DEDICATED TO THAT AMAZING TALENT THAT WAS ANDY ROURKE.
RIP Andy, you beautiful soul. 19th May 2023.
Broadcast on The Tube 1984
About the shit crowd - coz everyone goes on about it....
THIS WAS NOT A SMITHS GIG!!!!
The Tube was a TV show that had several bands appearing on one night! The show's bands were chosen at short notice. I only found out the day before, and the tickets were all gone. Sold locally to the good citizens of Newcastle, where the show was filmed. At the time, the band were only big in Manchester and London...
The audience didn't know who they would see. The Smiths were almost unknown at the time. The crowd were not fans (apart from a very few). The only song the rest of the crowd knew was This Charming Man, if they had seen it on top of the pops a few months earlier.
Now, for all those who say they'd have been dancin their socks off... Can you remember the first time you heard a Smiths song (or indeed any really fantastic track)? Did you suddenly start moshin as if your life depended on it? No! You thought vaguely "these sound pretty good. What's their name, I think I'll buy their record?". That's what this crowd were thinking....
When the beatles played their first few gigs at the Cavern, were they mobbed by hundreds of screaming girls? No, coz no bugger knew them yet....
They just hadn't earned it yet baby!