¡Oye Esteban!

First some extra comments about the last few films.

Last Orders - Surely some of the best in-car filming ever?

Spidey II - Another great shot was of Tobey running up to the edge of the building - just before the "I'm back / my back!" joke - his face as he was running in slow-mo was very good!!

Not really a film review, but watched Morrissey's DVD ¡Oye Esteban! last night. Was very pleased to spot the sportswear brand references were exactly the brands I've bought into (sold out to?) recently in my new sporty-fashion phase - namely Fred Perry (Moz wearing it in "Boxers",) Lonsdale (the band in "We hate it when our friends become successful") and Umbro (kit bag in "Sunny") On reflection I realise these are the main all-British brands so it's probably no surprise I went for these. Surely it wasn't a subliminal effect of the DVD?

The world of Morrissey is really about English masculinity. I guess this is partly the reason behind my Perry/Lonsdale/Umbro obsession. How does it sit with my rejection of things British? With irony. It's the juxtapositions that wearing a Lonsdale polo shirt makes that are interesting - sporty/sport-hating, skinhead/gay, British / anti-British. It's all a mass of conflicting images. Who would have thought wearing sportswear would do all that? I guess Morrissey is on the same territory.

The DVD ¡Oye Esteban! is maybe the only "pop video" collection that I can watch over and over. There are some real stand out tracks. The opener is “Everyday is Like Sunday” shot in Morecambe maybe? Surreally it incorporates Billie Whitelaw and the Cheryl Campbell from Coronation Street – the one who shared with Gail (later) Tilsley in Elsie Tanner's house – back in the 70s when Corrie was great. The final shot of Morrissey through a telescope has his hair at possibly its most vertiginous... “Suedehead” takes us on a moving trip to Fairmount Indiana and a hommage to the life of James Dean. Still hard to believe he was just 24 when he died. "Too fast to live, too young to die."

“Interesting Drug,” featuring the backing vocals of the late Kirsty MacColl, camps it up with cross dressing schoolboys, Diana Dors on the NME cover and Hawtry High School for Boys.

"Will Never Marry" is a touching song about Morrissey's written proposals from his (female?) fanbase. "I'm writing this to say in a gentle way, thank you but no / I will live my life as I will undoubtedly die, alone..." The video is a sequence of clips of fans climbing the stage to show their devotion to Moz in the traitional manner. It only gets a bit ugh when the girls and long-haired blokes are doing the kissing.

The black and white shot vidz are really more beautiful than should be allowed for a pop video. “My Love Life,” is achingly melancholic – Morrissey and the band in a Rolls driving through Phoenix. Wonderful stuff. But Morrissey obviously is not driving. The looks of longing on Morrissey's face are quite unbearably poignant. “Tomorrow” is a video I remember seeing in Boston on MTV back in the summer of 1992. The continuous tracking shot through the back streets of Nice is really memorable, the band members wandering along in the background horsing around. Morrissey almost breaks into laughter at one point as the guys mess about... “Seasick yet still Docked” is again more poignant that a pop video deserves to be. Who are the people in the home movie? It is definitely the US in the 1950s. You can read so much family history in these short clips. The older guy who is obviously the patriarch of the family – he is clearly a strong personality but I wonder about the darker controlling sides of his character.

Later we get the full on deconstruction of the British male - “Boxers” featuring the haunting music from Britten's Peter Grimes Moonlight interlude, and the wonderful Cornelius Carr who formed the backdrop to the stage in Morrissey's 1995 tour. And yes this is where you see Morrissey in a Fred Perry polo! Dagenham Dave must be totally incomprehensible to anyone outside of England. I know this part of Essex slightly more than I want to. As ever with Morrissey, Essex man is given a twist with the line “He'd like to touch but he's afraid that he might self-combust / I could say more but you get the general idea,” and Dave / Moz in the windscreen of the XR3. How drole! Boy racer features Jason Rush from the “Last of the International Playboys” video looking a bit older and fuller as the eponymous anti-hero of the song in his Sierra Cosworth. He also makes off with Dag Dave's girl at the end of the previous video. Surely it's Martine Escutcheon as one of the girls with chips? Again Morrissey homoeroticises the thing - “He's got the whole world in his hands / standing at the urinal..” and at the end of the song Moz repeats “He's just too good looking, and, and, and, and....” Oh Steven!