CENTERSTAGE
It all boils down to the collapse and decay of the British Empire. You could blame it on Margaret Thatcher. Or on Joy Division. Or on dreary Manchester and Northern England. Whatever the symbol, it has everything to do with the sorry state of Great Britain.
CENTERSTAGE
MA BELLE AMIE
THE SMITHS Fox Theater, Detroit August 14, 1986
by Bill Holdship
It all boils down to the collapse and decay of the British Empire. You could blame it on Margaret Thatcher. Or on Joy Division. Or on dreary Manchester and Northern England. Whatever the symbol, it has everything to do with the sorry state of Great Britain. But where the Sex Pistols were about rage and anger, the Smiths are about resignation. God save the Queen, snarled Rotten. Screw that, thinks Morrissey. The Queen is dead.
This was overwhelmingly evident when the Smiths closed their short but powerful set with the title track from their new LP, using the album’s morbid cover as a stage backdrop, while Morrissey danced like a klutz imitating a pretzel, and held a “The Queen Is Dead” placard not unlike Joey Ramone’s “Gabba! Gabba! Hey!” sign. The overall effect—haunting music, moody lighting, stark portrait, rock ’n’ roll band, village “idiot”—had an effect akin to Edvard Munch’s The Scream painting or the cover of Joy Division’s Closer LP: frightening, depressing but strangely fascinating...and draining, though the latter had something to do with the lack of air conditioning in a hot hall.