Piccadilly Palare
"He's much better at this than belly dancing in the desert covered in clay"

Piccadilly Palare
At Amber
Get Off The Stage

Released In October 1990

Yea-Sayers:

"Firmly esconced in the ex-Madness camp, and I chose that last word with careful deliberation, Morrissey improves on his previous outing with this tribute to gullible boys everywhere. A self-appointed Fair Rent Officer, we find him wracked, rolled and howling of the disappointments that lead to that HQ of Male Meat Marketing, Piccadilly Circus.
"Under the provocative pose of Eros, Moz reckons his narrator was 'On the rack I was, easy meat, and a reasonable good buy' and he should know. The blushy double-jointed dandy flirts with under-age prostitution, more interested in the social despair than the everyday details. He's much better at this than belly dancing in the desert covered in clay.
"It's time to realise that he'll never repeat his work with The Smiths, and if he's going to establish another writing relationship then it's going to be down to trial and error.
"With Suggs on guest spoken vocals, production credits to Langer & Winstanley, and Bedders in the studio, Moz has at least found true cellmates in Madness, the stomping harpsichord beat bearing out the influence. "It's amazing what a slap across the wrist can do for the creative juices."
- James Brown, NME, 10/13/90

Moz-Speak:

"It's not a particularly strong record. It's not overwhelming, the subject is even slightly dated. 'Piccadilly Palare', which will receive blanket horrendous reviews, is a song about male prostitution. But I'm not running around in the street saying 'Look at me singing about male prostitution, isn't that incredibly unique!' I don't want plaudits for examining a new subject, but I will say that even coming across a pop record with a reasonably unique situation is in itself interesting."
-Morrissey, Vox, November 1990

"'Palare' is gypsy slang that was adopted by the theatre and in the Seventies I heard it being used by male prostitutes (laughs). They have their own code words for sizing people up and talking among themselves. The song is about male prostitution in Piccadilly. It became a very big thing during the Seventies. Were you ever aware of documentaries like Johnny Go Home? In the North, among most people I know, there was something oddly romantic about the whole thing. It spelt 'freedom'. Catching a coach and spending a day in Piccadilly was extraordinary. It's very glitzy now because Soho's been cleaned up, but then it was quite... powerful."
- Morrissey, The Face, March 1990

There's a song on this album that has the Rolling Stones in mind because I've been so disgusted by their most recent comeback that I no longer find it sad or pitiful, I just feel immense anger that they don't just get out of the way. You open papers in this country, and every day there's the obligatory picture of, y'know, Mick-with-bags-at-the-airport, or Keith saying he's completely normal now. They just won't move away! The song is called 'Get Off The Stage'."
- Morrissey, The Face, March, 1990