This Day in ’04: Morrissey Puts the “M” in Manchester

15 years ago today, Morrissey celebrated his 45th birthday by performing a concert in the city where he took his first breath on this unhappy planet, with all the carnivores and the destructors of it.

The set list for Mozzer’s birthday concert was one which featured a myriad of songs from throughout his career, including Smiths tunes, solo numbers, and even a couple of covers (“Subway Train,” by the New York Dolls, and “No One Can Hold A Candle to You,” by Raymonde). Of the solo material, he wasn’t afraid to take it all the way back to “Hairdresser on Fire” and “Everyday is Like Sunday,” but it was when he went even farther back than those VIVA HATE tunes that the crowd went insane.

There’s nothing quite so wonderful as hearing Morrissey sing Smiths songs, and he delivered in a big way, crooning “Rubber Ring,” “A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours,” “Shoplifters of the World Unite,” and the big closer, “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.”

Morrissey’s b-day bash was such a notable event that it ended up getting a home video release under the title of Who Put the M in Manchester? Unsurprisingly, the man’s fans bought it in droves, leading it to go gold.