Morrissey - 04 The National Front Disco (Madstock)

[GreyRose93]

The only way people could interpret this song as nationalist is by not listening to the lyrics the whole way through, it seems that certain journalists got less than half way through the song and made their false judgements based on that

[Waitingforriki]

apparently this song is about Bowie's flirtation with Fascism..which kinda makes sense when Your Arsenal was produced by Mick Ronson...

[Iberotimuka]

It was NME trying to create news where there wasn't any, playing on people's prejudices, susceptibilities and proneness to be gullible.

[Waitingforriki]

@Iberotimuka yeah the NME or the 'enemy'... I cannot stand that rag.. they'd fawned over Mozza so much before this gig they were looking for an excuse to 'bring him down' & Madstock was the crowning glory for those c*%ts writing for the nme at the time !! Total bastards who I've hated since !! Morrissey was born in Manchester..not Texas !! Racist my arse !!

[Iberotimuka]

@Waitingforriki they only had to look elsewhere on the album to see he was mocking the misplaced right wing xenophobia rampant at the time, for example the BNP had won a Council seat on the Isle of Dogs or something like that. You only have to hear the lyrics on We'll let you know to see what he was really getting at: We may seem cold, or we may even be the most depressing people you've ever known at heart, what's left, we sadly know that we are the last truly British people you'll ever know

[Iberotimuka]

@Waitingforriki he's saying they're totally sad and depressing and have got absolutely nothing to offer, that they express their frustration through hooliganism and make out they are proud of being British but what sort of Britishness are they proud of?, it's all rather sad, and it makes me sadder now with hindsight how he was so blatantly misinterpreted

[yorkie06759]

Total irony: don't you get it?

[nihilizt]

legendary!!!

[NeilThompson30]

Finsbury Park - so much to answer for

[captaincomputa]

There's nothing wrong with being patriotic,i wish more people would make a stand

[mcs1hr]

One more thing from me, the NME following this was full of very poor ill informed sixth-form journalism. Very good front cover of Moz and the Union flag.

[mcs1hr]

I've been a Morrissey fan for decades but crikey, he pissed me off that day back in 92. I turned up on the Sunday to see a banner saying, "Morrisey won't be playing tonight." Thank you very much Stephen. He made up for it with the free Ally Pally gig, but that was a bit small beer compared to a big festival appearance.

He'd be a much stronger fella if he sang through the idiot boo boys.

[TheNEWBobDylan]

Even if it is wrong, people still have the knee jerk reaction of 'this is mine' about their home country...'England for the English!' . IT's a brash and primal urge. Morrissey is a patriot in his own way. This song asks you to question your own feelings about identity and nationality... that is art.

[brutuscassius1]

I didn't see the infamous flag in this vid, but what a shame when being associated with the national flag draws accusations of bigotry. As another poster has mentioned, the British have taken back the flag and it no longer has those connotations (or shouldn't)...as demonstrated by the use of the flag by a group as innocuous as the Spice Girls

[AlbinusMakedonion]

The greatest song Morrissey has ever done, cause it talks about a period in everyone's lives: search of identity. This is not racism, this is an age in life, this is just a thought in a billion.

The greatest song he's ever done along with "Reader Meets Author", "Speedway" and "When Last I Spoke To Carol" (in my own personal opinion)

[Andrew077]

There was some heckling, cos there's an audio bootleg of this gig floating around somewhere online and you could hear this lad shouting "OFF! OFF! OFF!, GET OFF!!" after every song from this one onwards and then at the very end you can hear someone say "Oh that's it, he's had it now".

[morrissey07]

Thank you for posting this video. From all of the press I've read I would have thought they would be booing and heckling him but I didn't hear any of that. I know full well the history behind the strong lyrical content and the imagery he used in that period (the two skin head girls) but I can't seem to understand why the press made such a big deal.

[Andrew077]

I think it's rich that the NME would kick up a fuss about it, when a matter of months later they would use Union Jack flags to associate with Britpop and then you get an image of Brett Anderson of Suede with a Union Jack superimposed behind him on the cover of Select and in the same issue they had an article saying "Yanks Go Home!" as a fuck you to the grunge movement and all american bands, hypocritical bastards these magazines are

[GrlLeastLikelyTo]

Did the crowd start booing at some point... toward the end of the song?

Sounds like it...

[desasterz]

GOSH! Those lyrics are easilly mistaken for racist... What does it actually mean?

[louderthanbombs86]

Its means English for the English, he is just saying wot most people are thinking, but have not got the balls to say!!!

[Biankoneri]

Sarcasm and irony is a tough nut for the stupid

[ratinfest]

@Biankoneri ha, ha, you could not be so correct if you tried. I wont give the game away for the stupid ;)

[bestyleeds]

He didn't play Fuji Rock because he was scared of SARS. Japan the safest country in the world, nob..

[toweronepower]

You sure about that? I have seen some really fucked up videos from japan, like murder vids real sick ones.

[gantini1975]

great tune dont read too much in to it

[chewblued]

moz walked on stage with the union jack wrapped around him and the NME who hate moz anyway accused him of inciting race hate among some madness and skinheads in the crowd

[tcbkp77]

Can some one explain wut happened at this concert that made it so known

[krazyaze]

why they put him on a f****n madstock bill i'll never know,heaving with skinheads,and morrissey appears......what a joke:)

[B4DD4D]

Just a thought...this was 7/8 years after the Smiths were large, it seemed like time was moving much slower then and great music was everywhere.

It is now 17 years since this performance...

how quickly has that gone?.. and what great music do you remember in between...?

God Bless Simon Cowell.....

[AngiePangie09]

For some reason he didn't appear on the second day of Madstock haha!!!

[dazzyboy74]

I was there. He did not appear on the 2nd day as on the 1st day he was hit by an orange juice carton thrown by a disgruntled Madness Fan. Morrissey and Madness on the same bill - not a good idea!!

[karpathos7]

oh yeah yeah yeah England for this English!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hibeeinexile]

I take it you don't have a grasp of irony.

[ninmat]

Neither, apparently, do you.

[chileiceman]

Boz used to be so skinny, I had no idea

[cinemar]

yeah it's a bloody shame he's so bloody fat now and he used to be so cool looking and handsome.

[BanburyAd]

this was madstock

[BarcelonaNil]

Er, except it is from Madstock and he wasn't "bottled off", he just didn't perform on the second night after a few cartons reached the stage on the first.

[ADAMUCHI]

eh ....Nikkoaction, .... jonnysee did'nt say Italy was"Fascist" he merely stated Italy was "formerly run by a fascist" ( even if he did mis-spell it!! ) Jonnysnee please write out " FASCIST" one hundred times.

[nikkoaction]

italy is not fascist

[InmindEmpires]

My favoruite Morrissey Song!!! YEAAAH!!

[PickledStone888]

Morrissey ? Facist? Don't be a cunt!

[inga6777]

@PickledStone888

Whoever might misunderstand him as a "racist" must be completely blind,deaf and ignorant.

He stands for friendlyness,humour intelligence and simply beauty. Nothing else.It happens in every country which isn´t as democratic as to be shown that intelligent people who look behind the show are thrown with dirt. It has been the british press who did it, nothing than silly dirt.

Hm, I really assumed this is obvious and noticed, like a simple basical knowledge,maybe I hoped too mush.

[HansBooBee]

@PickledStone888 Fascism has nothing to do with national pride. Those two ideas are able to live outside of one another. Think outside of the box, nothing is black and white.

[PickledStone888]

@HansBooBee Except a chessboard?

[jonnysnee]

the most facist thing morrissey ever did was live in a country formerly run by a facist.

(italy if you didn't know)

[Stillillgal]

tnx man!