Olympia, Paris, France
First Of The Gang To DieNot unlike the previous few dates, this concert went down well, but the crowd was slightly subdued. The fans were still receptive, cheerful and warm. Morrissey was in a general good mood. He teased the audience and made witty remarks. At some point he even imitated the fans applauding and pretended he was too tired too make his hands meet. He once again expressed his interest in the local culture. There was no change in the setlist.
Still Ill
You Have Killed Me
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
Reader Meet Author
Let Me Kiss You
My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye
Girlfriend In A Coma
I Will See You In Far Off Places
To Me You Are A Work Of Art
Life Is A Pigsty
Trouble Loves Me
How Soon Is Now?
Irish Blood, English Heart
A Song From Under The Floor Boards
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
At Last I Am Born
/Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Entering stage, Morrissey greeted the audience "Welcome to the Sacha Show!". The Sacha in question was French singer Sacha Distel, who Morrissey was particularly infatuated with at the time, to the point of having him on a stage backdrop on this tour. After set opener "First Of The Gang To Die", Morrissey exclaimed "It's nice to see you all sitting up!" Besides all the usual changes in "Still Ill", Morrissey also made an older forgotten one by singing "If you must go to work tomorrow, well if I were you I really wouldn't bother". After that number came the second half of Morrissey's greeting: "And as always I'm extremely humbled to be in Paris...(cheers) and I know Sacha is watching, he really is... and disapproves..."
After "The Youngest Was The Most Loved", Morrissey praised France by mentioning his local idols: "And thank you also for so many fascinating people... Claude Brasseur (crowd cheers, Morrissey growls), Sami Frey (crowd cheers less) Oh you've forgotten Sami Frey... (cheers) Françoise Hardy... (cheers) and I'm sorry but err... (Morrissey clears his throat) Brigitte Bardot (cheers and boos because she's well known for her right-wing views) Well I know (more boos) Yes I know, but she's very good to black widow spiders so... (laughs) and Serge Gainsbourg... (many cheers) Yes... These are the people who make this a great country, and amazingly, top of the heap is dear old Sacha and err..." Morrissey was then corrected in his pronunciation of "Sacha" so he repeated the name a few times before being handed a bunch of Sacha Distel singles by a fan in the audience: "For me? Do you need me to pay you?" The fan answered something and Morrissey retorted "Wow! Cute, oh beautiful! See, somebody likes me!".
In "Reader Meet Author", Morrissey started to sing the usual "You don't know a thing about their lives" and added "... apparently!" After that number Morrissey addressed a fan he recognized because she appeared in the "The Importance Of Being Morrissey" documentary: "You're here from Australia, yes? Yes you are... (shouts) What?" Then to some other people shouting remarks, he said or perhaps repeated what they were saying "She needs medication... asylum, sorry..." then gave a disapproving "oh.. tsk-tsk-tsk... no comment..." After "Let Me Kiss You" Morrissey did the usual band introduction. He started "For your pleasure, our platoon are...", but unlike other presentations on this tour, Morrissey just gave his musicians names without any witty or funny titles.
As usual "Girlfriend In A Coma" was preceded by a comment about the passing of time: "Back-tracking, back-tracking, something". During that song's "Do you think she'll pull through" line, Morrissey pretended to look at his watch, waiting for the girlfriend in question to die. He also unusually reverted to the studio version's "Let me whisper my last goodbye" instead of the new live standard "Let me whisper my final goodbye". The following number, "I Will See You In Far Off Places" was half-introduced with the words "But meanwhile, 48 years on from that song, we release "Ringleader Of The Tormentors". Morrissey messed up the order of the first 4 lines in "To Me You Are A Work Of Art". After the song he enquired about front row regular Julia Riley "Are you with us Julia?" and got replies by various fans saying "I'm here, I am Julia". To this Morrissey replied "See, nothing to say, typical!"
"Life Is A Pigsty" was one of the audience's most cheered song of the evening. As was tradition on this tour, "Trouble Loves Me" was preceded by a local well-known piano bit. For the Paris date, the cabaret-style intro has yet to be identified. After the song Morrissey declared "You know I would love to live in Paris, but (pause) I can't afford it! (crowd laughs) Why is that funny?". The Magazine cover "A Song From Under The Floorboards" was introduced with the words "This song was written before I was born" which was obviously not true (it's from 1980). After its performance Morrissey asked "Does anybody remember that song? (answers are shouted) How? Hmmm? So what..."
The complete concert is circulated on DVD and on the internet on torrent sites (recorder: FWD). The footage is of rather good quality, the sound is average. The camera is fixed and set in the left balcony. This is available in original form, or with some other footage (recorder: Hedgie) and photos mixed in here and there. A 3-minute montage is circulated on the internet as a teaser for the DVD.
The audio was lifted from this video recording and is circulated on the internet, sometimes under the title "The Sasha Show".
Two other video files are circulated on the internet, for "Girlfriend In A Coma" and "Trouble Loves Me". Those were filmed very close to Morrissey, from somewhere in the first few rows, but are more shaky. One of these has some of the DVD footage mixed in.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.