Royal Court, Liverpool
How Soon Is Now?This concert wasn't the most memorable of the tour, but everything went down well. Morrissey was in top form and the audience very receptive. The setlist was slightly resequenced and in the process "Munich Air Disaster 1958" was temporarily dropped and replaced by the better known "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores".
Irish Blood, English Heart
Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
Shakespeare's Sister
November Spawned A Monster
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
Let Me Kiss You
I Have Forgiven Jesus
I Like You
How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
You Know I Couldn't Last
Rubber Ring
Now My Heart Is Full
Subway Train/Everyday Is Like Sunday
I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday
First Of The Gang To Die
/There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
As he picked up the microphone Morrissey's first words was the greeting "Maghull!". After set opener "How Soon Is Now?" he extended this with "Welcome to some cheap, loud, live music... with the emphasis on cheap..." After "Irish Blood, English Heart" he said "It's very nice to be back in the Royal Court mainly... mainly because there's absolutely nothing Royal about the Court..." He bridged the yet-to-be-released "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" to the Smiths classic "Shakespeare's Sister" with the line "That song was called 'Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice' which is... sum of the parts of the future - mine - and this song is part of the safe and dreary past... steady!"
Before going into "November Spawned A Monster" Morrissey apologised "By the way, I'm sorry about the pit, they didn't have it for (?), so why for me?" Next up "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" was introduced with the line "I was put on this earth for one thing only... and that is to think and... I happen to think that the world is full of crashing bores... I do!" After the song the audience broke into a chant of Morrissey's name and the man blushed and said "ha-ha-ha-ha, thank you..." He then introduced upcoming single "Let Me Kiss You" with "Just to spite everybody, we're gonna release a new single... well..."
The future single "I Have Forgiven Jesus" was introduced with the words "And this is a song from our little album, which is called 'Morrissey You Silly Fool You Are The Quarry'... well..." After the song he joked "So Julia is here on backing vocals... and I'm very happy about that..." He then introduced "I Like You" with "And this is another song from 'Morrissey You Silly Fool You Are The Quarry'... well, that's a very difficult one you know, we're really not that professional... What? Who?" When someone shouted for his attention, Morrissey replied "Who me? What now? I'm busy!"
After "You Know I Couldn't Last" Morrissey joked "I think you'll agree that the shirt changes are certainly worthwhile... One shirt begats another..." After "Rubber Ring" the crowd chanted Morrissey's name again and this time the object of the chant said "It sounds like you're singing Norris Green! Norris Green! Norris Green!" In "Now My Heart Is Full" he changed the line "Patric Doonan - raised to wait" to "Auntie Newley - raised to wait" and the usual live "every jammy Stretford poet" to "every jammy Manchester poet". After the song he enquired "Does anybody here... does anybody actually miss Brookside? I think that was a no, really, isn't it. What, you don't miss Claire Sweeney? Are you sure? Well I know Claire Sweeney and she's really nice..."
As "Subway Train" was about to segue into "Everyday Is Like Sunday" Morrissey told the audience "watch!". Over the course of the show he would regularly remove the shirt he was wearing, wipe the sweat off his chest and back with it, then throw it into the audience to be fought over. He did this at the end of "Everyday Is Like Sunday" and then said "I only throw the shirts out so they get dry-cleaned and sent back to me... but you will..." In "First Of The Gang To Die" he extended a line to "the first lod lad under the sod, goodbye, God bless you!", something that would become common on the 2006 tour. Before encore "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" his final words to the audience were "And now we shall go back to our cold, lonely, rat-infested hotel rooms... but make no mistake, we'll dream about you..."
A 36-minute audience video recording of this concert is out there, but it is not being shared at this point in time (recorder: G.O'G.). The footage was filmed from the floor and is overall obstructed most of the time by the backs of heads.
A rather good audio-only audience recording of the full set is circulated on compact discs and in digital format on the internet.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.