Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland
First Of The Gang To DieMorrissey was in top shape, very playful and perhaps less sniffly on this date than on the previous one. However there were significant sound problems throughout the show, which seemed to bother Morrissey as well as the audience. He did put his fingers in his ears now and then. Security was very tight and no one made it on stage despite a few attempts. The audience seemed to be slightly subdued in the Circle, but quite lively in the stalls. As usual Morrissey threw one of this shirts into the audience to be fought over. 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
As he entered stage Morrissey exclaimed "Well, well, well, well, well..." before launching into current set opener "First Of The Gang To Die". After that song came the second part of the greeting: "...and it's very nice to be back in your lap." After "Still Ill" he continued "Thanks for glueing yourselves together and scrambling along" and then, aware of the bad sound, asked "Is it too loud? Is it too quiet? Too bad..." In "You Have Killed Me" he made the occasional change to "Tony Visconti is me", aware that the man in question, the producer of his most recent album, was in the audience. After the song he said "So, thank you for buying 'Ringleader Of The Tormentors' (crowd cheers) which I believe is number 3 in Ireland... (more cheers) Couldn't quite catch Daniel O'Donnell, but it's easy to see why (crowd laughs)..."
Following one of the occurrences of the line "There is no such thing in life as normal" in "The Youngest Was The Most Loved", Morrissey added "...believe me!". After the song he had a word about the sound with the soundman: "It's okay here, but when I go there, I lose everything..." Then turning to the audience he said "This is very, very scientific language... but what does it mean?". He then had a few words with a fan "Are you okay Julia, are you alright? Are you okay?" before going into the band introduction: "Since we have a slight difficulty, would you please say hello to the legendary Boz Boorer, to our first lieutenant Gary Day, to our rear gunner Matt Walker, to the very mysterious (goes to Jesse and asks someone in the audience: you know each other?) Jesse Tobias, and to a man with many many secrets, Michael Farrell! And I, I, I sleep on a hook at night".
Because of the bad sound, after "Reader Meet Author" Morrissey asked the audience about another Dublin venue "Do you prefer the Point?". He blessed himself when he was answered almost unanimously "No!". After "Let Me Kiss You" he asked someone "Which means what?" then enquired about an Irish play on rugby: "As anybody seen 'Alone It Stands'? Yeah? Yes it's very funny... (mixed reactions from people in the crowd) Oh I thought it was very funny..." The Smiths-era classic "Girlfriend In A Coma" got the whole audience into a huge singalong. Morrissey reverted to the studio version's "Let me whisper my last goodbye" in that song instead of the new live standard "Let me whisper my final goodbye". After the song he commented "However, life, amazingly, goes on..."
In every city visited on this tour "Trouble Loves Me" was preceded by a few bars of a local well known song played on the piano. In Dublin the intro in question was "Molly Malone" and Morrissey twirled to it while it was being played. "How Soon Is Now?" was often preceded on this tour by a comment about the passing of time, and in Dublin the comment was "And back in the very early, very dark days of Brookside..." The song was another one that stirred the audience into one big singalong. When Morrissey sang "I am the son and the heir", he added "...look! look!" and after "when you say it's gonna happen now", he exclaimed "Jesus! when exactly do you mean?".
Following "Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey discussed the sound troubles again "I can't actually hear anything... which is great! Does it sound really messy? (crowd shouts yes, and Morrissey imitates them) Yeahhsss! Well it shows, we've been rehearsing mess all day... so we can all turn out a bit yes? (then in an Irish accent) 'Roight let's go!" before going into the cover of the Magazine classic "A Song From Under The Floorboards". After that one Morrissey credited the song's writer: "And of course Howard Devoto would turn in his urn, but he isn't dead yet... does anybody know Howard Devoto? (some fans shout affirmatively) Yeahsss... Who is he then? Yeahsss..." Then "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy" was introduced with the line "I just want to see Sacha Distel happy".
Before the final number of the main set Morrissey said "Thank you to Kristeen Young for opening the night... and thank you to our good friend, our compatriot Tony Visconti who is here..." In "At Last I Am Born" Morrissey usually sang the live change "vegetarians know", but on this date he reverted to the studio version's "vulgarians know". When they returned for the encore Morrissey and his musicians didn't line up and bow as had been tradition so far on this tour. Morrissey said "We're just (winging?) out before you all leave", then apologised "Sorry the sound is so bloody awful... but that's our specialty, that's life..." and then went into final song "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me".
There are two different audio recordings of this concert out there. Both feature the complete concert, but the recording credited to recorder JD sounds reasonably good, while the one credited to recorder Johnky sounds only average.
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 a statement to the True To You website in September 2006: "(...) the two nights at the Olympia seemed silly; the Point would've been better."