cih
New Member
Hi,
Apologies for starting a new thread on an ancient topic - I couldn't find how to reply to the old ones I found!
I was googling about the event and found this site and thought I'd chip in my view - that is, the view of a skinhead Madness fan on the day, central front of the crowd...
There is a general assessment from some that the main reason Morrissey was 'bottled' off stage was because he didn't fit the 'laddish' profile the audience demanded. Correct. Now, firstly, I like Morrissey - and I did NOT join in the barracking. But the skinheads around me were hostile BEFORE he came on stage. Ian Dury had just been on, I think(?), and he was ok - part of the norf London knees-up brigade... Gallon Drunk had been on and got FAR more stick than Morrissey - for acting hard and drinking cans of beer and taking themselves too seriously and looking like students pretending to be in a Jim Jarmusch movie.
Anyway, we were all getting impatient. During the wait for Morrissey, some skinheads starting taking the piss out of Morrissey fans - insinuating they were gay or had a crush on Morrissey. There was a bloke from the US near me who was getting abuse from a skinhead child. Morrissey was seen as a floppy, effeminate, poetic, self-pitying aesthete. He came on and things were going ok - nobody taking any notice of the lyrics - it was really irrelevant which songs he was singing, the skinheads wouldn't have known National Front Disco from Mull of Kintyre. But they were getting impatient already, and then, I think (but might be wrong) the banner was unveiled, or unfurled, or maybe people just started directing their attention at it - but a bloke in front of me was screaming "it's got f**k all to do with you" etc and people began throwing plastic bottles etc (nothing to do any serious damage - but cretinous anyway). The indignation was TOTALLY to do with the perception that Morrissey was attempting to ingratiate himself with the skinheads, but wasn't welcome. 100%
After he went off, things got worse, the crowd became a crush, people were being dragged out by security. One man was panicking and shouting 'we're all going to die" and a skin in front of me punched him in the face and so a bouncer leant over the barrier and strangled him until he stopped! I was getting squashed. Some half-naked idiot skinhead was standing on my shoulder feeling around in his underpants for something (!) Eventually Madness came on and started One Step Beyond and the whole crowd surged and the bouncers were going bonkers shouting "stupid crass behaviour" as they rescued people from getting trampled.
Anyway, that's all. Might be of mild interest to somebody!
Apologies for starting a new thread on an ancient topic - I couldn't find how to reply to the old ones I found!
I was googling about the event and found this site and thought I'd chip in my view - that is, the view of a skinhead Madness fan on the day, central front of the crowd...
There is a general assessment from some that the main reason Morrissey was 'bottled' off stage was because he didn't fit the 'laddish' profile the audience demanded. Correct. Now, firstly, I like Morrissey - and I did NOT join in the barracking. But the skinheads around me were hostile BEFORE he came on stage. Ian Dury had just been on, I think(?), and he was ok - part of the norf London knees-up brigade... Gallon Drunk had been on and got FAR more stick than Morrissey - for acting hard and drinking cans of beer and taking themselves too seriously and looking like students pretending to be in a Jim Jarmusch movie.
Anyway, we were all getting impatient. During the wait for Morrissey, some skinheads starting taking the piss out of Morrissey fans - insinuating they were gay or had a crush on Morrissey. There was a bloke from the US near me who was getting abuse from a skinhead child. Morrissey was seen as a floppy, effeminate, poetic, self-pitying aesthete. He came on and things were going ok - nobody taking any notice of the lyrics - it was really irrelevant which songs he was singing, the skinheads wouldn't have known National Front Disco from Mull of Kintyre. But they were getting impatient already, and then, I think (but might be wrong) the banner was unveiled, or unfurled, or maybe people just started directing their attention at it - but a bloke in front of me was screaming "it's got f**k all to do with you" etc and people began throwing plastic bottles etc (nothing to do any serious damage - but cretinous anyway). The indignation was TOTALLY to do with the perception that Morrissey was attempting to ingratiate himself with the skinheads, but wasn't welcome. 100%
After he went off, things got worse, the crowd became a crush, people were being dragged out by security. One man was panicking and shouting 'we're all going to die" and a skin in front of me punched him in the face and so a bouncer leant over the barrier and strangled him until he stopped! I was getting squashed. Some half-naked idiot skinhead was standing on my shoulder feeling around in his underpants for something (!) Eventually Madness came on and started One Step Beyond and the whole crowd surged and the bouncers were going bonkers shouting "stupid crass behaviour" as they rescued people from getting trampled.
Anyway, that's all. Might be of mild interest to somebody!