My deferential thanks to all brave souls, loving souls, patriots and pioneers who filled the arenas and halls of our recent North American/Canadian tour.
The tour was a great success, and here are my top ten chosen nights:

1.LOS ANGELES The Hollywood Bowl (Oct 26)
2.QUEENS, NEW YORK Forest Hills Stadium (Sept 27)
3.VANCOUVER BC Orpheum / first night (Oct 14)
4.VANCOUVER BC Orpheum / second night (Oct 15)
5.CALGARY AB Jubilee Auditorium (Oct 11)
6.WINNIPEG MB Centennial (Oct 21)
7.SALT LAKE Utah Saltair (Sept 28)
8.CAMDEN NJ BB&T Pavillion (Sept 11)
9.SAN DIEGO CA Pechanga Arena (Oct 6)
10.KETTERING OH Fraze Pavillion (Sept 11)

In this trendy climate of 'M-deniers', I am so relieved that everything went so well - not only well, in fact, but triumphantly so … the Hollywood Bowl being the best night of my touring life.
The journalistic debacle of the LA Times piece relied heavily on the sectors of London Fake Media, who themselves, rely so exclusively on anonymous sources. I am afraid Idiot Culture - with all its worst inclinations - gets the most baying and ax grinding coverage. It is pseudo-news gone insane, and it is its own sadness. Their obsessive perpetuation of spectacularly irresponsible reporting ("we can't find a story, so let's make one up") is a terrible reflection on those willing to report nothing whatsoever as catastrophic news. I rely on your intelligence not to consume shitty reports of what does not exist. You know exactly to whom I refer. These are the days of decision … to quote the great Phil Ochs.

2020 ? Hopefully less Alarmism from those who say things that have been given them to say. Otherwise, I think BMG will release 'Bobby, Don't You Think They Know?' as a single - my fantastic duet with Thelma Houston. As always, we pray for airplay.

I support you now - just as I supported you in the days before I even knew you.

MORRISSEY
Los Angeles
4 November 2019.

Call me irresponsible, but I’d prefer not to address the generally left-leaning Morrissey’s support of the far-right For Britain Movement. In fact, I don’t even want to think about it. Oh, it’s not that I don’t care. (I do.) Or that I’m not puzzled. (Who isn’t?) But rather that it’s not my place to say which way he or anyone else swings. I mean, I wouldn’t tell Morrissey who to love, so why should I tell him which party to go to?

That said, this is Morrissey we’re talking about and Morrissey is political. Always has been. Always will be. So it’d be impossible to review the man’s most recent Hollywood Bowl show without somehow touching upon politics. It also only makes sense that one of the most fiery and caustic moments of that showing was the politically-charged “I Wish You Lonely.”

Taken from 2017’s Low in High School, “I Wish You Lonely” is an agit-pop fight song for shut-ins. A sorta J’accuse for the recluse, if you will. Think of it as the kinda track a bed-ridden Proust might write if he wore a Yellow Vest and had a kickass band behind him. The place where taunt meets lament and comes out as anthem.

It’s also just a little bit epic.

Live it’s even more so. The stir is more stirring. The churn is more churning. The roar more roarful. The song may be driven by a march beat, backed by a heart’s throb and bolstered by flaring harmonics, but it’s led by Morrissey’s melodic malevolence.

And his inarguable adamance. This is how it is, baby. Deal with it. But don’t fall for it. Whatever you do.

By the time the song sides with the holy sea creature over the evil Norwegian gunships, you’ve become the pursued, and you’ve vowed never to give in to your pursuers, even if your life depends on it.

Because, of course, it does. Which, of course, is the key to Morrissey. He sings of living through lethal things. Love. Loss. Murder. War. You name it. That he does so with a cutthroat wit and a killer croon only makes the songs – and their subjects – that much deadlier.

And that much more vital. It’s there in You Are the Quarry’s “Irish Blood English Heart,” it’s there in Years of Refusal’s “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris,” and it’s there in Viva Hate’s “Everyday is Like Sunday.” It was there in every other song sung at The Bowl on Saturday too, including The Smiths’ classic “How Soon is Now.”

But though “How Soon is Now” actually ended the evening, it was the raucous one-two punch of “Jack the Ripper” and “Jacky’s Only Happy When She’s Up on Stage” that truly crashed out the main event – and left the 17,000+ in attendance gently reeling into that long Hollywood night. We were bruised. We were battered. And we were happy. In fact, we were ecstatic.

Imagine being hit by the world’s most beautiful fist. That’s what the night felt like. I don’t know if the blow came from the left. And I don’t know if the blow came from the right. But I do know I’ll be cherishing the black-and-blue for the rest of my life.

HOLLYWOOD BOWL, OCTOBER 26th

" … Beyond. Beyond. My wildest. Dreams.

forever indebted, MORRISSEY."

Our Canadian tour of 9 concerts has now been completed, and I express deep and profound thanks to the magnificent audiences each night - who really make it impossible to pick out which night was best. Music still turns meaningless existence (mine) into something with meaning, and in a modern world that doesn't seem to know that it has stopped thinking, I am grateful for audiences of informed citizens with their own intellectual spirit. We will never make good slaves !
I am so happy to be so joyfully reacquainted with Canada, and I pray that a return trip can be assured.
Meanwhile, be open, be truthful, speak up - it's contagious !

Yours always, with self-will
MORRISSEY
25 October 2019