Thursday, July 16, 2009, 9:30 pm

Tour update III: Why I don’t smile when I think about Earls Court

Note: This isn’t exactly timely, but I’m over the pain enough now to post this. Yeah, that’s right. Fuck off.

I was in a friend’s van on the way back from a spring near DeLand years ago when I first heard The Smiths. After I got home that night I started downloading the band’s more popular numbers. Some time later a friend made me a mix CD of Smiths and Morrissey songs, and we wore it the hell out driving to and fro wherever we went in those days, testing the limits of the shitty factory speakers in my 1993 Chevrolet Cavalier. I’ve believed ever since.

I wouldn’t get to see the man in the flesh until 2007, when I went to two shows in three days. If there was a ranking of the best moments of my life, that second concert would be included in the top five, possibly top three. That night, the band debuted “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” and I got handshakes during two of my favorite Smiths songs, “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” and “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” a song that was rarely played on that tour.

But, as if to punish me for having too grand an experience, Moz has let me down time after time after time since.

7/15/07 – Orlando, Fla. – Hard Rock Live (info)
7/17/07 – Jacksonville, Fla. – Morocco Shrine Auditorium (info)
11/8/07 – Miami Beach, Fla. – The Fillmore

Tour of Refusal
3/1/09 – Orlando, Fla. – Hard Rock Live
3/3/09 – Jacksonville, Fla. – Florida Theatre
3/7/09 – Atlanta – Variety Playhouse
3/9/09 – Asheville, N.C. – The Orange Peel
4/12/09 – Austin, Texas – Bass Concert Hall (info)
5/11/09 – London – Royal Albert Hall

We’ve had a tough go of it. In fact, between the first concert and the London date — a span of about 22 months — I had tickets to six of the 13 concerts he canceled worldwide. That’s more than 46 percent. London probably hit the hardest. We got up the morning of the show and were just about to head out to walk around Earls Court and see the venue before doing a bit of sightseeing when I checked my e-mail:

Dear Valued Customer,

It has come to our attention that tonight’s Morrissey show (11th May) at the London Royal Albert Hall has been postponed to a date which is yet to be confirmed.

No official statement has been given yet.

The Austin show was incredible: Easter Sunday, cheerful Moz, getting the last handshake of the night. But seeing him in England with the suedeheads, a mass of humanity singing “The Queen Is Dead” a few miles (or kilometers) from Buckingham Palace — what could be better? Or, rather, what could have been better?

Tags: European vacation, London, Morrissey