at the Cadogan Hall in London. In my case, I knew it was a rare thing for them to play in the UK, and I knew that they would almost never venture to the North-East - so I went for it.

I suppose with Morrissey, the thought is you can see him any time...

soundtrack to my youth, yadda yadda yadda, but if Morrissey was playing in my back garden I would shut the windows and put the sprinklers on.

The intro to This Charming Man should ring. Listen to it above. Iesu Grist. He shouldn't be playing them songs with pub playing clunk artists such as the above, that is an affront to Marr et al.

Maybe that is the spiteful, vengeful point?

Other than Weller and Costello, who else from the 80's is still going strong ploughing their own unique furrow. The one thing Mozza is not is a Heritage act. When touring a new album,it's the whole new album you get-with a few choice solo and Smith tracks thrown in for good measure. At least he doesn't seem to deliberately ignore his early years like the aforementioned Mr Weller.
Whilst the Smiths were undoubtable a sum of all their parts,two are reduced to fan conventions and the third a "gun for hire" unable to live up to his "guitar genius" tag.
Morrissey live is a big,loud,sweaty love-in. Just like the Pope of Mope himself.

Having just seen Morrissey at Great Yarmouth, I can say it was an absolutely fantastic show - even though he was recovering from an illness. He even passed around his microphone to the front row for a quick Q and A.

And I don't understand the slagging his band gets - come of it, they're superb! The last song of the set was explosive.

Next day I snapped up two tickets to see him again at the Troxy next week.
Judging by the pictures, it's a great venue.

is indeed a lovely venue and I'm so glad they are putting more live music there

I was in LA when he did a week long stint at the Palladium a few years back.

I didn't bother

I was going to see him tomorrow night, playing the city hall in Salisbury.

However it's been canceled :(

we just can't wait to get the "his band is crap" line across the screens of us all. Its quite extraordinary the rush to get those words into the internet somewhere. However, cancelling going to a show because of a 3 minute youtube clip recorded on a phone seems particularly extreme. I can assure all that have not seen him that clip gives no indicator at all about the sound of Morrissey live apart from a general hint that he opens with this charming man.

I remember Bernard Butler grumbling on that Moz was ruining his legacy around the time of quarry and just thought come on BB, you curmudgeon, the man is playing to a sold out Earls Court and fans new and old are enjoying it and that is genuinely all that matters. Its entertainment and it means something to many people, its a positive thing. why shouldn't people who were born after 1980 get to hear these songs live and enjoy it? When you look at the clip above, the crowd are enjoying it, there is clearly atmosphere and the old luv and his band send people home, hoarse, sweaty and smiling. Can we drop the Marr's lightness of touch thing now and just, well, loosen up a little when it comes to Stephen P? rum old cove that he undoubtedly is?

I saw him in Hartlepool this week, good show for my money! He mixes the sets up nicely with every tour and there was something for both the collector and the casual listener in there. I thought the band was fine, the thrashier backdrop worked well for what he does now.

Is also postponed.