Agitprop t-shirts, social commentary and vegan activism…it can only be Steven Patrick Morrissey
Image by Adam Barnsley
Video broadcasts of blistering social commentary. Stands mixing snapbands with agitprop t-shirts. No meat allowed to be served at the venue. Local vegans from hot new Newcastle activist group Anonymous for the Voiceless handing out flyers for PETA. A pre-show video playlist mixing avant-garde performance art with the Sex Pistols, Diane Warwick and t.A.T.u. The artist is present, and that artist can only be Morrissey.
Wire-whipping and snake-hipped as ever, the Lancashire lad filled the room with his unmistakable – now creamier and richer than ever – voice, a sonic truth vessel belting out convictions flanked by screaming guitars and backdrops alternating between Hollywood icons, cheeky political messages and incredibly moving imagery.
A good bunch of songs were plucked from latest album Low in High School; My Love I’d Do Anything for You, When You Open Your Legs and Jacky’s Only Happy When She’s Up on the Stage landed hard with a crowd lapping up even the deepest of cuts; Who Will Protect Us from the Police? hitting like a baton to the the legs accompanied as it was by searing images of police brutality.
Not short of a classic or two, Suedehead, Jack the Ripper and How Soon is Now blew the roof off ahead of Morrissey declaring he’s off to a nightclub in Darlington, taking his leave on I’m Not Sorry (natch), returning for a one-tune encore with Irish Blood, English Heart before stripping off and buggering off, leaving hearts full of love and bellies full of fire.
