30 years ago today...

there are so many of my age (late 40s) who would gladly empty out their 401ks to be able to witness this again
 
Echoing what many of you all have said over these boards, I feel lucky to have spent my pre-adolescence and early teen years with The Smiths. The songs really did make me feel like someone understood me. Ah, they gave a lovely light.
Same here, over in the rural eastern backwaters of the Netherlands. Only regret I have is I didn't get to see them play live -- they played the Netherlands only once, in 1984, when I was all of 12 years old, and in an Amsterdam suburb at that.
 
Johnny played Stop Me live.

I still have this secret wish they could work together again musically and that if it were somehow possible to have those Strangeways sessions, or at least the songs they both liked so much, as a starting point again, to have a platform of mutual musical enjoyment. Some kind of mysterious travelling back in time.
But only as Morrissey & Marr. Not The Smiths.
I know, wishful thinking on my part but a man can dream!
 
knowing they ended with their first single makes is somehow weird

As coming from the Netherlands , and never saw the Smiths live, different times, not that much about tours and how to go to the UK and get tickets, makes me feel ill forever

Their music still stands the time, and shall do in the future.
 
I saw them four times in October 1986. Having seen them many times in previous years I really thought they were at their peak at the end. It's the very fact they went out of the top of their powers that lend them them legendary status and means they will always be mentioned in the same breath as the (other) greats.

I know a lot of you want to see them back together again in some form or another. It would be a tremendous mistake. Like the other great bands they were of their time. It simply cannot be recreated.

I remember reading a John Lennon interview from the 70s in which he said that had the Beatles stayed together they would have become the Electric Light Orchestra. You can see exactly what he means by that. Imagine the damage that would've done to the Beatles reputation. The Smiths disbanded at exactly the right moment. It didn't feel like that at the time, but it was.

I hope that both Morrissey and Marr have enough money and enough sense to leave the band where it is, frozen in time and perfect.
 
All reggae is vile. Except of course for Redondo Beach.
In what way did popular music change?
Do you mean it became more commercial?

I think they would have changed their eighties sound.
In a quite natural way because they wanted to do more adventurous music. Musically they wanted to grow.
That is very much apparent on the last album Strangeways Here we Come. Unfortunately, due to the split those songs were not played live by The Smiths.
Moz playing them live solo isn't exactly the same, although very good.
Does anybody know if Johnny Marr played songs of that album live? In one of his bands or even recently?
And why not? Moz did.
They both stated it was the best album of The Smiths.

all reggae is vile ? because M said once ? God M fans can be so sycophantically pathetic it's positively nauseating . shut up bed wetter
 
all reggae is vile ? because M said once ? God M fans can be so sycophantically pathetic it's positively nauseating . shut up bed wetter

Oh, come on, it just was a joke.
You could not sense that? Obviously not.
I like all sorts of music and certainly reggae too.
I got a lot of Bob Marley's music and saw him once live, many years ago at the Rainbow in London.

I'm now considering to use a character in my posts as a warning sign to be aware there might be an ironic meaning to it.
I believe it does exist in the Spanish language.
It's this: ¿
The question mark on it's head.

I'd rather wet my bed than ever have to be confronted by your boring existence.
I can clean the bed doing the laundry, but you can't change your boring existence.
Fortunately you are an anonymous coward, thank you Jesus, thank you Lord.
 
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I appreciate this may be sacrilege, but this was not a great show. And I was there. The sound in the hall was terrible. The bass sound was barely audible at times and Morrissey seemed out of breath from the beginning. I saw the band six times from Meat is Murder onwards, and they were often hampered by a poor live mix. At Northampton, the sound was so bad people left in droves - all you could hear was the distorted lead and drums - Morrissey sounded like he was singing from the tour bus six streets away.
 
I still have this secret wish they could work together again musically and that if it were somehow possible to have those Strangeways sessions, or at least the songs they both liked so much, as a starting point again, to have a platform of mutual musical enjoyment.

The 'Strangeways Here We Come' tour, just 29 years late? Actually, there's a US radio interview with Johnny, just before he was forced out of the band, where he talks about how excited he is to tour the new album, and how 'Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before' is going to be the opening track of the setlist each night. Shame it never happened.
 
I appreciate this may be sacrilege, but this was not a great show. And I was there. The sound in the hall was terrible. The bass sound was barely audible at times and Morrissey seemed out of breath from the beginning. I saw the band six times from Meat is Murder onwards, and they were often hampered by a poor live mix. At Northampton, the sound was so bad people left in droves - all you could hear was the distorted lead and drums - Morrissey sounded like he was singing from the tour bus six streets away.

Yep, these days live sound has really improved thanks to technology advances. However, as they say, you had to be there. Gigs are about the experience and that will never truly be captured by recordings...
 
Yep, these days live sound has really improved thanks to technology advances. However, as they say, you had to be there. Gigs are about the experience and that will never truly be captured by recordings...

Yes, true but the sound quality of this videotape is really bad.
I have some bootleg audio recordings of The Smiths live that are so much better. A friend of mine burned them on CD.
Nothing special, I think they are well-known amongst Moz-fans.
Of course I would have loved to be there!
Cheers!
 
Yep, these days live sound has really improved thanks to technology advances. However, as they say, you had to be there. Gigs are about the experience and that will never truly be captured by recordings...

Totally agree. I bought a Clash boot from a show I saw in 1980, remembering it in all its blistering glory only to have the memory somewhat diminished by the sound on the C90! It does seem The Smiths were hampered throughout their career by a bad live mix. At the gig in question I remember the four of us who went concluding 'Great gig shame about the sound'.
 
I appreciate this may be sacrilege, but this was not a great show. And I was there. The sound in the hall was terrible. The bass sound was barely audible at times and Morrissey seemed out of breath from the beginning. I saw the band six times from Meat is Murder onwards, and they were often hampered by a poor live mix. At Northampton, the sound was so bad people left in droves - all you could hear was the distorted lead and drums - Morrissey sounded like he was singing from the tour bus six streets away.
 
Well I for one thoroughly enjoyed it. I had not intended to go to the original Artists against Apartheid gig (postponed due to Johnny's accident) because the three London shows had been virtually identical and we were unused to such a lack of spontaneity from the Smiths camp - they seemed very jaded. The fact that there was a longer gap until the rescheduled show (this one) meant that I decided to go after all and the spontaneity was back, as can be seen by comparing the setlists. You really had the feeling anything was possible again that night, so for me it was a highlight of their existence. How little we knew, but at least I have the joy of recalling leaving truly impressed again.
 
I WAS THERE!

This was the first gig I ever went to. I was 17, and I went with my two best friends from school.

I remember London segueing into Miserable Lie - which I don't they ever did at any other gig - and Morrissey's voice soaring over the auditorium ...

I've remember being in the mosh pit at the front, and being physically carried about ten feet, backwards and forwards while this was happening ...
 
Well you've made an oldish man very happy. Great watch after a shit Xmas stuck in work on nightshifts.

I listened on decent headphones and made allowances for the sound and, as I never saw The Smiths live, this was thoroughly enjoyable watch.

It's a sad irony they end on Hand In Glove and they are back to a four piece (when was Gannon booted out?) but that makes this gig even more of an accidental arcane artefact.

Lovely cheers. PS A reunion in Wembley Stadium/ Old Trafford will never work
 

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