Town Hall, Paisley
How Soon Is Now?This concert went down well, Morrissey was quite talkative, but he did appear to be slightly annoyed at times. However he must have been in a good mood because this turned out to be a good show for him (see quote at the bottom of this page). The Vegas-style backdrop of Morrissey's name in tall letters made of lights wasn't used because the stage wasn't big enough. Morrissey's musicians were dressed in kilts again, but this time they were in blue/purple tartan.
First Of The Gang To Die
November Spawned A Monster
How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
I Like You
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Subway Train/Everyday is like Sunday
Now My Heart Is Full
Let Me Kiss You
Munich Air Disaster 1958
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday
Rubber Ring
You Know I Couldn't Last
Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
Irish Blood, English Heart
/There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
There were a few changes in the setlist. From the newest album "You Are The Quarry" "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel" replaced "I'm Not Sorry". From the back catalogue "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" replaced "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference". From the Smiths days "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" replaced "Shakespeare's Sister".
Before set opener "How Soon Is Now?" Morrissey greeted his audience with "Paisley it's lovely to have you!" After the song he added "Welcome to a night, at the Town Hall, of poetry and folk music and... violence..." After "First Of The Gang To Die" he said "No lust allowed at the Town Hall... Oh I see a little lust..." After "November Spawned A Monster" he explained why he wasn't wearing a kilt like his band did: "I'm sorry there's no kilt for me because I have legs that look as if they've been imported from Dundee... I think you know what that means... Yes, I know, I know..." He then introduced "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?" with the line "This is from our album which is called 'You Are The Quarry' and..."
Before going into "I Like You" Morrissey asked his favourite fan Julia if she was alright. He had to shush the loud audience to hear her answer and in return the audience booed, which prompted Morrissey to say "Stop booing... interneters..." At this point someone shouted "Don't forget 'Suffer Little Children'!" and Morrissey replied "One more time? Forget who? I believe I forgot that one long ago... I wish you would... Stop it now..." He had to interrupt a chant of his name to introduce "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" with the line "This next song is... called 'Kiltlifters Of The World Unite'!"
After the latter number Morrissey said "There's also a little piece in your local newspaper... the Paisley Parrot or whatever it's called and it said... It really did say that I was only gonna play Scottish towns beginning with P which is... I mean two nights ago we played in Edinburgh which... doesn't begin with P, does it? Does it? God bless the Paisley Parrot..." In the "Subway Train" intro to "Everyday Is Like Sunday" Morrissey extended a line to "I can't ever understand look! why my life has been cursed..." After the song he either had a jab at the town of Paisley or was sympathetic to its people when he said "I know you understand..."
Before going into "Now My Heart Is Full" Morrissey proceeded with the introduction of his musicians: "They're scheduled to turn professional next week so would you please say hello to thee boys in thee band. This is Boz Boorer... the inimitable Gary Day... and playing on the drum kit we have Cheryl - Deano!... and right here we have the sensational Killer Tobias!... and hiding over there, the man of many parts, Mikey V Farrell... and I'm just some old scrubber from the North Of England... I'm proud of it!... Not really..." Upcoming single "Let Me Kiss You" was introduced with "For a few minutes you can just close your eyes and imagine - shouldn't be difficult - that I'm Nancy Sinatra..." When someone shouted "You're gorgeous" Morrissey retorted "I don't think so."
Before going into "Munich Air Disaster 1958" Morrissey tried to decipher things shouted to him: "Say what? Sorry, just a bit slow, just a bit slow?" The album track "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" was introduced with "This next number makes no reference to television programme Big Brother but it's really enough to say that the world is full of crashing bores..." After the song Morrissey enquired "Will any of you be (?) towards Perth tomorrow?" Following "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" he simply asked "Are you sure of that?" After "Rubber Ring" he listened to compliments shouted to him then added "And now I'd like to sing, I like to sing... 'cause I am singing, really..."
Local journalist Billy Sloan was in the crowd and after "You Know I Couldn't Last" someone in the audience tried to warn Morrissey about it: "Are you trying to tell me we have a foe in our midst? Yeah? Who is this person? Silly of me to ask really, but who is this person? Who? Who? (shushes the audience and hands the microphone to someone in the front row) Oh, Billy Sloan (crowd boos)... Shall we tell him to just piss off? (crowd cheers)... I don't think you know, I mean, we've been ignoring him for years and he just won't go away..." This time he did go away. By the end of "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" he had left the venue. Seeing this Morrissey said "I think Billy Sloan's gone home to write a nasty review! Although knowing Billy Sloan he wrote it yesterday... That was just rude, I never said anything like that!"
When he returned to the stage for the encore Morrissey told the audience "Thank you Paisley very kindly..." The encore was "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" and during its first verse Morrissey's microphone gave out so the man just let the audience sing along and said "Sing Julia!". The problem was soon fixed and at the end of the song the crowd sang the chorus with him. It lasted for what seemed forever and Morrissey genuinely appeared to be moved by the moment.
An average sounding audience recording of the complete set is circulated on compact discs and in digital format on the internet.
An audience video recording of the last four songs of the set is circulated on bootleg DVDs (recorder G.O'G.). Because it's only 20 minutes long it is usually found tagged at the end of bootlegs of other dates. The footage is of good quality and has nice close-ups.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.
Quotes
Morrissey, in answer to a fan question on the True To You website in September 2006: "Paisley was a great night. We were warned that the place was 'dog-rough' and that the people might give us some trouble - which, of course, only whetted our appetites. But it wasn't so - everyone was very good to us and the audience were just perfect."