The Smiths in Salford. ‘Stop Me if You Think’ Music Video Film Locations. Now and Then. Manchester

By 1987, 80s pop band The Smiths were coming to an end after 5 successful years.
The final single release was due to be ‘Stop Me if you think you’ve heard this one before’, but this was subsequently banned by the BBC due to a line in the song about ‘mass murder’ and the Hungerford Massacre happening in the same week.

The video sees Morrissey and an army of clone Morrisseys riding bicycles around streets in Salford including around Strangeways Prison and the famous Salford Lads Club.

In this video, we look at the locations as they are today, and we get an exclusive look at The Smiths room inside Salford Lads Club.

Hi everybody Matt and This Charming Man Tom back with you what a handsome devil where are we today Matthew today all you had to do was ask me ask me ask me I mean what difference does it make no need to panic I can’t think of anymore if that’s

Not giving it away we’re in Salford um and we are looking today at locations on um a certain video music video was made here it was the last song released by The Smiths when they were still before they split up essentially 1987 so going back 37 years

In time all will be revealed as we get nearer should we go look I mean how soon is now sorry Knows I’m Miserable Now St me stop me stop me if you think that you heard this one before stop me stop me stop me if you think that youve heard this one

Before nothing’s changed I still love you oh I still love you only slightly only slightly less than I used to my The Smiths were a Manchester band that existed between 1982 and 1987 they consisted of Andy rock on bass Mike Joyce on drums Johnny Mah on guitar and morisy on

Vocals although each member played their part it is the duo of moris and Mah that became like the 80s version of lenon and McCartney it’s 37 years ago since the band split up internal differences tore them apart they still heavily influence the bands of today their final UK single release was

Due to be a song called stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before however this was banned by the BBC in 1987 because of the same time it was due to be released the Hungerford Massacre had happened due to the being a a line

About mass murder it was pulled and only relased in certain countries also quite rare for this release there was an official promotional music video made which features moresi and a gang of other clone morrises riding their bikes around Salford so in this video we’re going to see if we can find the

Locations and what they look like today so to quote the album that the single was released from strange ways here we come okay so at the beginning of the video first like minute of it you see morisy and the Gang cycling past some very high walls uh we think those walls

Are outside strangeways prison which is where we are now and I’m not sure quite if we’re allowed to film here but we’ll do what we can terms of showing you the locations I think it’s at the top end it’ll make sense when we’re there so the

Reason we think we’re in the right place is because of that chimney just there which appears in the background of the video so this is the this is the back of strango prison officially but I think more from the other side but you can see these on the video as they ride along

That way so I think we’re here I think where Tom is leaning against the wall that is where the picture of Oscar wild is stuck at the beginning and then you see them come down on the bikes just here Think St me So the next place we’re looking for is called The sford Lads Club it’s very historical place um it’s one of a few Lads clubs that appeared early 1900s and it was a kind of way of getting voice something to do in this area um so at this point what I’m going

To mention if you can hear me uh is I need to do thank two people for their info today um one is Tails beyond the grave and the other is a Daft monkey uh who were both from Salford and theyve helped me with a couple of the locations

Today thank you very much do check out their Channel and the reason I’ve specifically point to D monkey’s channel is because if you look at his videos on the I think they called the scuttlers which were a youth gang from around here at the end of the 19th century um they

Um suddenly found themselves in places like Salford Lads club with something to do and those gangs dissipated great videos and thanks again Guys I st I SM the last 10 seconds of life I crash down on the cross I pain was [Applause] make Because okay so in the video they head off down their bikes these streets here and yep we are on Coronation Street and what you’ll notice in the video is all these houses every single one of them is boarded up now a lot of houses when you

See them all boarded up like that is because they’re going to be demolished for something else but in actual fact it’s part it was part of a re generation so all these are now lived in again um and it’s a nice nice little Street welcome to Coronation [Applause] Street it and I Flor I stop still you you only only it’s always quite OD to see that all these were boarded up I did not expect to find such a beautiful little spot really um I thought the reason they were boarded up they were going to be demolished we were going to be surrounded

By highrise flats or something like that but no nice so was fine if we can find a a couple more spots from the video here in the background when you see them riding through the streets uh this building appears not sure quite what the building is it’s 1904 on it uh

So this would have been built around the same time as uh The Lads club and yeah it’s all derel boarded up uh no access in unfortunately otherwise we’d have a look yeah old church I guess so one thing that is different is these rows of houses I’ve got Gardens there’s

Uh obviously things are back alleys and stuff are blocked off uh so we probably can’t show you many more kind of support on locations for here uh but yeah you get a general idea of what it looked like when they was the army of morrises was circling around

So we’re very lucky and honored that we’ve been allowed access today to come and have our inside uh the Salford Lads Club um this is still a very very busy room and it is full of history but to link in with our video for today what you can see behind

Me is that there is a room completely dedicated to the Smiths and their link to the building here at the lads Club we’re going to in we’re going to have a special guest on the video we’re going to meet Leslie who’s the project manager who’s been working on this room since

2004 so let’s pop in and see what we can find inside right so here we are we are in the Smith’s room look at this and this is all the people who have come here to stand outside the lads Club over time we have things like the Mosaic formally outside Affleck

Palace Orly there and if we move around we meet Leslie hello thank you so much for allowing us to come and look at the room today great to got people coming in yeah could you just give us a very quick history about this room and uh the work

You’ve been doing here um yeah yeah I came here in about 2003 um and one of the first things I was aware of that there were fans outside the building um and they were quite intrigued to come in but it wasn’t really possible at that

Point and we had a radio program here um to do with 25 years after handing glove and some fans came um and this room which is an old weightlifting room it was all boarded up at the time and I brought the fans in here and they said I

Know you’re always outside um what about sending a picture back or leaving a message um and we we then opened it in 2004 uh didn’t realize it was going to get to this kind of scale but people continue and even get bigger and bigger every year the numbers who come here and

Just the the fascination with um the picture outside is a spiritual Place really yeah yeah and then want him to come in and share that these so if you think this room looks full look the ceiling is full of pictures and notes and everywhere you look there

Are not only pictures of the Smiths themselves but various people who have visited over the years and Leslie had to make extra room as well because not only is that wall there are secret walls yeah I run out of space quite a few times so this was one of the solutions to it

Amazing extension Victorian idea but it means people at that point keep sending these pictures yeah most people like Mar Smith Ryan Adams Happy Mondays so a lot of the Bands what we call Salford Manchester music is actually from Salford important part but then lots of other musicians people like Pete

Doy Jarvis cocky here BR you know it’s all kind of they’re inspired by something and it’s about often it’s about with somebody doing a book launch about Oscar wild recently here and he was met he put all the pictures up of all these pop musicians who were musicians who were influenced by Oscar

Wild and nearly all of them have been here so it’s quite interesting that kind of connection yeah pey blind is cast there a lot of people from all over the world somebody from Brazil Stockholm there are people from coming up on the screen from Iraq wow from Panama from

Taiwan it just is every country apart from North Korea North Korea is the only place I think that’s the only one that’s not certainly say we Ed the person from it will happen it will happen I’m sure yeah a lot of people from we get people from every country in South America very

Very regularly right and a lot of people from Singapore and Indonesia it’s amazing obviously a lot of Americans and UK people Europe when you get all these collection you know it’s like that music has gone Global and that is really you know you get a lot of

Young people as well so it’s not just a fan base who were around at the time yeah it’s actually been passed on through a generations and I think the fact that they were only together for a very short time has made their music like perfect stuff what they did in that

Period yeah and young people pick it up because the lyrics are sharp you know they they talk about a society that is exactly as it still is yeah wow and a lot of the lyrics are still very true for today aren’t they definitely I mean people get his his

Humor more as well I think with a lot young people it’s a lot more iring a more kind of you know it was kind of way off Beam at the time wasn’t it it almost out of time I think and a lot of people think what’s going on here you know it’s

Like a is it PTI 60s those sorts of things going on that way people couldn’t quite decide what it was about so Les you’ll get a quite a broad spectrum of Smith’s fans here um I guess at some point they weren’t always welcome yeah you can say that yeah I

Think the leader at the time um tried to kind of ban them from coming um she was quite a big royalist so the an album that came out called The Queen Is Dead imagine what that caed but also fans used to come along and they would put

Graffiti on the building and Chip bricks off wow and so it did cause a lot of big rift for a very long time I think and then a lot of the volunteers who were around at the time are still here and they welcome people every Wednesday and

Sunday so we have open days here uh Wednesday 11: till 2 and Saturday 11: till 2 and can they just turn up and wait outside they can just come ining through that door is a very very special thing and to see this amazing place and what’s inside it it’s a Magic

Kingdom it is it is I could spend hours in here just looking through but we need to find our next location Lely thank you so much for allowing us in today okay um yeah just a credit to you it’s I mean the patience it’s taken to get this all

Together and not just not just a Smith things I love the fact that’s still the history of the lads Club here as well building on what was here I love all this kind of weight lifting stuff in here to kind of add to that I think fans

Like all that they like old voting Boo the way that kind of cultural mix I think yeah so at the end of the video we see the uh Army of morrises uh go past I thought it was initially a pub called Albert finny I was wrong and again Steve Tails be on

The grave put me right on this one Albert finny is apparently a former book makers and it is linked to Albert Finny the actor I think it was his dad who owned it uh so it was named after him uh unfortunately it isn’t there anymore I think even in the video it’s probably

Shut is the shop uh that whole block has been demolished but it’ll show you where it was and what is now in its place okay so this is where the album finished stood just some are easy to tell on the picture of the video you see the traffic

Lights and the light behind yeah BL here just where is [Applause] [Applause] now [Applause] [Applause] okay that is our look around Salford and the locations for the Smith’s music video stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before I think we’ve done all right we’ found more than I expected uh which is pretty good uh so once again thanks to Leslie at the Salford Lads

Club for allowing an access to the Smith’s room it’s very special uh yeah I could have spent hours in there uh and do you know if you’re a Smith’s fan pop along when they’re open going to have a look it’s definitely worth a look uh so

Yeah I can’t think of a song to finish with what song areer on um so know I’m like just a boy with a thorn in my side that’s terrible sorry we’ll see you next time take care bye for now