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Feb 3 - Glasgow, Barrowlands
Feb 4 - Motherwell, Civic Hall
Feb 5 - Edinburgh, Usher Hall
Feb 7 - Sheffield, City Hall
Feb 8 - Blackpool, Empress Ballroom (Winter Gardens)
Feb 9 - Cambridge, Corn Exchange
Feb 11 - Birmingham, Aston Villa Leisure Centre
Feb 12 - London, Ilford Island
Feb 13 - Portsmouth, Guildhall
Feb 15 - Hull, City Hall
Feb 16 - Bradford, St. George's Hall
Feb 17 - Newcastle, City Hall
Feb 19 - Ipswich, Regent Theatre
Feb 20 - Cardiff, St. David's Hall
Feb 21 - Bristol, Colston Hall
Feb 23 - Croydon, Fairfield Hall
Feb 24 - London, Brixton Academy
Feb 26 - London, Drury Lane Theatre Royal

After a full two-year break of touring, Morrissey returned to the stage in February 1995 for a 3-week tour of the UK promoting the "Boxers" single and the "World Of Morrissey" album.

To highlight the tour's name, Morrissey had night after night a post-fight look with fake bruises and cuts.

In certain cities, Morrissey came back for the encore in a football shirt of the local team. Details are given date by date at links above.

Tambourines with words written by Morrissey on them were thrown into the crowd during "Billy Budd" or at the beginning of "You're The One For Me, Fatty". For the first few concerts, the word was 'SELF' then came 'SELF SELF SELF' then 'ERIC', 'CANTONA', 'ERIC CANTONA', 'SHAG' or 'MENSI'.

Personnel: Boz Boorer (guitars), Alain Whyte (guitars), Spencer Cobrin (drums) and Johnny Bridgwood (bass). The latter replaced Gary Day.

The opening band was Marion, except for the last show in London where McAlmont warmed up the audience. For the Sheffield show, as the lights went down and "Jerusalem" played (the usual sign that Morrissey is about to enter the stage) instead came Dockyard Doris, a drag queen, to introduce Morrissey!

Merchandise wasn't for sale until the Birmingham concert. At first, two different shirts were made available:
- short-sleeves white t-shirt with the photo of Morrissey on the wall at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles on the front, tour dates on the back, 12 pounds
- black shirt with the "Boxers" artwork, available in long or short sleeves, 16 and 12 pounds respectively.
Shortly after another t-shirt was added, this one blue with the "World Of Morrissey" artwork on the front and tour dates on the back.

Also for sale from Newcastle to the end of the tour were two posters, one of Morrissey at the Griffith Observatory and the other with the "Boxers" single artwork and tour dates.

Fall - Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul
Petula Clark - Downtown
Nat Couty And The Braves - Woodpecker Rock
Angelic Upstarts - Never Had Nothing
Velvet Underground - The Black Angel's Death Song
Phil Ochs - City Boy
Nathan Abshire & The Pinegrove Boys - French Two Steps
Jaybee Wasden - De Castrow
Balfa Brothers - Casey Jones
Crystals - Hold Me, Squeeze Me
   (or Marvelettes - Anything You Wanna Do?)
Ramones - Judy Is A Punk
New York Dolls - Jet Boy
Big Dee Irwin (with Little Eva) - Swinging On A Star
Nico - Innocent And Vain
Morrissey hit the stage after the William Blake poem "Jerusalem" sung by the Borstal inmates in "The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner" film.
Górecki's Symphony no. 3 (also known as the Symphony of sorrowful songs) was played after each show.

The backdrop of Cornelius Carr was captured from the "Boxers" video by James O'Brien. The image was also used on the back of the "World Of Morrissey" album (view in situ; better photo needed).

The setlist didn't vary much over the three weeks of this tour. The lengths varied from 17 songs at the beginning to 16 at the end. The order didn't change until two thirds into the tour.

The surprise was the live introduction of two songs from the Smiths catalogue. It was the first time since the Smiths' farewell concert in Wolverhampton 1988 that Morrissey did songs written with his first band. "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" which had only been performed once by the Smiths was the encore song every night on the Boxers tour. "London" which had been performed by the Smiths on the UK leg of the "The Queen Is Dead" tour was added to the set two weeks into this tour, in Newcastle, and kept on until the final show.

As for the solo material, all three new song on the "Boxers" single were performed every night, or almost: "Whatever Happens I Love You", "Have-A-Go Merchant" and the title track. The previous album "Vauxhall & I" hadn't been toured and was represented by "Billy Budd", "Spring Heeled Jim", "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get", "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself, "Hold On To Your Friends", "Now My Heart Is Full", "Speedway" and "Used To Be A Sweet Boy". The latter was actually dropped from the setlist after one week while "Hold On To Your Friends" was dropped three quarters into the tour.

"Your Arsenal" which hadn't been toured much in the UK was represented only by three tracks: "You're The One For Me, Fatty", "We'll Let You Know" and the controversial "The National Front Disco". The latter was always followed by the quiet "Moonriver", a b-side. Another b-side "Jack The Ripper", rounded up the set, it was played every night.

The three tracks from "Your Arsenal" mentioned above were the only ones that had previously been played in front of an audience. Nothing older than 1992 was performed on this tour, with the exception of the two Smiths songs mentioned above.

Here is the number of times each song was performed on this leg, in descending order of frequency. This is based on 18 concerts.

Billy Budd - 18
Boxers - 18
Have-A-Go Merchant - 18
Jack The Ripper - 18
Moon River - 18
The National Front Disco - 18
Now My Heart Is Full - 18
Shoplifters Of The World Unite - 18
Speedway - 18
Spring-Heeled Jim - 18
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get - 18
We'll Let You Know - 18
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself - 18
You're The One For Me, Fatty - 18
Whatever Happens, I Love You - 17
Hold On To Your Friends - 12
London - 7
Used To Be a Sweet Boy - 4

See here for more tour statistics.

As usual, Morrissey took many liberties with his lyrics. In "Have-A-Go Merchant", he slightly changed one line to "as always I'm here right beside you". In "Spring-Heeled Jim", he sometimes changed "well it's the normal thing to do" to "as long as it's the normal thing to do" and followed that line with "... ah yes!". In "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" he sometimes sang the slightly alternate "you're asking for it... and it you shall get". In "Now My Heart Is Full", he simplified a line by dropping the word 'puny' from "just some rain-coated lovers' brothers". He also sang "I was tired again" instead "I'm tired again". In "London" he changed one line to "When he goes, my God he goes!".

Morrissey didn't sing the falsetto part in the bridge of "We'll Let You Know" like he did on the previous tour, in 1992. But he still changed a line from "We sadly know" to "Of course we know" and ended with the slightly alternate "We are the last truly British people you wouldn't want to know, and so on...". The latter change was modified halfway into the tour to "We are the last truly British people that you couldn't stand to know, and so on..." Just like he did in 1992, he skipped the last verse in "Jack The Ripper". In main set closer "Speedway", the intro lines "And when you slam down the hammer can you see it in your heart?" were dropped and Morrissey changed lines to "all of the rumours leaving me grounded", "when you try to break my spirit, it just won't happen" and "until my ugly mouth is shut good and proper". In the latter half of the tour, Morrissey sang the slightly different "We wore each other's clothes" in "Whatever Happens, I Love You".

As he always did on the previous tour in 1992 in "The National Front Disco", Morrissey changed a line to "Ah, have we lost our boy" and skipped the title, the "Ah, then you might do" and the "When you've settled the score" lines. The song also still ended in a blinding chaos of feedback and lights despite not being slotted at the end of gigs on this tour. An interesting contrast however was having the song's noisy ending always segue into the very mellow "Moonriver".

"London", "Billy Budd", "Spring-Heeled Jim" and "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" from the BBC recording of the final date of the tour were released later in the year as b-sides on the "The Boy Racer" cd-singles.

A mix of tracks from the Sheffield and Blackpool concerts was released in 1996 on video as a souvenir of this tour under the title "Introducing Morrissey".

Bootleg video footage is circulated for six dates of this tour, so fans of this period of Morrissey's career are spoiled. All are audience recordings of full concerts, but none stand out from the others quality-wise. One of the most interesting of the lot appears to be Cambridge. It was filmed from the rear of the venue, supposedly with autorisation, so the quality is rather good and steady. The most commonly found is the Edinburgh concert. The filming of that date was done from the right balcony. The footage is of reasonable quality, steady and with good close-ups. It includes band arrival and departure.

Good audience video recordings of the full London-Brixton Academy and London-Ilford Island concerts are available on bootleg DVDs. The Brixton Academy footage was filmed from the left balcony, is steady and features many close ups. The Ilford Island filming was done from the right balcony and is steady.

The complete Portsmouth concert was filmed from the left balcony and the quality of the image and sound is subpar. The least interesting recording of the six might be the one from Croydon. The complete set was filmed but for about 5 songs here and there the footage is only of the ceiling, probably because the recorder was keeping a low profile from security. Still the rest of footage is rather good and steady.

Needless to say, quite a few transfers to bootleg DVD of the official live video "Introducing Morrissey" are also circulated among collectors and non-collectors because the latter release has yet to be officially re-released on DVD format.

At this point in time, bootlegs are circulated for all concerts of this tour except for the opening date in Glasgow and the one from a week later in Birmingham. No bootlegs of the full Sheffield and Blackpool gigs are available, but footage and audio from each were mixed to produce the official "Introducing Morrissey" live video.

All the other 14 concerts are available in full, but the quality ranges from poor to excellent. At the excellent end of the range are Cardiff and the final date, London-Drury Lane. The latter, produced from a radio broadcast, is actually available on many bootlegs, but only one recording, "Drury Lane Live", has the full set. Other bootlegs feature different broadcasts trimmed down to 10, 11 or 14 songs.

The next best things after these are good or reasonably good recordings circulated for Motherwell (on "But Would You Keep The Noise Down Low"), Edinburgh, Cambridge on the commonly found manufactured bootleg "In Person"), London-Ilford Island (on "Ilford Station 1995") and Newcastle (on "Guilt By Implication"). Hull, Bradford (on "Stredford Poet") and Bristol are fair or average. Then Portsmouth, Ipswich, Croydon and London-Brixton Academy are for the completists only.

Actually better recordings can be found for Bristol and London-Brixton Academy, but these don't feature the full concert. See individual dates for more information.

Finally completists might also be interested in a soundcheck recording from Ipswich.