I Want The One I Can't Have
Suedehead
Little Man, What Now?
Hairdresser On Fire
Jack The Ripper
I Like You
Alsatian Cousin
Everyday Is Like Sunday
Sister I'm A Poet
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
Meat Is Murder
Irish Blood, English Heart
November Spawned A Monster
Speedway
/There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Because this was a festival date Morrissey was probably allotted only a fixed amount of stage time and the setlist therefore shortened down to 15 songs. "First Of The Gang To Die" was dropped from the set for the first time since its live inception.

Morrissey came on stage carried by his musicians to the usual sound of church bells. He greeted his audience with the words "It's time to scrub out your undies on a Saturday night... Good evening to you... Goodbye bells! (bell intro stops) Off we go!" After set opener "I Want The One I Can't Have" he acknowledged both his recent Melbourne visit as well as the lack of variety in the setlist on this stretch of the tour: "And just when you thought we'd left, here we are again... with a completely different set, ha! ha! ha! ha!... Julia, you're there, I'm here, it's a miracle..."

Besides replacing "down to a few lines in the back page of a fading annual" with "back to the mean melancholy streets that you came from" as he always did in "Little Man, What Now", Morrissey also sang "Friday nights 1979" instead of "Friday Nights 1969". After the song he greeted the fans who were following him on the tour: "Hello to our irregular regulars... If we had known you were coming here we would have asked that you carry the gear... but never mind... What? Ah yes, that's me, that's me..." After the song he simply thanked the audience with "That's very generous of you..."

"Jack The Ripper" was preceded by "And I've been told by... well let's just call them a person, that these indeed were the thoughts of Jack the Ripper." After that song someone shouted "I love you more than life itself!" and Morrissey replied "Yeah but how much do you love life? See you have to think about these things before you shout them out... In fact you should write them down first..." When the person shouted something back, Morrissey just made a strangled noise and introduced "I Like You": "This song is called 'Dammit! I Like You'..." In the latter number he changed "hiding their mistakes" for "shielding their mistakes".

After "I Like You" Morrissey had a few words with his favourite fan: "Are you okay Julia? Are you sure? Are you really sure? Oh, at least twice a day... Excuse me what did you say in the twelfth row? I don't like to miss anything... 'King Leer'? (sighs and continues in a resigned tone) Okay, let's do 'King Leer' (crowd cheers)... Just kidding! Not reached that level of desperation yet, give us time..." After "Alsatian Cousin" he explained "Just something we knocked up in the soundcheck, thank you... (someone shouts for 'Boxers') 'Boxers'? Oh dear... (giggles) Why am I laughing? Why am I alive? More to the point..."

Following "Everyday Is Like Sunday" Morrissey replied to someone: "Excuse me?... That hurts. After all these years, all this battering, all this scraping... that's it really..." After "Sister I'm A Poet" Alain asked the audience if they had seen Oasis (who were also on the festival's bill) and said "They were good weren't they?" Morrissey made a face, Alain said "Now now stop that" and Morrissey retorted "That's all Alain says, really..." At this point a female fan shouted for "Mexico" and Morrissey mimicked her high-pitched voice and said "No, not 'Mexico'... I do impressions by the way..."

After "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" Morrissey and Alain bickered again about Oasis. Morrissey started by teasing Alain with "That song was called 'The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores' and, talking of..." Alain replied "they're really really good" and giggling, Morrissey immediately retorted again "that's all Alain ever says... don't start him off..." Morrissey was going to bridge this into an introduction for "Meat Is Murder", he started "Well the world is full of crashing bores and... well, it leads us very clumsily into this next song..." but he couldn't think of how to formulate his rant against the meat industry, or perhaps was he distracted by someone who shouted "here we go!". The tirade was skipped and Morrissey simply motioned for Boz to launch into the song: "Boz, don't let me take you from your work... Sorry... this is the song..."

Following "Meat Is Murder" someone in the crowd asked "Why do you play the same setlist?" and Morrissey replied "Because we're crashing bores, that's why! (cheers...) Yes, but as I say I'm crap in bed so it's all meaningless..." New composition "Irish Blood, English Heart" was introduced after its performance, then Morrissey replied to someone "Don't you mean older and older? Boz is gonna whisper something to all of you, shush... Did you hear that? That pigeon's loose again..." Then Alain said "It's too quiet in here, bar that bloke..." and Morrissey asked him "Alain, Alain, you with us?"

In "November Spawned A Monster" Morrissey sang "she's so ugly, she's so ugly..." instead of the usual "you're just so ugly, you're so ugly". Before going into main set closer "Speedway" he told the audience "You've been very hospitable... it's been a joy to be in your city, which is a beautiful city..." As he was about to go into encore "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" his final words were "This face is leaving town in 10 minutes, be on it!". He removed his shirt at the end and threw it into the audience to be ripped to pieces by fans who wanted a piece of it.

A good recording of the complete set is circulated on bootleg compact discs and on the internet. It doesn't appear to have been recorded from the audience because the latter is only faintly heard from a distance. It also doesn't seem to have been taped from the soundboard, or if it was, something in the lineage introduced a bit of static and slight distortion.

However it must be said that non-completist collectors interested in this recording because of its quality might prefer some other good quality recordings of this tour because this set was one of the shortest of 2002, and all in all, it wasn't the most memorable concert either.

The recording of an earlier Melbourne visit (15 October 2002) is sometimes seen on the internet under this date.

Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.