Hull Review

Hull Review: 

I’m sitting here tonight in my hotel room overlooking Hammersmith, nurturing my delightfully bruised ribs and sipping a bit of vodka (no, not Pinot Noir – a shock, I know – but I think after last night a break from red wine is in order).  I have no idea how this review is going to turn out, but I can’t imagine it will be stellar as my head is somewhere floating in the clouds whilst my body feels as if it’s somewhere in the gutter.  However, it’s best to shut up and just give it a go.  Please excuse if there are errors as I haven't had a chance to edit yet but wanted to post tonight.

I will begin with a very short description of my travels to arrive in Hull – if you find my ramblings/anecdotes/blah-blah-blah-ing boring (which I’m sure most of you do), please skip down to where the actual concert day review begins below, beginning directly above the queue photo.

As most of you know, I’m a notorious insomniac, which is usually something that I lament bitterly; however, it seems when I am travelling and queuing, my inability to sleep suddenly becomes quite useful.  The night before I flew out to London, I was so excited I only managed THREE hours sleep, and then my journey began.  My first flight connected to Calgary, where I had a six-hour layover.  The Calgary airport seemed to have bars or duty-free liquor stores every 15 feet, naturally, because it is Calgary and you must be drunk in order to endure being there.  This noted, in combination with the influence of some people who can resist everything except temptation, led me to the nearest bar in the airport.  It was a “Texas-style” bar, with a horrible Texas-style carnivorous menu, so I decided to skip the food and go straight for the booze.  The margaritas I ordered were massive and got me quite tipsy; however, this did not make the “new country” blasting throughout the establishment in any way more tolerable.  Luckily, my true goal was to be “relaxed” (drunk) enough to tolerate being in the dreaded middle seat on my 8-hour flight to London.  Luckier: I did not end up seated next to a crying baby, or anyone particularly chatty.  And luckiest of all, we got free wine on the airplane.

Airport Drinks!

After landing in London the next morning, I directly took a coach from Heathrow to Hull, arriving in Hull around 9 pm. Naturally, when I arrived at the coach station, and even armed with a map and the compass on my phone, I walked in the opposite direction of my hotel and found myself lost.  Thankfully, I ran into four football players (my man servants finally arrived!) and they carried my suitcase for me and walked me to my hotel. I think I basically passed out when I got to my room and managed to wake up quite early the next morning to queue.

Queue in Hull around 8 a.m.

The queue was already over 30 people by the time I arrived (8 a.m.).  Lots of familiar faces were there and I met other people I recognized from queuing in San Diego as well as some twitter friends, including BBN.  I had a wonderful time in the queue, and Morrissey concerts are the only time I love to socialize, so it went fantastically well.  To be honest most of the queuing part is a blur to me now, or it could be that I’m quite tired right now, or it could be that drinking with Boozey last night has somehow affected my memory.  So anyway, let’s get on with the concert review.

Firstly, at the doors we had to remove the contents of our pockets and put them into plastic bags provided at the arena.  It felt a little airport-y, but I think it actually did save time rather than security looking in all the purses, etc, which always slows the line down considerably.  I appreciated that the queue was separated from the rest of the line up, and that we were allowed in first.  I ran in and managed 2^nd row on Boz’s side.  Waiting for Moz to come on and seeing the videos makes the anticipation build up even more and I now know almost every word to the Anne Sexton poem, “Wanting to Die”, which is always very powerful.

My view

The atmosphere of this show was very emotional, which I think was due in part to Morrissey’s statement on TTY the previous night about these UK dates being likely to be his last shows here.  The crowd was very energetic, at times rough, and there were a lot of Morrissey chants happening. Moz came out looking gorgeous in a white shirt and opened with Suedehead, and the powerful surge from the crowd as soon as he started singing indicated I was in for an exhilaratingly rough ride. The atmosphere was immense and intense, and Morrissey was in top form, singing a glorious set list which included many songs I had really been hoping to hear.  The lovely Boozelette was kind enough to live update last night directly from the arena, which can be found here.

Setlist:

1. Suedehead
2. Alma Matters

3. Speedway

4. Ganglord

Moz showed the video of American police brutality and described the police as “America’s Taliban”

5. Staircase At The University

Moz made the “O” hand signal – I believe during one of the "three" lines during this song

Screen capped via Twitter - will credit if I find out its yours

6. Kiss Me A Lot

7. World Peace Is None Of Your Business

8. Istanbul

9. I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris

(Jeremy Corbyn speech)

10. The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores

(I’ve mentioned before how much I love this song - and the United King-dumb backdrop)

(band introduction)
11. Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed

12. I'm Not A Man 

13. The Bullfighter Dies

14. Yes I Am Blind (with piano intro)

I love this song so much – every time I see it live I can feel it so deeply.

15. Oboe Concerto 

This was his 3^rdtime singing this song live I believe, and my first time seeing it live. I started crying because I remember hearing it at the soundcheck in San Diego and thinking how much I want to see it live one day.

16. Meat Is Murder 

17. Smiler With Knife 

I found this song extremely emotional also, and I could see Morrissey was very emotional for this song. 

18. Everyday Is Like Sunday 

Crowd became very rough in this song, lots of crowd surfing and attempts to get on stage.

19. I Will See You In Far-Off Places 

He took my friend’s letter during this song – and I was so happy for her!



Before the encore Moz said: "In 10 minutes my arse will leaving Hull, be on it"

Encore: What She Said/Rubber Ring

I was very pleased to see THREE songs from WPINOYB I had not seen live yet: I’m Not a Man, Oboe, and Smiler.  I would like to thank Morrissey from the bottom of my heart - he was incredible last night and I deeply hope with every shred of my being that he continues touring but I also understand his reasons if he decides not to. My heart aches at the thought of possibly not seeing him again after these shows have ended - and I can't even let myself think of it right now. There is nothing on earth that moves me so much, or makes me feel the way seeing Morrissey in concert does, and I am forever grateful for the impact he's made on my life. Here are some photos I managed to take:

After the show, I was very tired and emotional and I went back to my hotel room, and considered going right to bed.  However, it seemed that Boozey (who I had only met briefly before the show) was at a nearby pub and invited me to join her for drinks – and who am I to resist?  We also went to a tremendous afterparty where I met many more friends from Twitter.

Ok… I am fading and need to get some sleep for tomorrow. I will end with a photo of the piece of Moz’s shiny red shirt that I did not catch but got to admire over a rather hungover breakfast this morning. We all sat there and passed it around sniffing it – divine!

Now I'm going to (hopefully) pass out to prepare for tomorrow!