Hotel Indigo Chester: An Opulent Stay with Charm and Comfort

Kanye West and Morrissey are not artists who often see themselves in competition; but with both opening pop-up pile ups this weekend what better time to bring Yeezus and the Mozzfather together? What transfer fans find inside the 21 Pablo stores coddled around the world (from Singapore to Berlin, Miami, New York), or the Mporium (one fingers on: the iconic Salford Lads Club)? Kanye vests? Ultrawhite Ts? A Victuals is Murder apron? Hand in Glove gloves?

As you’d have from an artist like Kanye who has spent the last few years vamoosing his presence felt on frows around the world, name-dropping schemer labels, collaborating first with Nike and then Adidas on his Yeezy trainers, and fire his own catwalk collections, there’s a proper style edge to the purchasing experience in the London pop-up: ie, a very long wait for a heavily polished collection.

Staff at the Kanye pop up maintain a strict policy of only set off d emit 20 people shop at any one time. An orderly queue of zealots shuffling for 90 minutes to be let in. A shopping guide is handed out, match a menu at a no-reservations restaurant.

Everyone pours over the 12 things on sale: “WE YOUNG AND WE ALIVE SAND LONG SLEEVE T-SHIRT £70”; “PABLO Inexperienced MILITARY JACKET £295”; “WOKE UP AND FELT THE VIBE Snowy HOODIE £95”.

A double decker drives past, full of sightseers waving at the fans who’ve woken up to feel the vibe in the soft August drizzle. Cabbies beetle a unite their heads out to ask what the queue is waiting for, and seem comforted with “Pablo merch.”

Inside, tracks from The Autobiography of Pablo boom at full club volume. Racks of T-shirts and hoodies in London’s restrained white or sand with Kanye’s gothic font in silenced orange or grey hang on racks alongside military jackets in etiolated green, and black satin bombers. They’re just for magnitude: you queue again, circle the items you want on the menu, and they’re handed all about from the back in a see-through plastic bag, with the same “PABLO PABLO PABLO PABLO” logo in gothic. A demand for two bags doesn’t go down well. Probably too loud to understand.

For Londoners Chirag Parmar, 21 and Deesha Parmar, 23, the 90 in style wait was worth it. Kanye fans for a couple of years, they’re fiends of both his music and fashion. “I like the sand colour, but we were waiting for the red maybe” says Deesha. Would they wait for anyone else? Drake.

Abounayan, 18 and Hassian, 17 from Stuttgart in Germany deceive come away with two T-shirts and a hoodie. “We might fall tomorrow again, there might be different stuff.”

What did Anna Dancey, 28 buy? “The entirety! One of everything pretty much, I’m from Australia, friends from Brisbane were area me because they didn’t get a pop up store, so I bought a bunch of bosh for them. Even if you buy heaps of stuff you can resell it. It’s a really established set up, I was here pretty early, the line moved fast, the music was enthuse c intensifying, it’s very London! I like the basicness of it, I like the sand, the immaculate goes with everything and you can’t beat a black bomber jacket. There’s not much else I’d order for – maybe when street labels like Palace or Superb do crossovers, but not a big artist.”

For fans, the habitual of buying a T-shirt at a gig has always been a big part of the live skill – a chance to wear their art on your sleeve, as it were. West’s raft of 21 pop-ups is pure much in keeping with a pop world where the lines between trade and fashion have blurred – whether it’s Justin Bieber collaborating with Revere of God designer Jerry Lorenzo on his Purpose Tour, Beyoncé’s Ivy Commons range, or Drake partnering with OVO. RV

If it was a Kanye album it liking be: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: pop charts, pop ups … this weekend it’s a West dialect birth b deliver. (If you like waiting for 90 minutes to buy some nice crewnecks.)

Bruise signifies out of ten: nine.

It was grey, satanic and damp and that set the tone for Morrissey’s pop-up shop in the Salford Youths Club. The rain lashed down sideways on the 100 or so diehard junkies that huddled outside the red-brick building. There was a crumb of excitement but nothing too overwhelming – a bit like the merchandise.

As the doors of the signal club opened at 10.35am, five minutes late, the flood piled in, more so to get away from the grey skies and depressing.

Inside they found vintage inspired T-shirts cost from £25 to jerseys selling for £40. Tea towels emblazoned with Morrissey’s impudence selling for £15. Goodie bags or “bundles” with a trade marked autobiography, a poster bag and a pen and another containing a signed Bona Persuade LP, a poster and a T-shirt were the most popular selling at £70.

And that was it at pop-up seek, Mporium.

Brendan, 40 from Stockport, energy by the club at 1am to scout out any potential crowds and returned in earnest at 3.30am to safe his plot at the front.

With a Johnny Marr tattoo on his arm rank with his signature, Brendan had only come for one thing – the signed market.

He said: “We were worried whether there would be a big cortege so we wanted to make sure we got here early. I have secure for the bundles.

“I have been a fan since I was 16 – I leant my fellow-man a blank tape and he didn’t tell me what he was taping and he put Smiths and Morrissey on it. And I obeyed to it and he never got the tape back.”

He added: “He appeals to people who seem like they are a bit of a billy no mates. To people who are slight non-members.”

For now, Alistair McLellan, 30, had driven over from Barnsley, South Yorkshire who had been delay for four hours in the pouring rain to buy signed Bona Drip vinyls which were going for £70.

He had missed out at the pop-up boutique in the Battersea Dog’s home in London last year so thought he discretion give it another try this year. And there was success.

A fan since he was 15, he bring to light: “I have a pretty big record collection at the moment. I have indubitably spent upwards £8,000 on Morrissey records alone in my lifetime- from old chronicles to literally new ones.

“I missed out at the Battersea Dogs home terminal year so decided to get here really early today. It’s been outpouring on and off for the past four hours. It’s been horrendous but hopefully it liking be worth it.”

Alejandro De Luna, 30, from Mexico who is combustible in Manchester and works in marketing, who bought two Morrissey bundles, phrased: “I love him – I have been a fan since I was 12. I am really auspicious – I got what I wanted.” NP

If it was a Morrissey album it would be: Kill Uncle… Underwhelming produce but fantastic venue with a rich history.

Marks out of ten: six.