Baltiska Hallen, Malmö, Sweden
First Of The Gang To DieAfter Finland and Norway, Morrissey returned to Sweden for a third concert there. This one was not the most memorable of the tour, but everything went down well. The Malmö audience was receptive but perhaps slightly subdued. Morrissey and the band were in top form. No one made it on stage despite a few near-successful attempts. Overall two shirts were thrown by Morrissey into the audience on this date, the first after "How Soon Is Now?" and the second at the end of the concert. As usual fans ended up fighting for a scrap of the shirts, but for the second one the fight turned out to be quite serious. Fifteen minutes after the end of the concert there were still people on the floor wrestling for a piece of memorabilia.
Still Ill
You Have Killed Me
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
Let Me Kiss You
My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye
Girlfriend In A Coma
In The Future When All's Well
To Me You Are A Work Of Art
A Song From Under The Floor Boards
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
How Soon Is Now?
Irish Blood, English Heart
At Last I Am Born
I Will See You In Far Off Places
Life Is A Pigsty
/Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
There were even more changes in the setlist than on the previous dates, and significant ones. The number of songs from newest album "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" was increased by one (for a total of eight) with the addition of "To Me You Are A Work Of Art" which hadn't been performed yet. But what got the most attention was the live debut of Morrissey's cover of Magazine's classic "A Song From Under The Floorboards". This would be released in July as a b-side to the "The Youngest Was The Most Loved" single, but fans attending this concert didn't know it yet. To make place for these two additions, two songs were dropped, "I Like You", which had just been introduced on the previous date, and "Trouble Loves Me". The former would not return on this tour, and the deletion of the latter meant that nothing older than 2004 was left in the setlist from Morrissey's post-Smiths catalogue.
Coming on stage, Morrissey greeted the audience "I'm clean again, I'm in Malmö!" After set opener "First Of The Gang To Die", he continued "And you really have come back... you! Yes you!" After "You Have Killed Me", along the last lines of the song, Morrissey asked "But the question is, do you forgive me? (crowd: yes!) But I haven't done anything wrong!". He then changed the subject: "And our new cd is #1 in Sweden... (crowd cheers) Thank you..." After "Let Me Kiss You", he started "Well, you'll be very pleased to know that... Oslo is beautiful, Helsinki beautiful, Stockholm beautiful, Gothenburg Gothenburg beautiful... and err.." and teased the audience by saying nothing about Malmö.
After "My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye" Morrissey said "There's really not much left for me other than to mispronounce foreign words and err, that's why I'm here, that's why I'm here...". Girlfriend In A Coma" was often preceded by a comment about the past, but in Malmö the comment came after the song's performance: "The past is a hairshirt, Julia... hairshirt..." Morrissey seemed to be unsatisfied by his performance of "In The Future When All's Well" because he followed it with "Wasn't very good". Morrissey didn't usually credit covers on stage, but he did for the debuting "A Song From Under The Floorboards": "Which is a cover version as originally done by... (fan shouts 'Magazine!') No, not Magazine... yes, by Magazine..."
After "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy", Morrissey answered someone "Well, there is medication you know..." then went into the traditional band introduction: "Would you say hello please to the captain of the ship, Boz Boorer... steady... to the first lieutenant, Gary Day... to the rear gunner Matt Walker... the Texan torpedo Jesse Tobias... and to our secret weapon, Michael Farrell..." Unlike other dates, he didn't introduced himself. After "At Last I Am Born", Morrissey cryptically said "Julia...I can't stop walking backwards... i won't walk backwards, it's killing me!" Returning for the encore, he said "Do you feel tormented (crowd: yes!) Well you should!" before going into "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me".
A quite good audience recording of the full concert is circulated on the internet. Collectors should be aware that a first version of that recording that was too fast is still circulated on the internet. The corrected version is the most common however.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.