“Lovely, lovely Leeds,” was Morrissey’s opening line, last night at a packed O2 Academy… and indeed it was. It’s the third time in 6 months, that I’ve bounced around in the Moz mosh, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience with an eager and good natured crowd. The man himself was in good form, though looking a little pale, which made me wonder if perhaps his recent, widely publicised, overnight stay in the Great Western Hospital, had taken more of a toll than has been suggested.

The current “Swords” tour, which started 6 days ago, seems to have piggy-backed itself straight on to the “Years of Refusal” tour, and although the prospect of a “B-sides” album doesn’t exactly have me jumping for joy, the live performance last night certainly did. A real sing-a-long trawl through the Smiths and Morrissey back catalogue. This Charming Man has been the opener of choice for a while now, but it was great to see some other Smiths classics revived, Cemetry Gates, How Soon Is Now, Is it Really So Strange, mixed in there with newer releases like Paris, Black Cloud and OK By Myself and peppered with the odd Swords track Gangland and Because Of My Poor Education. I mean there’s still the odd head scratcher in there, Teenage Dad on his Estate wouldn’t have been my choice over Something Is Squeezing My Skull or even Pigsty… but can be tolerated, when it’s followed by Nowhere Fast… which I never thought I’d hear live again.

The band seem to have settled, the Walker twins and Tobias, work intuitively together allowing Boz to do his thing, and this tour even sees the introduction of a keyboard player.

Finally there, may very well have been a support band, but I’ll never know… seeing as we found a pub next to the venue selling beer for a pound a pint… well… you can’t say no can you. Anyway a top night, all said… even managed to catch the last bus home after squeezing the very last out of those £1 beers.

By Dave on October 30, 2009