Sites there include Morrissey's teenage home, the iconic Salford lads club which the Smiths posed outside for the 'Queen is Dead' album inside cover which has become a sort of Mecca for Smiths fans, the Cemetary Gates Morrissey visits in his song of the same title and the Iron Bridge from 'Still Ill'.
The mish was completed Sat 20/05/05, and pictures and detials are below.
First stop was a trip Back to the old house, 384 Kings Road, where Morrissey may have been welcome no more but was still where songs such as Still Ill, Hand In Glove and This Charming Man were written, under an infamous life size portrait of James Dean on young Steven's wall.
Having seen this and taken photos outside, we headed for the Iron Bridge which despite not actually being the bridge under which Morrissey kissed- ending up with sore lips, has come to represent this for Smiths fans. Then a train went by: such a sad sound.
We were looking for self-validation: and couldn't find it in the alley by the railway station, so we continued our search elsewhere in the suburbs of Salford.
After that, we passed the Mencap centre where Morrissey was looking for a job and then he found a job, and where he felt more fulfilled, making Christmas cards, with the mentally ill.
After this, we caught a double decker bus to the Cemetery Gates, where we went inside and we gravely read the stones and wondered "all those people, all those lives, where are they now?"
With love and hate and passions just like mine, they were born and then they lived and then they died. Seems so unfair. Fee wanted to cry.
After this, we slipped down the side streets of Salford, passing some Rusholme Ruffians along the way and headed for the final destination, Salford Lads Club.
Young bones groaned and Fee said "lets doctor some old photos instead," but Rob and John assured him, "these things take time," and so the mish continued.
The rain poured hard on the humdrum town and, for a moment, the mishketeers thought "this town has dragged us down" and asked "do you really think we'll pull through?" Had we Started Something we couldn't finish?
But then the brave and valient mishketeers said said "I never never want to go home... until we've found the Salford Lads Club" but it didn't look hopeful. We knew it was over, yet still we clung, we didn't know where else we could go!
Having said that, we were still going Nowhere Fast. But there's always someone, somewhere, with a big nose who knows, so we asked for directions, and while some people thought we were weird, we thought "if people stare then people stare, I really don't know and i really don't care". But, in the main, people were like "ask me, I won't say 'no' how could I?"
One women gave us a series of detailed directions, but they turned out to be just a Miserable Lie. What She Said saw us lost for hours.
Then in this charming taxi, this charming man, appeared appeared and took us straight there, meaning we could join thousands of other Smiths fans in recreating the photo outside the club. By then, the rain had gone off so we went for a walk where its quiet and dry, back to the bus station.
After this we headed home, although we didn't want to go home, we wanted to stay, and were back for seven, meaning it was possibly the most perfect mish ever in terms of timing and getting buses etc.