Meltdown Festival

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From the festival site at the time (June, 2004):

The South Bank Centre today announces that MORRISSEY, one of music's most enigmatic and influential figures, is the Artistic Director of the twelfth annual MELTDOWN Festival. The celebrated solo artist and former lead singer of THE SMITHS will curate his own festival of events to be staged at London's South Bank Centre from 11 to 27 June 2004.
The enduring appeal of MORRISSEY who, as a Smith, was recently voted No.1 in NME's poll of the Greatest Artists of All Time, was highlighted just last weekend when 16,000 tickets were sold in 90 minutes, for a forthcoming concert in Manchester.

Morrissey comments several times about this event in Autobiography:

The sentimental climax is 2004’s Meltdown Festival where I am asked to curate two weeks of events in or around the Royal Festival Hall, gathering all those who had won me at varying intervals. Sacha Distel agrees to be master of ceremonies, but eight weeks later he is dead. Buffy Sainte-Marie agrees to play, but then decides that she cannot leave her ailing mother. Danny la Rue agrees to be mistress of ceremonies, but then later steps away in apology because he fears he could never again look convincing in the dynamic frocks that dragged him to international fame.

The surgical-curtain-raiser of the Dolls playing together for the first time in thirty years was the high spot of Meltdown, especially since Johansen, Sylvain and Kane had bitterly bickered about one another over the years as only musicians do. But, a month after Meltdown, Arthur Kane is dead, and here is the Dolls’ tough luck that concludes each chapter of their career; the snakebite at the picnic. It could only be the New York Dolls – strangled by their own Karma beads, as if enough dues hadn’t already been paid. The two breathing members suddenly had every cause to sleep with the lights on. Menace had stalked the Dolls like pestilence since their first UK tour, when drummer Billy died in a Kensington bath. Their story reads like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, with all the cards of fate that mother nature sends holding no aces.

Concert Photographs And Memorabilia

High quality programme cover scan
Inside of programme
Unique shirt (front)
Unique shirt (back)

(The photographs of Morrissey in the programme were by Rankin)

Morrissey Live Festival Dates

Royal Festival Hall, London - June 11, 2004

(Support: Elefant then Damien Dempsey)

Royal Festival Hall, London - June 25, 2004

(Support: Gene then Linder Sterling)

Royal Festival Hall, London - June 26, 2004

(Support: Gene, The Ordinary Boys, Linder Sterling then Cockney Rejects)

Artists involved

Morrissey
Sparks - billed as "Perform Kimono My House And Lil' Beethoven"
Loudon Wainwright III
Damien Dempsey - billed as "Support" for Loudon Wainwright III
Bob Gruen - billed as "The films Of Bob Gruen" and "The New York Dolls, New York Rock'n'Roll"
Alan Bennett - billed as "An Audience With Alan Bennett"
New York Dolls
James Maker and Noko 440 - billed as "Special Guest" for New Youk Dolls and thereafter: Jane Birkin
Jane Birkin - billed as "Jane Birkin Arabesque"
Ari Up - billed as "Special Guest" for Jane Birkin and "Plays The Music Of The Slits"
Nancy Sinatra
Linder Sterling - billed as "Special Guest" for Nancy Sinatra
The Libertines
Cockney Rejects
The Ordinary Boys (band)
Ennio Marchetto
Gene - billed as "An Acoustic Night With Gene"
Elefant
London Sinfonietta - played Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa and Górecki's Symphony No. 3 ("Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs").
Lypsinka - introduced by Morrissey and performed "The Boxed Set"

Notes

The Libertines cancelled all their festival dates in 2004 and did not perform at Morrissey's Meltdown. Gary Powell (their drummer) appeared with the New York Dolls at their two Meltdown dates instead (June 16 and 18).

Mentioned In

Wikipedia Information

Meltdown is an annual festival held in London, featuring a mix of music, art, performance and film. Meltdown is held in June at Southbank Centre, the arts complex covering 21 acres (85,000 m2) and including the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and The Hayward. Each year, the festival chooses an established music artist or act as director of the event, and they pick the performers of their choosing. Directors of the festival have included Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Lee Scratch Perry, Morrissey, Jarvis Cocker, Nick Cave, Scott Walker, John Peel and Ornette Coleman, Grace Jones, and Chaka Khan. The festival has been held annually since 1993, except in 2006 when the Royal Festival Hall was closed for refurbishment, and when the 2020 Meltdown was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltdown_(festival)

Related Forum Threads

[Morrissey Central] "WIKIPEDIA omits Jane Birkin’s appearance at Morrissey’s Melt-down in 2004" (July 17, 2023) - Morrissey-solo (Jul 17, 2023)