Nick Peet on why we should all get a round in for the expert bottle-thrower that left Morrissey fans gutted at Liverpool’s Echo Arena.
Morrissey getting struck by a plastic bottle at the Echo Arena
BOOZING at the ECHO Arena seems to be the topic of the week again after one spilled drink at the weekend found its way on top of Morrissey‘s head.
The incident throws up tons of issues about our incredible new world class venue but also singled the artist out for exactly what he is; a boring old wet drip.
Is there an alcohol access issue to be tackled at the King’s Dock venue? Undoubtedly.
Is it a really such a big problem? Hardly.
Plastic beer cups and the odd smuggled plastic bottle are frequent overhead projectiles when you go to rock concerts the world over.
A combination of sheer excitement and being in a state of intoxication can send the happy person in all of us into overdrive as the opening chords of a favourite song turns you into a one-man fountain leaving everyone around you showered in your warm beer.
Of course, this only happens up front in the standing section naturally. It’s a state of mind only found acceptable when you are shoulder to shoulder with sweaty students with shirts around their heads and whistles around their necks.
Spraying drinks certainly wouldn’t be feasible up in the gods for instance, where the guy next to you has miserably sat throughout the best gig of your life so as not to crease his club blazer.
But it’s a variation of this unspoken rule of gig conduct that made last weekend’s Morrissey incident so hard to fathom.
Don’t get me wrong, if I were dragged along to a Morrissey concert myself I’d throw something. Not my beer mind that would be the only thing numbing the pain of his depressing back catalogue.
But Morrissey fans are hardly your head-banging, beer swilling crowd.
A bunch of 40-something romantics; it shouldn’t be difficult to find the beer bottle distributor – after all, he was obviously the only one drinking beer amongst a field of soppy red wine sippers.
The other factor to remember is that Morrissey himself has set a new precedent for attendees of his future shows. If he’s crap then simply chuck something at him and he’ll head for the exit quicker than an MP with a blank expenses form.
Both the Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian have concerts planned for the ECHO Arena later this week and I’d bet both bands would be somewhat insulted if a couple of beers didn’t get sprayed about the place.
The only fear for the venue is that is escalates out of control like it did towards the end of the Kings of Leon gig earlier in the summer, as there was content far more sinister than beer in some of those plastic cups.
But the regulation and sale of booze at the ECHO Arena is just a toothache on a sensational first 12 months of trading.
And if dreary Morrissey chooses not to return then real Merseyside music fans should all stand united and buy last weekend’s beer chucker a replacement pint.
