Cheers for posting.
I met Pat last week at his alma matter, where he was being taped for a forthcoming piece on 'The One Show'. We were standing around while shots were being set up, and he happened to squint at the 'Everyday is Like Sunday' badge on my bomber, asked if i liked Moz, 'just a bit' says i, 'i've got a crackin' story for you' and he launches into his tale. Prefaces it by saying 'i really need a good half hour to do it justice', but he gave me the ten minute version anyway (as the tv/pr people were looking daggers at us, thinking why's Pat talking to that wee numpty?)
(Apologies for any repetition re: above)
Now, I was well aware (through interview spots posted on solo over the years) that Pat had been a pal of Vini Reilly and, as such, had been invited round to Morrissey's place for dinner back in the late 80s. He had told the tale in a couple of published interviews.
He was playing for Everton FC and living in Lancashire at the time (1988/89/90). One day, out of the...blue, his good friend Vini Reilly, who he'd got to know a few years previously through Pat's keen interest in indie music, had said 'do you want to go round for dinner at my friend Steven Patrick's house?' As an indie kid he knew immediately who SP was and swiftly agreed. He said the house, in Bowden, near Altrincham, was an awesome 3 storey turreted affair, perfectly appointed and decorated, and dripping with handsomeness. He was really blown away by this pile ~ kept referring back to it!
He said that Moz himself was incredibly charming and friendly, very very funny. As the night progressed he felt that SPM really relaxed, and a certain act ~ the Morrissey schtick perhaps ~ gently fell away and he became more natural and really normal; Just a thoroughly nice guy
Pat, being from Glasgow - where it's the normal thing to do, at a certain point deep into the evening said 'So aren't you gonna give us tour of this place?!' Moz eventually acquiesced and led them on a personally guided tour of the three storeys. Pat said that each room was more beautiful than the next, all perfecty in-keeping with ones expectations of Morrissey ~ dark velvety splendour, wood panelled and wonderful, and très gothique
However there was one room that Moz rushed past and wouldn't go in. Pat stopped and said 'but what's in that room?' 'Oh nothing really, nothing at all'. Pat said he had visions of a portrait-strewn Dorian Gray party room! Pat and Vini then badgered Moz into opening it up, only to reveal a fully-equipped state of the art Multi-Gym set-up.
Continuing on, they came to a room that had stripped and varnished floorboards (which was not at all as
de rigeur as it is now) whose sole occupant, centred pride of place, was a spilt new beautiful baby grand piano.
Vini expressed amazement, Pat too; both leapt to the conclusion that Moz was learning to tinkle and attempting to write his own musical backings. SPM gently dismissed such notions, instead announcing that he had purchased it especially for the evening so that Vini could play for them ~ Pat said that VR was a classically trained musician. Vini and Pat were gobsmacked.
The evening continued in triumph, and a good time was had by all, according to Pat. The fun even extended to a game of football in Morrissey's back garden. (I enquired after the man's skills ~ Pat politely offered 'not great. But a fast mover!' He did say though that he clearly knew alot about the current, and vintage, game. He seemed to be trying to hide the fact ~ 'Butch Moz' was a few years from bloom at this point ~ but reading between the lines, it was evident that he was well aware of then-current football events).
Pat had to leave around half eleven that night, as he had training the next morning. How quaint!
A few days following the soirée Pat received a postcard from Moz, with a beautiful black and white vintage Moz-esque photograph on one side and the famous child's scrawl on the reverse 'FROM ONE DRIBBLER TO ANOTHER', offering thanks for an enjoyable night chez Moz. Pat at this point began to...pat his jacket pockets, 'In fact I always carry it with....damn! It's in my other coat out in the car.' Turns out he had misplaced the card for a few years but found it again during a house move and had kept it with him ever since. He said 'You should see it, it's a thing of beauty. I'll get it from the car later'. Needless to say, he didn't. He was whisked away by the tv types and i never got to see it.
There was an addendum to the tale in that one of his fellow players at Everton lived in the same street as Moz, and Pat had asked him for directions. That man was a young terror of a player called Norman Whiteside, well known back in the day as being a hard-playing, hard-drinking, hard-headed Ulster buck of a footballer. Norman instantly invited himself to what he clearly thought was going to be a hardcore piss-up. Pat managed to talk him out of it and said he would find his own way to Bowden, ta very much! When he came in the next morning for training Norman announced that he had decided to gatecrash the affair anyway, by climbing up and over the high Victorian walls of Moz Towers, whilst already well oiled with booze, thereby setting off the full range of security floodlights and alarms. Pat said he recounted all this in hysterics!
By this stage the PR lovelies literally dragged Pat away, so sadly i never got to ask all the things i might have, like...how did his floorboards smell?
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4022/4478765178_e28803b515_b.jpg
It was great to hear the tale from the horse's mouth, but one of the most amazing things was how perfectly Pat could recall a dinner date from 27 years ago!! Clearly it is The Moz Effect. And the fact that he keeps a Thank You postcard from that night permanently on his person is quite a testament.