What is your first memory of Morrissey?

[London By Night]

I remember seeing some old Channel 4 music show back in the 80's, I think it was called 'Ear Say' and he was lip synching, I think, the track "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now". This was very much in the 'daffodils down the trousers' era. I have to admit, I didn't become a fan until a few years down the line. Once madame melancholy started to loom large in my legend by around the close of the decade I was in there hook, line and sinker. I do wonder why I didn't get into it sooner. I guess I needed to live a little first to fully appreciate what he was saying and what a great writer he was and still is.

 

[mozzia]

The 'I Have Forgiven Jesus' video I remember watching it over and over. I may have heard 'Irish Blood' before then, but I don't recall. It was definitely I Have Forgiven Jesus that became a part of my life, and got me to where I am now (fandom)

 

[I am a Ghost]

Not going to see him 'til the 1990's.....

 

[Skinner]

Not going to see him 'til the 1990's.....

LOL!

 

[Kilt Uncle]

I first saw him on Top Of The Pops singing 'What difference....'

...I thought "What a tosser"...

When i first saw him in 1992....He clocked me in the crowd and i swear he used the same words to describe me...

 

[sweet and tender hooligan]

I first saw him on Top Of The Pops singing 'What difference....'

...I thought "What a tosser"...

When i first saw him in 1992....He clocked me in the crowd and i swear he used the same words to describe me...

Awh i'm sure he didn't.

My first Moz memory was the moment i fell in love with him. That one day in my Kitchen back in the days i was 13. "Heaven knows i'm miserable now" was the song on and the line " In my life, why do i smile at people who don't care if i live or die".
I can still remember sitting on my kitchen floor and being absorbed in Moz for the first time.

 

[Claudia2006]

My hubby and I were making a mix cd to play at our wedding reception. He suggested that we put There is a Light That Never Goes Out by this 80's band called The Smiths, since our computer then didn't have any speakers at the time, I just had to trust him. I remember hearing it once during the reception and thinking who is this? On our way to our honeymoon he played The Queen is Dead album for me. I fell in love immediatly! I asked my hubby who was singing cause he had the sexiest voice I had ever heard, of course he said "Oh that's Morrissey!" I asked if he was still around and hubby said "I haven't heard from him in a while" needless to say I was bummed that I had missed out. Over the next year and a half I downloaded and bought every possible Morrissey song I could find. One day hubby came home with a present for me and low and behold Morrissey was back with You are the Quarry, It took a while for the songs to grow on me but once they did I was hooked. I found out he was touring, no where near North Carolina where we were at the time, so I bought us tickets to see him in Philly with Damien Dempsey. We drove 6 hours and stayed at a pretty dicey hotel, the show was great and Morrissey looked and sounded amazing, I was mesmerized. Hubby had is doubts that Moz could still hit the high notes but there was nothing left to doubt after that show. After that first gig there was no turning back from the world of being a Morrissey fan for me! I think hubby might be a little sorry that he ever put that song on our reception CD!

I think this might be the sweetest intro-to-Morrissey story I've ever heard!

 

[Jealous Of Youth]

Awh i'm sure he didn't.

My first Moz memory was the moment i fell in love with him. That one day in my Kitchen back in the days i was 13. "Heaven knows i'm miserable now" was the song on and the line " In my life, why do i smile at people who don't care if i live or die".
I can still remember sitting on my kitchen floor and being absorbed in Moz for the first time.

What were you doing on the kitchen floor at 13 years old? Shouldn't you have been loitering outside Cav with a bottle of Buckfast,trying to latch on to a male student so the bouncers would let you in..? Voice of experience speaking here (I was the one being latched on to, by the way, not the one doing the latching)

 

[sweet and tender hooligan]

What were you doing on the kitchen floor at 13 years old? Shouldn't you have been loitering outside Cav with a bottle of Buckfast,trying to latch on to a male student so the bouncers would let you in..? Voice of experience speaking here (I was the one being latched on to, by the way, not the one doing the latching)

Ha ha, nah that started when i got to 15 .

 

[dicartwright]

There was this top 16 in Uruguay, a formerly cool FM. When I started listening there were Girlfriend in a coma and Heaven knows... (as well as The Beatles' Twist and shout, for example...), and I did my best to understand what Girlfriend in a coma was about. I wasn't sure I was getting it right because I found it SO funny. As it turnsout, I was getting it right.
Then, Heaven knows spoke about me and I loved it, but I must say what got me right away was Johnny's guitar. At some point, Some girls are bigger than others made it to that ranking too.
But it was only when the Ignore me video was on tv that I got to see Morrissey's face. Frankly, I was instantly attracted, he was pretty much my type, but I remember feeling a bit scared and thinking "who does he think he is?? Sideburns and quiff??"

 

[Franzanna]

What were you doing on the kitchen floor at 13 years old? Shouldn't you have been loitering outside Cav with a bottle of Buckfast,trying to latch on to a male student so the bouncers would let you in..? Voice of experience speaking here (I was the one being latched on to, by the way, not the one doing the latching)

Oi! I've only started doing it since I turned 14! No, I've never done that before and I have no desire to. I got into Morrissey when I was 12, so he ensured that I wasn't doing that by my next birthday.

I actually got into Morrissey and The Smiths through my older sister. She's never been a big fan, but she played the Singles CD one evening and I don't know what happened next, I was utterly in love with it all. I played it over and over again, even the next day at a garden party (I smuggled it into the CD player by putting it into a more 'socially acceptable' CDs case), and life has never been the same since.

 

[Jealous Of Youth]

Ha ha, nah that started when i got to 15 .

I feel like going on a rant about Edinburgh bouncers now, but I'll restrain myself.

 

[sweet and tender hooligan]

I feel like going on a rant about Edinburgh bouncers now, but I'll restrain myself.

Ha ha.

 

[Mars_Rover]

I think The Smiths first started popping up in American rock magazines (which I read voraciously) circa late '83 - early '84. Rolling Stone listed them among the up-and-coming British bands and described their music as guitar-based and angst-ridden, which appealed to me very much in the midst of all the lightweight synth crap that was going on at the time.

It was hearing "How Soon Is Now" for the first time however, when the video was played on some late night show, that really nailed me. I went out the next day and bought "Hatful of Hollow," which I listened to almost continuously and exclusively for months on end. I couldn't believe someone had written about my life! Thus followed decades of devotion.

D'oh! This thread specifically asks for the first memory of Morrissey. I had read an interview with him circa '84 that said until very recently he had lived in his mother's house and was unemployed and without friends or prospects. I remember being startled that he would admit to that, and also say he was celibate. That's not the sort of thing you hear people admit to, unashamedly and with humour. I thought Mr. Morrissey was very brave and unusual. I still think that, actually.

 

[oye terence]

I was there It was a great show! I saw the "suedehead" video and I was hooked. 20 years later and I still love him

we probablly have been at a ton of the same morrissey shows,yet we have only met at last years pavillion show.

did you go to the lowell '97 show?
thats my fave one he ever played in this state.
it was so absurd with the elderly sercurity guards
haha

 

[liebe]

I saw 'This Charming Man' on music channels all the time when I was younger and liked it but never took much notice. One of my friends made me a mix tape of Smiths songs when I was 12 and I was instantly hooked. I couldn't believe that someone had written such good lyrics, lyrics that I related to as soon as I heard them, lyrics that made me laugh, lyrics that made me cry. I went to see Moz for the first time in 2002 and it changed my life.

 

[sweetness522]

I purchased Viva Hate on cassette and fell in love with Suedehead, Late Night Maudlin Street, and Everyday is Like Sunday. Well, that cassette from 1988 just broke, but I'm keeping it for the memories! Then came the Kill Uncle tour. I went to my first gig at Madison Square Garden in 1991. I was hooked for good, except I've had up and down moments of obsessiveness through the years, 2007 to now basically being intense.

 

[Hellie]

TOTP singing This Charming Man.My dad peered over his newspaper and said "bloody poof" ...which was enough for me.

 

[Chileiceman]

First of all, hello to all the fellow Morrissey fans.

I think my first memory of him, was back in 2004 when he came out with You Are The Quarry. He was runner up for Artist Of The Month on the radio station I listened to in Chile (the winner was Alanis Morrissette lol). I had heard of The Smiths before but I don't think I would have been able to tell what songs were theirs.

Then Irish Blood English Heart started getting lots of play on the radio and also on a music video channel. Same with First Of The Gang To Die. I remember really liking those songs, but at the time (I was 14) I was more into Coldplay.

It wasn't until last year, when my German teacher (the hottest teacher I ever had might I add) gave me a Morrissey mixtape with a couple Smiths songs mixed in. By then I knew more Morrissey and Smith songs, but it wasn't until then that I got hooked.

 

[kissmyshadestoo]

I remember seeing "Meat Is Murder" in the records stores here in NJ, the cover struck me as being odd....but never really listened to them until "Strangeways" came out.