When more than a year ago Morrissey’s producer in Spain, Julián Martí, called his old friend Miguel Angel Tapia, director of the Zaragoza Auditorium Princesa Leonor, and told him: “I have a gift for you, but you are going to suffer,” it was a premonition. The gift was the possibility of scheduling a concert by the British pop icon, Morrissey, for the first time in the capital of the Ebro, and the suffering, putting up with the inconveniences of the artist who has had the most cancellations in the history of pop, the last one last Thursday in Valencia, where at the last moment he decided not to open his Spanish tour because “he had not been able to sleep.” The agony that the same thing could happen in Zaragoza has floated in the air until Steven Patrick Morrissey took the stage, this Saturday. But this time, the artist who cancels up to 30% of his shows at the last moment, has not only behaved but has signed a brilliant concert that will be remembered in the city of Pilar.
In a packed Mozart hall – tickets sold out in less than an hour months ago at an average of 110 euros – Mozz has even been pleasant. It was barely 10 minutes past eight thirty when the man from Manchester burst onto the stage at the rhythm of Billy Budd (Vauxhall and I, 94)dressed in his classic pink shirt and jeans a couple of sizes too big. And the entire auditorium, and not just its director, breathed a sigh of relief.
Not in vain, the lobby of the Princesa Leonor was full of repeat offenders and victims of other cancellations. Like Manolo, Mariví, Mae and Luis, who have come from Valdepeñas, in Castilla-La Mancha, after they were left out in Madrid this summer. The same as Nuria and Mariano, who were also left there with the desire when Morrissey suspended his concert at the Botánico: “This is the last chance because if they don’t kick us at home, we won’t come back.” And they, at least, come from closer, from Alagón, a town in the Zaragoza belt. But others have made a long trip even from abroad. And Martín went there, to Rome, where he already saw Morrissey, and this Saturday he repeated in Zaragoza. Or entire families, like Pilar’s who comes with her children Alex and Jorge. This is what the former soloist of the Smiths has, a parish of faithful followers who always return, forgiving him even the unforgivable.
Why do you come here? sings the chorus of the third song whose first and unmistakable chords unleash fury in the room. Is Suedeheadthe success of the artist’s first solo album (Long live Hate1988), after leaving The Smiths. Many years have passed, but Morrissey retains his voice intact with all its nuances. The same as his charisma, which has not diminished with age, perhaps because his is that of the different, who knows he is oblivious to fashions and trends.
The British fills the stage. He doesn’t dance, but he makes the microphone cable dance, and he runs it from left to right while, from time to time, he pulls up his jeans. The shirt, first pink, then blue, is worn open almost to the navel, where at belt height he loves to plant flowers as if it were a flowerpot. Furthermore, tonight he is even happy and it shows. He shakes hands with the most dedicated audience, those in the first rows who challenge the anti-avalanche fence that he demanded, because they want to touch the Manchester divo. Even hugging him in the middle of the stage will achieve a spontaneous young woman in the end.
The hypnotic Notredame and the first single Make Up Is A Lie They introduce the public to the latest album of the same name, which many dance to but few know yet. Interesting work but without as much pull as others like First Of The Gun To Die (You Are The Quarry) that turns the room into a nightclub and triggers the adrenaline in the Mozart. There are songs that are born to be eternal, like Last Night I Dreamt That Sombebody Love Me (Strangers Here We Come) that Mozz sings after a keyboard solo by Texan Camila Gray that cuts the air. The one from Manchester knows how to combine. The new thing to promote with the usual, Irish Blood English Heart (You’re the Querry) or even How Soon Is Now from The Smiths’ first album that catapulted them to fame. The repertoire is that of this tour, it neither innovates nor alters, but it doesn’t matter. Those who are there don’t want anything else either. And to close, the best, Every Day Is Like Sunday and the epilogue There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.
Morrissey this Saturday, in Zaragoza, has delivered. Let Seville prepare. If the one from Manchester doesn’t go wrong along the way, they will be in luck.
