Morrissey Country

Text by Amity Bacon

A fascination with the cult of the Smiths leads me to Manchester, the city of their origin. It seems the stuff of urban myth that a tour of this post-industrial, northern English town could draw fans from around the world seeking a pilgrimage for an ’80s pop act that only lasted five years.

But nearly 20 years after the group called it quits and with notorious squabbles among former members still brewing (Morrissey recently turned down $5 million for one single reunion show), the Manchester tour lives on. Mancunian Phill Gatenby, who wrote Morrissey’s Manchester in 2002 and gives guided tours each year, explains, “The Smiths have the kind of fan adoration usually only reserved for the deceased.”

And Manchester’s musical legacy, tinged with its prominent role as leader of the Industrial Revolution, has provided the perfect catalyst for a remarkable city that anyone, Smiths fan or not, can have a maddening good time in.
The city came to be known as Madchester in the mid-’80s to early ’90s. It wasn’t because of its daft experimental architecture or buzzing nightlife brimming with pill-popping college students. It was the groundbreaking music that broke all the rules at just the right time. Mancunian acts such as the Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays and 808 State blurred the lines between indie rock and electronica. The Fall, New Order and of course the Smiths laid some of the groundwork.

Retracing the steps of the Smiths can be daunting, even though the city center is incredibly easy to navigate. The Hacienda, a night club financed by Factory Records and New Order, has been demolished, and in its place are high rise apartments bearing the same name. The Smiths played there a few times, but it is more popularly known as the Studio 54 of house music.

The Salford Lads’ Club, located in a suburban community outside of the city, is considered the holy mecca of Smiths sites where fans can recreate the photo on the inside sleeve of The Queen is Dead. Today, the Lads’ Club still offers a place for lads and lasses to enjoy after-school activities, and there is a Smiths shrine room plastered with photos and letters from fans as far away as New Zealand and Guatemala.

When Morrissey hits Manchester in April and May to promote his new album Ringleader of the Tormentors, Gatenby says his tours will pick up. He also says he knows a few people who even moved to the city because of the Smiths and Morrissey. Who knows how many more could soon become captivated by this “humdrum town.”

THE SPRING ISSUE

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