Where were you when you bought "Viva Hate" and/or "Suedehead"?

Old Mathew

Well-Known Member
A little nostalgia thread, because I like to hear people's stories...

Where did you buy "Suedehead" and/or "Viva Hate" for the first time?

For myself, I purchased "Viva Hate" on LP at Pitchfork Records and Tapes on Main Street in Concord, NH, on the day of its release (March 14, 1988). I still couldn't drive then, and I remember my mother had to pick something up at the K Mart on Fort Eddy Road after we went to the record store, and, while she ran in, I sat in the car and assiduously read the lyric sheet. When we finally got home, I was absolutely appalled by the opening riff of "Alsatian Cousin." 'Dear God,' I remember thinking, 'what have they done to you?' Later that evening I called my best friend and played him "Everyday Is Like Sunday" over the phone. 'How does he do it?' he said, with admiration.

In April of that year I went to England with my mother and I bought the 12" single of "Suedehead" at the HMV in London. I'm sure there were several HMVs there at the time, and I don't remember which one -- maybe near Piccadilly Circus? I also loaded up on about half a dozen Smiths 12" singles, as well as a cassingle of "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish", which -- true story! -- would later be used by Sire to master "What's the World?" for the b-side of the "Sweet and Tender Hooligan" cd single released in 1995. Literally, every recording you now hear of that song came from the cassingle I bought that day.

Later that summer I found the CD single of "Suedehead" in a record store in Manchester, NH, and listened to "Oh Well, I'll Never Learn" as though it were the rarest and most precious thing in the world. Which, to me, it was.

Truly, I'd forgotten the side story of "What's the World?" when I started this post. So, in real earnestness, where were you when you first bought Morrissey's first single and LP?
 
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probably the local woollies or woolworths for our American friends.
 
Can't remember where I bought them but I had to buy two thanks to my young cousin who came to visit. I'd left it on the record player, she took it off and created a flower by carving petals into the vinyl. My horror was solidified by having to pretend that there was no problem with what she'd done.
 
I recorded Everyday Is Like Sunday off the radio with a tape recorder. Then I went and bought Viva Hate at a small record store in Vienna with my pocket money.
 
Record and tape traders in Towson md around 2004. Bought in a short period where I bought a bunch of morrissey solo records at the same time
 
The Wherehouse in California. I bought it on cassette. I didn't know The Smiths broke up and just thought Morrissey had a solo record. I liked it better than Strangeways but not as much as The Smiths. I had just started buying their music a few months before. I like the strange sounds on Alsatian Cousin. I still think it's his best record.
 
Both from the original Piccadilly Records in Manchester. It used to be the go-to place for music. You could buy gig tickets downstairs and the ground floor was well stocked with a decent selection of records, tapes, then CD's. I had Viva Hate on tape to begin with, updating to CD when I invested in a player with my first ever job.
 
Interesting story about the cassette single being used for the 1995 reissue! I remember someone (likely Howie Klein?) posting online, I think in those old music folders on AOL, that they were looking for that cassette so they could use the songs for a new release. I think he specifically mentioned needing the What’s the World recording. I didn’t own the cassette at the time but I responded that I had a version of What’s the World from a bootleg but he said he needed the actual cassette. I was pretty surprised that no one involved in the project had a copy and that they had to resort to asking fans.

I don’t specifically remember where I bought the Suedehead single but I do remember buying Viva Hate. I was just barely old enough to drive. It may have been the first record I drove to buy on my own, although I did used to bike to a local store when I was younger. I went to a Music Plus in Orange County, CA on the day it was released. I think I couldn’t find the record out in the bins so I asked if they had it. For whatever reason, they had just one copy, not sure if the rest had sold out or they actually only got one copy. There happened to be another guy looking for it too and another employee helping him find it. So we all ended up standing there with just one copy available for the two of us who wanted it. We both kept insisting that the other person could buy it. I guess he insisted harder than I did since I eventually said ok and I bought it. I remember liking parts of it but not loving the album immediately and telling that to my one friend in high school who also liked Morrissey when I saw him at tennis practice the next day (weird detail to remember).
 
I bought it at the shop of a person who was some sort of local version of John Peel and who had everything you may wanted to listen to at his shop. You could find there the albums by PTV, S.P.K., Diamanda Galás, John Zorn, Nocturnal Emissions... it was the only shop that would sell that kind of music (He doesn't have that shop anymore and his ideas about music are no longer interesting for me, but he was very good back then).

The funny thing that happened is that after buying it, I walked some 4 kilometers and then I was suddenly stopped by a girl who said: "I can't walk anymore, I walked in front of you some 20 times at the records shop, I followed you for kilometers... Haven't you seen me?".

I had a very short conversation and then I went home.

I went to a concert later and suddenly the same person showed up and asked: "Was it a good album? You won't get away this time".

And then she became my girlfriend for some 2 or 3 years (we are still good friends).

So it is actually the ONLY Morrissey CD that has a "story" behind the moment when I purchased it.
 
Interesting story about the cassette single being used for the 1995 reissue! I remember someone (likely Howie Klein?) posting online, I think in those old music folders on AOL, that they were looking for that cassette so they could use the songs for a new release. I think he specifically mentioned needing the What’s the World recording. I didn’t own the cassette at the time but I responded that I had a version of What’s the World from a bootleg but he said he needed the actual cassette. I was pretty surprised that no one involved in the project had a copy and that they had to resort to asking fans.

Hi Jeff, that's exactly right! I saw Howie's post on AOL, and he called me. He told me Morrissey had searched high and low in his house (would that have been Manchester at the time?) and even he didn't have a copy. Howie told me he had heard from a few fans who did have a copy, but they wanted thousands of dollars for it. He assured me that the cassette wouldn't be damaged in the mastering and that it would be returned to me. I told him all I wanted in return was maybe a postcard from Morrissey thanking me for the cassette, which I never got, but Howie did send me a box of about 40 Sire CDs from various artists by way of thanks, which I thought was nice. And they sent the cassingle back, which I still have around here, somewhere.

I remember my Dad thought it was a great story about the power of the Internet -- a record company reaching out to fans to release a record. He was right, it was a cool story, more about the Internet and the power to connect people than about Morrissey or the Smiths. I think it's interesting that Howie went on to become a progressive blogger (Down with Tyranny!) -- he definitely got the power of the Internet early on. Them was lovely days.
 
I bought it at the shop of a person who was some sort of local version of John Peel and who had everything you may wanted to listen to at his shop. You could find there the albums by PTV, S.P.K., Diamanda Galás, John Zorn, Nocturnal Emissions... it was the only shop that would sell that kind of music (He doesn't have that shop anymore and his ideas about music are no longer interesting for me, but he was very good back then).

The funny thing that happened is that after buying it, I walked some 4 kilometers and then I was suddenly stopped by a girl who said: "I can't walk anymore, I walked in front of you some 20 times at the records shop, I followed you for kilometers... Haven't you seen me?".

I had a very short conversation and then I went home.

I went to a concert later and suddenly the same person showed up and asked: "Was it a good album? You won't get away this time".

And then she became my girlfriend for some 2 or 3 years (we are still good friends).

So it is actually the ONLY Morrissey CD that has a "story" behind the moment when I purchased it.

That is a fantastic story. As I read the first part of it, I was thinking, "You should have asked that girl out!" I'm glad you eventually did. :) It's very romantic.
 
That is a fantastic story. As I read the first part of it, I was thinking, "You should have asked that girl out!" I'm glad you eventually did. :) It's very romantic.

It is weird, but I have never asked a girl to have a date with me, it was always the other way (which may mean that I am clumsy for such things, I don't know).
A funny fact is that such thing happened to me three times with 3 different girls who were born on the same day that I was born (which is really strange).
That "viva Hate" girl was the first of them. She's a great poet and we're still friends. We never forget to, at least, phone the other one when it's our birthday.

I do not remember any "special" story related t the moment in which I purchased any other Morrissey or Smiths album.
 
It is weird, but I have never asked a girl to have a date with me, it was always the other way (which may mean that I am clumsy for such things, I don't know).
A funny fact is that such thing happened to me three times with 3 different girls who were born on the same day that I was born (which is really strange).
That "viva Hate" girl was the first of them. She's a great poet and we're still friends. We never forget to, at least, phone the other one when it's our birthday.

I do not remember any "special" story related t the moment in which I purchased any other Morrissey or Smiths album.

spillers records in Cardiff ,Wales ,United Kingdom
 
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I didn't buy it. Morrissey was kind of a non-entity for me in late 1991. I was aware of his existence, but he had not not entered my life (I hadn't heard anything of his) nearly as much as my other teenage obsession, The Cure. I was living in Corvallis, Oregon, and regularly going to Happy Trails records with the little money I had, and buying anything Cure that I could get my hands on. Incense scented posters- (because they always burned incense to hide the smell of pot from the back room) postcards, cassettes, vinyl, VHS etc. They knew me as The Cure kid, and any time there was something new, I would be informed about it as soon as I came in.

One day, there was nothing new for me to buy, so I remember I picked up Once Upon A Time, the Siouxsie singles and was ready to leave disappointed when the young woman behind the counter asked if I liked Morrissey. I was pretty dismissive and figured I'd spend what I had left on something to eat, or some coffee, but she insisted that I needed to listen to him. When I said maybe I would, she reached into the case and pulled out a copy of Viva Hate and told me "Just take it. I want you to go and listen to this. It will change your life." I thought she was being a little dramatic, but I took it and distinctly remember looking at the shot on the cover, and being intrigued by the half smirk on his face, eyes hidden in shadow, and thinking that he looked like he either knew something I didn't, or was in on a joke that I didn't get.

I remember sitting outside on a bench as the weather turned gray, and hitting play on my walkman. The directness and accusatory nature of "Were you and he lovers- and would you say so if you were?" Just floored me. Each word enunciated with crystal clear precision, spat out with such bile, yet humor and class. By "Leather elbow on a tweed coat- is that the best you can do?" My life was changed. Here was a guy who chewed on language until the juices ran down his chin. A guy who didn't need to hide behind metaphor and smokescreens like The Cure. Where they took my confusion and angst, and all of the wonderfully awful feelings of adolescence and change, and ran them through a filter of ache and beauty, here was a guy who just laid it out bare, in a way that felt like the music shook you by the lapels and screamed you awake, and said that these feelings that made you feel like you could never be "one of them" somehow made you not only not one of them but somehow "better than them" by virtue of introspection, sensitivity, and kindness. That yes, words could be a weapon, and words could save your life and raise you up above the mundane.
 
I didn't buy it. Morrissey was kind of a non-entity for me in late 1991. I was aware of his existence, but he had not not entered my life (I hadn't heard anything of his) nearly as much as my other teenage obsession, The Cure. I was living in Corvallis, Oregon, and regularly going to Happy Trails records with the little money I had, and buying anything Cure that I could get my hands on. Incense scented posters- (because they always burned incense to hide the smell of pot from the back room) postcards, cassettes, vinyl, VHS etc. They knew me as The Cure kid, and any time there was something new, I would be informed about it as soon as I came in.

One day, there was nothing new for me to buy, so I remember I picked up Once Upon A Time, the Siouxsie singles and was ready to leave disappointed when the young woman behind the counter asked if I liked Morrissey. I was pretty dismissive and figured I'd spend what I had left on something to eat, or some coffee, but she insisted that I needed to listen to him. When I said maybe I would, she reached into the case and pulled out a copy of Viva Hate and told me "Just take it. I want you to go and listen to this. It will change your life." I thought she was being a little dramatic, but I took it and distinctly remember looking at the shot on the cover, and being intrigued by the half smirk on his face, eyes hidden in shadow, and thinking that he looked like he either knew something I didn't, or was in on a joke that I didn't get.

I remember sitting outside on a bench as the weather turned gray, and hitting play on my walkman. The directness and accusatory nature of "Were you and he lovers- and would you say so if you were?" Just floored me. Each word enunciated with crystal clear precision, spat out with such bile, yet humor and class. By "Leather elbow on a tweed coat- is that the best you can do?" My life was changed. Here was a guy who chewed on language until the juices ran down his chin. A guy who didn't need to hide behind metaphor and smokescreens like The Cure. Where they took my confusion and angst, and all of the wonderfully awful feelings of adolescence and change, and ran them through a filter of ache and beauty, here was a guy who just laid it out bare, in a way that felt like the music shook you by the lapels and screamed you awake, and said that these feelings that made you feel like you could never be "one of them" somehow made you not only not one of them but somehow "better than them" by virtue of introspection, sensitivity, and kindness. That yes, words could be a weapon, and words could save your life and raise you up above the mundane.

Like this line very muchly :thumb:
 
I bought it in 1992, shortly after getting into Morrissey. I got it on cassette with the then-just-released Wish by The Cure at the local mall's record store. Walked around and played them both back to back in my Walkman.

These days Wish doesn't do much for me; too heavy-handed and long in the tooth and over the top dramatic. I like the album's outtakes, like Halo and The Big Hand and Play and This Twilight Garden...all of which are as strong or stronger than anything that made the album.

I still love Viva Hate though. Perfect and ageless.
 
I bought it in 1992, shortly after getting into Morrissey. I got it on cassette with the then-just-released Wish by The Cure at the local mall's record store. Walked around and played them both back to back in my Walkman.

These days Wish doesn't do much for me; too heavy-handed and long in the tooth and over the top dramatic. I like the album's outtakes, like Halo and The Big Hand and Play and This Twilight Garden...all of which are as strong or stronger than anything that made the album.

I still love Viva Hate though. Perfect and ageless.
I dunno. I kind of dig Wish still. Not all of it, mind you, and I have to be in the mood, but it's so guitar heavy and psychedelic in an angsty f***ed up way.
I don't think I'd appreciate it nearly as much had I not spent a good amount of time with headphones and LSD in my formative years.
 
I dunno. I kind of dig Wish still. Not all of it, mind you, and I have to be in the mood, but it's so guitar heavy and psychedelic in an angsty f***ed up way.
I don't think I'd appreciate it nearly as much had I not spent a good amount of time with headphones and LSD in my formative years.
I like it; I just don't think it's aged as well as some of their other albums or when compared to Viva Hate.
 
Nice story about getting a girlfriend after buying the album!

Mine's not so interesting. Brought it from Our Price in Croydon (whatever happened to them?). Recall you could collect tokens from packets of crisps at the time and it was something like 12 tokens for an album. Might be wrong as it seems like a good deal seeing how expensive CDs were back in the nineties. Wouldn't normally have stepped foot in the place otherwise. For some reason it was the missing Moz album from my collection at the time, think it must have been circa 1994.
 
Surely went to the local mall by me here in NJ to buy. I can't remember the name of the record store. Its funny, I can remember other details though.....like later that year at the aquarium in Boston and a kid coming down the escalator had a "Viva Hate" t-shirt on.....
 
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