29 August 2004
Carling Festival, Leeds

How Soon Is Now?
November Spawned A Monster
First Of The Gang To Die
Subway Train/Everyday Is Like Sunday
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference
Now My Heart Is Full
Irish Blood, English Heart
I Have Forgiven Jesus
I Like You
Munich Air Disaster 1958
Let Me Kiss You
Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
You Know I Couldn't Last
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Morrissey's second appearance at the Carling festival, this one in Leeds, was also very much appreciated by fans who attended as well as reviewers in the media. Morrissey was perhaps slightly less talkative than usual, but still gave the best of himself.

"You Are The Quarry" track "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" was replaced in the set by its album-mate "I Have Forgiven Jesus" while from the back catalogue "Jack The Ripper" was replaced by "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference".

After "November Spawned A Monster" Morrissey asked the typical rock'n'roll question "Have you had a reasonably good time at the festival so far?" After getting various answers he added his own twist: "That's all about to end... I'm not kidding..." After "First Of The Gang To Die" he had a few compliments for the Leeds crowd: "I really don't know why Alan Bennett always says that this city has been desecrated because I may be alone but I think it's a beautiful city... You're laughing at me!" In "Everyday Is Like Sunday" he extended both occurrences of a line to "come Armageddon come, soon, please!". He also slightly changed another line to "dear Mum, I dearly wish I was not here".

After the latter number Morrissey told the cheering audience "Don't say it unless you mean it! (crowd cheers more)..." He then asked his favourite fan "Are you okay Julia? Are you sure? How do you know? How do you know you're okay?" He handed her his microphone so she could answer. He then introduced "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" with the aborted "This song is..." He extended a line from that song to "and if a ten ton truck kills the both of us, so what!" and later to "and if a ten ton truck kills the both of us, who cares!". He also sang the end chorus as had recently become tradition.

After the song Morrissey introduced his musicians: "Could you please say hello to the band... I met them all at Armley Swimming Baths... the women's changing rooms... This is Boz Boorer... this is Gary Day... this is Deano Drummerworth... this is the fantastic Jesse Tobias... and this a man of many parts, Mikey V Farrell... and... my name is Engelbert..." In "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference" he followed the line "most people keep their brains between their legs" with "I do!". He teasingly illustrated both occurrences of the latter line by lying on the floor, spreading his legs apart and raising his pelvis. The song was not as well received as the classics that preceded it, which prompted him to ask "You didn't really like that song, did you? Well, too late because it's been done now..."

In "Now My Heart Is Full" Morrissey changed a few lines to "just some rain-coated lovers ugly brothers such as Dallow, Spicer, Pinkie, Cubitt". After the song he said "And of course amazingly the other day Ireland actually won a medal in the Olympics which you mustn't - you probably didn't notice but since it was... horse-racing or something is not really a sport is it... Is it? I mean show-jumping, it's not really a sport is it? Well... I tried..." Following "Irish Blood, English Heart" he said "And just remember if you vote for Blair, then you vote for fascist Bush... so it's up to you! Up to you! Up to you..."

Morrissey bridged from "I Have Forgiven Jesus" to "I Like You" with "That song was from our recent album called (points at the audience) 'You Are The Quarry' and... which some of you even bought at Woolworths which is jolly nice of you. This is also from 'You Are The Quarry' and it's called 'I Like You'..." After the latter number he simply said "Thanks for listening so far..." As an introduction to upcoming single "Let Me Kiss You" he announced "We are about to release another single which I guarantee Radio 1 will not play (crowd boos)... (fan shouts: hang the fucking DJs! and Morrissey replies) Oh yes!"

"Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice", the future b-side to the latter upcoming single, was introduced with the line "You can say what you like about me but don't make fun of daddy's voice." In "You Know I Couldn't Last" Morrissey changed the two occurrences of the line "the critics who can't break you" to "the critics who fail to break you" and "the critics who just cannot break you". There was no encore. Before set closer "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" Morrissey had a few words of love for his fans. Ironically the rain started as soon as he and the band left the stage.

Thanks to Mike Spendlove for contributing.

 


A reasonably good audience recording of the complete concert minus the first half of "How Soon Is Now?" is circulated on bootleg DVDs (recorder Chris A). It has some shaky moments and a few ones where heads obstruct the view, and a lot of the footage was shot from a certain distance, but there are also nice close-ups of Morrissey or of the screen next to the stage.

An audio recording of the concert is found on the internet, but this was actually ripped from the video recording mentioned above. It has the missing "How Soon Is Now?" tagged on from some later date.

 

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