REVIEW: MORRISSEY LIVE IN LOS ANGELES – THE YEAR 2025 WON’T CHANGE ANYONE HERE

By Dickie Felton | 31 December 2024 |

Los Angeles concerts feel like hometown shows for Morrissey.

The 65-year-old music legend just clicks his fingers and his people come.

A surprise trio of Christmas shows were only announced four weeks ago, yet he still sells-out two nights at United Theater on Broadway and a New Year’s Eve bash at Hollywood Palladium.

Fans are given scant notice to get their quiffs in order. A total of 7200 tickets are snapped-up across the three nights for a singer with no record deal.

The United Theater on Broadway is the perfect setting for a two-night Moz love-in.

Ornate and intimate, the 1600 capacity venue was the brainchild of Charlie Chaplin but there’s no silent cinema tonight.

Outside the venue, dozens of extremely vocal street sellers make a killing hawking bootleg Morrissey tees, hoodies and scarves.

Fans get in line early, eager to to let the worship begin.

Once inside a lucky few head immediately to the merch stand and swoop-up signed vinyl – available on a first come first served basis if you have 250 dollars to spare.

On Broadway motorcycle engines rev and gleaming sports cars whizz by with booming sound systems.

Yards away other people scavenge through bins and bark at the moon. All over Broadway some hope and some despair.

Downtown LA is a contrasted and edgy place.

And 2024 has been edgy for Morrissey – with no record deal and no new music available.

For the last five years he has increasingly cemented his position as a touring artist as opposed to a recording artist.

Record company woes mean he remains unable to release new music. It is almost five years since his last studio album.

Morrissey’s most ardent fans remain as committed as ever.

For them nothing will ever change their love and adoration for an artist who has crafted four decades of great art.

Pre-gig dozens of people wait at the stage door for a glimpse of their hero.

And when Morrissey arrives for the soundcheck flanked by minders he oozes aura of a silent movie Hollywood star.

The build-up to Morrissey arriving on stage is a joy – video clips of singers, artists and actors he has been inspired by.

There’s Bowie, Dionne Warwick, Freda Payne and even Benny Hill.

When Morrissey enters the fray bang on 9.15pm he commands a scream-fest from ecstatic fans.

On night one he launches into ‘All You Need Is Me’ before treating fans to an array of singles and album tracks.

‘You’re The One For Me Fatty’ remains a gem of a single and early 90s bedfellow ‘The Loop’ is a double bass beauty.

The surprise addition of  ‘Spring-Heeled Jim’ in Saturday’s set reminds us what a halcyon recording era the early 1990s were for Moz.

But it’s not all about nostalgia – his unreleased new material sounds sensational across the weekend.

New song ‘I Ex-Love You’ has all the glorious gloomy jangle of ‘Girlfriend In A Coma’.

Morrissey continues to build a remarkable armoury of fantastic new songs. But will they ever get an official release?

There are just two Smiths songs played on the Saturday (‘Shoplifters of the World Unite and Take Over…’ and a stunningly mournful ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’).  And only the former survives as the solo Smiths song in Sunday’s set.

It has to be the lowest Smiths song quota in a Morrissey show for decades.

Is this a reflection on the autumn revelations that Morrissey wanted a Smiths reformation while Johnny Marr didn’t?

Or could it just be that Morrissey’s solo output is as strong as anything by The Smiths?

‘Jack the Ripper’ and ‘Life is a Pigsty’ – both magnificent live tonight – rival anything The Smiths produced.

In-between songs there are some classic Morrissey musings.

There’s close-to-home humour about us being addicted to mobile phones:

“You need Sat Nav to find your way to the toilet…”

And then there’s more serious stuff when he almost pleads with the audience:

“If you see something that’s unfair – don’t put up with it.”

Morrissey ends 2024 with three spectacular shows.

The singing voice is better than at any stage in his career.

And it’s two ovations at the United Theater before setting his sights on a New Year’s Eve Hollywood Palladium balloon drop.

The fans hope 2025 brings a new record deal and their king back in the charts.

Is that too wild a storyline even for Hollywood?

 

I AM HATED FOR LOVING

Dickie Felton’s new book I AM HATED FOR LOVING – A Morrissey Tour on the Brink – is available now.

All books ORDERED HERE will be signed by Dickie.