After seeing a rather dissappointing Morrissey gig at Alexandra Palace at the start of the month, and reading the bad reviews of the first show at the Palladium, I was ready to palm off my Morrissey tickets for last nights gig at the Palladium. That would have been a mistake.
I had fourth row Upper Circle tickets which, in spite of my fears of getting nosebleeds from being up so high, proved to be a pretty good vantage point. Morrissey came on at nine and opened with Panic. Yep, thats right Panic. Hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ ..... Awesome stuff. The rest of the playlist virtually followed that of the Alexandra Palace gig (and, well, the rest of the gigs on the tour apparently). But even with virtually the same playlist - it was sooooo much better. The sound was great. The crowd was great. Everyone was really into it and there were no people constantly pushing passed fruitlessly trying to get to the front. Morrissey was in fine form. Our seats gave us a great view of the stage and the numerous stage invasions who Morrissey always tried to shake hands with before they got carted off by security.
The third to last song was How Soon Is Now, followed by the *second* to last song - Irish Blood, English Heart. Yep. *Second* to last song. As far as I know IBEH had been the encore nearly every night of the tour, so I was looking forward to see what he was going to come out with. "Stop me, oh, stop me ...." Yep - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before. The crowd loved it. A brilliant encore.
This time I left with a smile on my face. Mozz you redeemed yourself ....
Ping ...
Yes I am still alive. It has been a while since my last post. Havent taken any photos for a couple of weeks but I plan on changing that today. Went to see Morrissey last night which was, thank god (after Ally Pally), awesome ! Will post more on that later. My work is moving offices this weekend so Friday arvo was spent packing PCs to ship to the new location. It is just down the river, closer to London Bridge tube - almost walking distance from Waterloo Station which will be handy for me. Should cut about 5-10 minutes of the commute. I managed to score one of the old desks from the office which means I now have a decent computer desk. Nice. Have holidays towards the end of June so am trying to decide what to do - we are thinking that a bit of a walking/hiking holiday might be in order - a bit of a London antidote!
A New Pen ...
I finally lashed out and bought a Wacom Graphire Classic graphics tablet. Don't worry - it is only for photo retouching - I wont subject you to my drawing skills which never really evolved beyond grade five ! So far I am pretty happy with it but it is going to take a bit of getting used to.
TAR
Aaaaaargh ... the people I most didnt want to win won ..... bring on the next season ... It wasnt the greatest series - but it was pretty cool to see them in Western Australia.
The Sultan's Elephant
Over the weekend a pair of giant marionettes hit town, "A Little Girl" and "The Sultan's Elephant". Headed in to town this afternoon to check it out - photos below. More info here.
Friday Night
On Friday night I went on the work social club event - a cruise down the River Thames. Pretty cool. Great weather. Went all the way up to Battersea Bridge and then downriver to the Thames Barrier. Not to mention free beer ! After the cruise a few of us headed to Fabric nightclub where James Lavelle (1/2 of UNKLE) was DJing. A great night. Headed home about 3:30, taking a few photos along the way
Billy
Well, after posting my not so glowing Morrissey review, I am happy to say I have just got back from a Billy Bragg gig - and he was great. As in brilliant. As in - that is what a gig should be like. As usual he was in fine form chatting to the audience and the setlist was almost perfect. I have probably seen Billy at least six times now - and this show would definitely be up there as one of, if not *the*, best.
Some of the songs I can remember from the set list (apart from the encore which was *something else*) : Levi Stubbs Tears, Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards, Tank Park Salute, A13 Trunk Road To The Sea (which included guitar Wiggy on guitar), The Price I Pay, Valentines Day Is Over, There Is Power In A Union, Greetings To The New Brunette aka Shirley), All You Fascists Bound To Lose, Walk Away Renee, 1649, Honey Im A Big Boy Now (which he did actions to), A Lover Sings and a few others.
The first encore included Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards, which had a few original lyrics, a few lyric changes I had heard before and a few I hadn't.
And now for the (second) encore :
The Milkman of Human Kindness
To Have and To Have Not
Richard
The Man In The Iron Mask
The Busy Girl buys Beauty
A New England
Yep - he played all of "Life's a Riot With Spy vs Spy" as an encore. How awesome is that.
Thanks Bill. He mentioned during the gig he was a big Smiths fan. Maybe he could have a whisper in Mozzas ear about keeping an audience entertained .....
Morrissey
Last Monday eve I trekked up to Alexandra Palace (aka Ally Pally) to see Morrissey. The venue was pretty big but we managed to get reasonably close to the front for a decent view. Unfortunately, I hate to say it, the gig was a bit crap. He played mainly songs off the new album (exceptions being First of the Gang To Die, Girlfriend In A Coma, How Soon Is Now and Irish Blood - English Heart). While the new album isnt bad, it doesnt make for a great concert - especially when it made up nearly 2/3 of the rather short setlist. To be honest the gig in parts was just plain boring. And it was short. About 1 hour 10 mins.
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