A trip to Liverpool and other stories…..
I went to see Grizzly Bear in Manchester cathedral last Wednesday evening with David and my mates Birty and Ros. They were fantastic, so very, very, very good. We had a swift half in Sinclair’s Oyster Bar and then sauntered down the road where I found myself a stone pillar to lean against and was transported away for a good 90 minutes…….always welcome come neither here nor there Wednesday. At this point I was very excited for the impending Morrissey gig the following Saturday night in Liverpool. “Hope he behaves himself…..” were Ros’ parting words…..whatever could she mean?
Saturday evening arrived and my mate Kirsty and me set off, I’m driving, it’s cold, it’s wet, it’s November for goodness sake but we’re in good spirits, having a laugh, nattering…..you get the picture.
All was well until the satnav (nothing to do with me!!) lost the plot and sent us spiralling past the Echo Arena and down the Mersy tunnel. ‘I’m claustrophobic’ shouts Kirsty……OMG!! Five minutes later and we’re still travelling the wrong way under the Mersey when thankfully the end came into sight. The realisation that we were then going to have to pay the toll, exit, go around the roundabout, enter, pay the toll and then go back where we’d just come from dawned on us (quick, quick, quick, quick, SLOW…..) and Kirsty started her deep breathing exercises again.
Anyway we find the arena, we park (top level) and we prepay for the parking so as to avoid long queues later. In the arena, pint, seat, sorted. Nine pm and Morrissey comes on….he’s good humoured, making a joke, shaking hands……”it’s Saturday night, we’re in Liverpool, it’s perfect” he says……and so it was as he launches into “This Charming Man” and my stomach leaps and my heart flutters and I’ve waited twenty years for this gig and I can’t quite comprehend that I’m there. Less than five minutes later and it’s all over and I’m still in a kind of shock which sounds crazy but I can’t help it. Someone throws a plastic bottle at Moz’s head and he’s not having it and the gig is cancelled. We exit the arena kind of foolishly, girls are crying, people are angry, one young fan there with her Dad is devastated. Kirsty and I are laughing in a disbelieving kind of way and by the time we leave the carpark an hour later (top level…prepaid tosh!!) we are nearly hysterical.
Forty eight hours on and I’m over it….I hope Morrissey is ok….I reckon a man of his calibre could have come back on and put the phantom thrower in his place with a few choice words,,,,God knows if anyone could have he could…..but he didn’t so ho hum….on we go.
I don’t know whether I’ll ever have the chance of seeing Morrissey again and I’m not sure whether one song from the man himself, all be it the prolific “This Charming Man” was worth it but what I do know was that trip there and back under the Mersey tunnel in the space of a mad ten minutes with one of my oldest friends was a trip I’ll never forget…..memories are made of this!!
author: kellie riley
It was a jolly good night and despite the disappointments I had a great time! x
Great post, you should have come and seen my products at my design studio whilst you were here! Could have shown you the city!