[Music] Morrisey at The Palladium

[Lenny Rider]

Morrissey is the rock’n’roll rebel we need

There was a truly electric moment at the Morrissey gig at the Palladium in London last night. Moz was introducing his new song, ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’. It’s about the Manchester Arena bombing in which 22 people were killed. He looked out at the audience and asked us a question. How come you know...

www.spectator.co.uk

Powerful stuff from Brendan O’Neill, but does Morrisey make a valid point?

 

[Papak]

Thanks for posting, I was a Smiths / early Morrissey fan back in the day but he seemed to have gone wayward in recent years.

I don't disagree with what he says but making a song about it is something else and I'm not sure what to make of that right now.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I have no idea who the author is, but if he thinks there's a lack of 'rock and roll rebels' in music then he knows little about the subject. I could rattle off numerous boundry pushing, free-thinking and thought provoking artists at the drop of a hat, all who are far more interesting and 'rebelious' than Morrisey is these days...and probably ever was.

Pushing a trite agenda, as both Moz and the author are doing, by the very definiton, is not rebelion.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Can’t stand the guy.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

What I will say though, is that he was on a flight I was on a short while ago..... he had a lovely Prada bag,

 

[Frutos]

Morrissey is the rock’n’roll rebel we need

There was a truly electric moment at the Morrissey gig at the Palladium in London last night. Moz was introducing his new song, ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’. It’s about the Manchester Arena bombing in which 22 people were killed. He looked out at the audience and asked us a question. How come you know...

www.spectator.co.uk

Powerful stuff from Brendan O’Neill, but does Morrisey make a valid point?

Out of curiosity, do you think he makes a valid point?

 

[Dropkick Turnip]

Out of curiosity, do you think he makes a valid point?

Isn't the whole point that we can't instantly recall the Manchester bomber's or accomplice's name all about not giving them the notoriety that they craved?

No surprise that the right-wing Spectator magazine celebrates the views of a rich, white performer with right-wing political leanings, though. Almost as if clutching at the coat tails of a "pop star" gives the magazine currency and credibility by association. It reeks of neediness. As for Morrissey's view that Brexit is "magnificent", I haven't seen a shred of magnificence so far. Being rich and detatched enough from the daily reality of Brexit does not give somebody the right to proclaim magnificence from the safe distance of Los Angeles, Italy or Switzerland, where Morrissey keeps boltholes.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Can’t stand the guy.

Disagree, I met him and thought he was a charming man.

 

[Frutos]

Isn't the whole point that we can't instantly recall the Manchester bomber's or accomplice's name all about not giving them the notoriety that they craved?

I tend to agree.

I don't think that the name of any mass murderers, irrespective of their background or motive, should live in our national consciousness.

Focus on the victims and their families, let the perpetrators rot in obscurity - it's the least they deserve.

 

[El Presidente]

Morrissey loves Manchester so much that he legged it from there as soon as the first royalty cheques arrived.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Out of curiosity, do you think he makes a valid point?

IMO the point is valid (we remember Hindley, we don't register modern day monsters), but the agenda is not.

The reality is that back in 1963 the Moors murder was the biggest news item for months and continued to be news-worthy for decades.
In 2017 the Manchester Arena bombing was one of 3 UK terrorist attacks within a year.

Our levels of interest, in the perpetrators of modern-day atrocities, is minimal.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I tend to agree.

I don't think that the name of any mass murderers, irrespective of their background or motive, should live in our national consciousness.

Focus on the victims and their families, let the perpetrators rot in obscurity - it's the least they deserve.

It's not just about not knowing the murderers name though....there's a subtext at play here. Just like there is with the author of the Spectator article and also the OP.

 

[Jesus Gul]

Not a fan of his political stance but I did really like the track he did recently with Joey Barton in the video.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Well, he played that song in Brighton, to a backdrop of red lights, all I can say is that it was powerful and my young daughter thought so too, as did nearly every person in there.
Freedom of speech and all that, I don’t agree with a lot of what he says or thinks.
I actually don’t think he is a racist, he has championed various wonderful causes, he was revolutionary in bringing vegetarianism to the limelight. His songs about the countries and people he loves are open to interpretation, that’s what talented people do. He was lambasted for going on stage with a union jack at Madstock in about 93, he was bottled off stage by skinheads as he sung “National Front Disco” which is a song actually taking the piss out of NF skinheads.
The press focused on the song, not the content, and him waving the flag around.
fast forward too 96 and Brit Pop, everyone was waving the Union Jack or even wearing it.
The press love someone to hate, he’s an easy target, we all know people who voted for Brexit, have opinions we dont agree with, but that’s what makes us different and challenges our opinions and opens discussion.

Given his stance of meat eating, sexuality, the environment and the Royal family, I would have thought he would still be one of the most relevant musical artists still alive.

there I’ve said it I like him & his music.
possibly in my opinion one of the best lyricists of our time.

 

[pocketseagull]

Someone who described Chinese people as a 'sub-species' and promotes the Fascist group Britain First is definitely a racist and he was hiding in plain sight all along.

 

[Guinness Boy]

It's not just about not knowing the murderers name though....there's a subtext at play here. Just like there is with the author of the Spectator article and also the OP.

Indeed.

You could make exactly the same point about the IRA Warrington bomb. I can tell you it killed Tim Parry but not the name of the bomber and that's the way it should be. There's a subtle difference between the cases though, isn't there?

The irony, of course, is that Mozza's "magnificent Brexit" has to all intents and purposes seen the end of power sharing in Northern Ireland and may yet lead to a restarting of The Troubles. That is actually moronic.

 

[BBassic]

I'm sure this discussion has already happened but the point of those people singing "Don't Look Back in Anger" wasn't to minimise or forget the tragedy in any way shape or form. It was something to bring people together in mourning, to help an entire city work through grief.

And I think Morrisey knows that. Which just makes him a f***ing contrarian bellend.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Out of curiosity, do you think he makes a valid point?

Good question Frutos, I’d never thought of it quite in this context.

Harty Junior knows who Peter Suttcliffe was, Bishop, Huntley, Whiting and Bellfield, but like me without google he didn’t have a clue who the Manchester Bomber was despite killing more people in total than the aforementioned list of murderers, and more recently.

Is this the media world we live in, they process/educate us into what they want us to take in?

 

[jackalbion]

Morrissey is the rock’n’roll rebel we need

There was a truly electric moment at the Morrissey gig at the Palladium in London last night. Moz was introducing his new song, ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’. It’s about the Manchester Arena bombing in which 22 people were killed. He looked out at the audience and asked us a question. How come you know...

www.spectator.co.uk

Powerful stuff from Brendan O’Neill, but does Morrisey make a valid point?

I think there are far more interesting Rock and Roll rebels than Morrissey these days, I love the smiths, but he’s past it now, the tunes don’t stack up and he’s become an obsession for Right Wing grifters. It’s about him, not the message or the music, and that’s when I get bored of him. It also needs to emphasised that Brendan O’Neill is a thick idiot, who contributes nothing to society.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Good question Frutos, I’d never thought of it quite in this context.

Harty Junior knows who Peter Suttcliffe was, Bishop, Huntley, Whiting and Bellfield, but like me without google he didn’t have a clue who the Manchester Bomber was despite killing more people in total than the aforementioned list of murderers, and more recently.

Is this the media world we live in, they process/educate us into what they want us to take in?

But those are all people who were subject to long running police investigations, person hunts and long trials. They were repeatedly in the news.

Manchester was a single, one off event, over in seconds in which the perpetrator died. It's good that his name died with him. He got neither his virgins in paradise nor the notoriety that might inspire others.

Why has Morrisey not written about 9/11? Higher death toll surely? Except that the people who ran that operation were known, hunted down and killed.

How many IRA bombers can you name without googling?