9 July 2006
Ruisrock Festival, Turku, Finland

Panic
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
In The Future When All's Well
You Have Killed Me
The Father Who Must Be Killed
Ganglord
Girlfriend In A Coma
Let Me Kiss You
I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now
I Will See You In Far Off Places
Life Is A Pigsty
To Me You Are A Work Of Art
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
First Of The Gang To Die
Irish Blood, English Heart
How Soon Is Now?
This gig didn't leave as good an impression as Morrissey's earlier performance in Helsinki in April, but festival dates can't be compared to regular concerts. Morrissey was still in good spirits, playful and sexually suggestive and the audience very receptive, despite the incredible heat. There was no crowd surfing or attempts to make it on stage, and no security issues. One fan had to be removed from the front and carried away, probably because of heat/exhaustion.

There were a few changes in the setlist. "Panic" returned to the position of set opener and "How Soon Is Now?" to set closer. "The Father Who Must Be Killed" and "To Me You Are A Work Of Art" replaced "At Last I Am Born" and the lesser known New York Dolls cover "Human Being".

As he entered stage Morrissey greeted the audience "Yahoo, Turku! Hei Hei!", assumed some theatrical poses and the band launched into "Panic". After "The Youngest Was The Most Loved" he commented "So you win the Eurovision song contest (crowd cheers)... and you're very proud... are you sure?" After one more song he replied to someone shouting "I love you!" with the line "Are you sure? Think deeply about this... don't rush into anything... you could regret it for the rest of your life, I did!" In "You Have Killed Me" a line was changed to "Who am I that I come to be near here".

As his set took place a couple of hours before the World Cup final, Morrissey took the opportunity to tell the audience before "The Father Who Must Be Killed": "And for those of you who are interested... I should tell you that tonight's match has been fixed... And... the winner is... Italy! I know these things!" Someone in the audience must have voiced his dissent, because Morrissey then said "Oh, you can boo..." and, pointing a finger at himself, repeated "Italy!" in a mock-Italian accent. Next up, "Ganglord" was introduced with "Thank you to those of you who bought 'Ringleader Of The Tormentors'... from which this song does not come, and it's called 'Ganglord'."

"Girlfriend In A Coma" was introduced with "This song is for any of you who came here today wearing post-volcanic black". During the "you see someone you physically despise" line in "Let Me Kiss You", Morrissey teased the audience by removing his shirt and caressing himself. The shirt ended up in the crowd. After the song the man returned wearing a fresh red one tied up in a knot at the front and said "So you see, in real life I'm quite fat... but so are you!" This red shirt also ended into the audience later in the show, but this time Morrissey wiped his whole chest and into the front of his trousers before discarding it. The fight between fans for a part of the latter one was even more vicious.

Before "I Will See You In Far Off Places" Morrissey proceeded with the customary band introduction: "This sexy crew is Boz Boorer... and Gary Day... and Matt Walker... and Jesse Tobias... and Michael Farrell..." After introducing Michael he commented "That cheer was too loud... Doesn't help... doesn't help... but thank you anyway..." He then asked the crowd twice "Anything to say?" (no-one did) before asking "You surviving Julia?". She was and returned the question. Morrissey's answer was "Well, some days are better than others".

Morrissey had more words with his favourite fan before "Life Is A Pigsty" when he apologized "Julia we couldn't get the gong from Serbia in time so we had to hire a really small gong... apologies...". Their regular gong had the word TORMENTORS written on it, so for this makeshift one someone taped the word PIINAAJAT on it, which is the Finnish word for 'Tormentors'. The merchandise had also not made it to Finland, so there was no Morrissey merchandise for sale on this date. When he introduced "To Me You Are A Work Of Art" Morrissey made a reference to the famous painting by Munch: "I would now like to say to me you are a work of art and... I don't mean the Scream..." Sensing that at least one person got the joke, he immediately added "Somebody laughed!". Before going into "First Of The Gang To Die", Morrissey replied to someone's heckling with "What now?"

 


Two different audience recordings of the full concert are out there, but only the one credited to recorder Wiltteri (aka VP) is circulated at this point in time. The other one is credited to Matti. Both sound similar, but the Matti recording has annoying neighbours talking loudly during two songs.

 

Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.