27 August 2006
L'Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium

In The Future When All's Well
Panic
Irish Blood, English Heart
Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
Life Is A Pigsty
How Soon Is Now?
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
To Me You Are A Work Of Art
Girlfriend In A Coma
Let Me Kiss You
At Last I Am Born
You Have Killed Me
First Of The Gang To Die
I Will See You In Far Off Places
/Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
/Now My Heart Is Full
The final concert of the summer of 2006 went down well. There were minor sound difficulties at first, but the audience as well as Morrissey were in the best spirits. The setlist was similar to what it had been on the previous date, but because there were no time constraints, the fan favourite "Life Is A Pigsty" was reinstated.

Morrissey came on stage holding a cigar. Before going into the newly appointed set opener "In The Future When All's Well", he greeted the audience "So, we've come to please the press in Belgium... here, here in the city of sprouts". In that song, as he sang "I thank you with all of my heart", he pointed at the audience. He kept playing with the cigar throughout most of the song, until he disposed of it, probably into the audience. After that he said "This floor is very slippy, so I will fall... be ready!" He returned to the subject after "Irish Blood, English Heart": "I would like to thank the little small man with the moustache who polished this stage today... very helpful and very conducive to a broken neck... just wait..."

In "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" Morrissey followed the line "...and it can come from the strangest direction" with a roar of "Hey kid! Hey you!" The fan favourite "Life Is A Pigsty" ended in a beautiful piano music from which emerged Auld Lang Syne. This segued straight into "How Soon Is Now?". This pairing had been first attempted in Dublin five days before because Morrissey had passed his curfew and was sprinting through the setlist. He must have loved the transition because he repeated it here even though he wasn't rushed anymore.

Before going into "The Youngest Was The Most Loved" Morrissey announced "This is the 70th and the final date of this tour (crowd cheers)... and, thank you for turning up, thank you always to Julia and the irregular regulars... most of all thanks to me..." He continued after the song: "I was of course half-joking... above all we would like to thank our beloved crew and to use the plural - do you know what plural means Winnie? do you know? - for our beloved crew, to... to... that's the first word... to us you are a work of art..."

After "To Me You Are A Work Of Art", all stopped and Morrissey as well as other people on the stage were looking at something on the floor. Everyone in the audience started wondering what was happening until Morrissey finally took the microphone and said "Well there's a huge spider on the stage and I don't want to kill it... but if it doesn't move soon..." He then composed himself and proceeded with the band introduction: "Do you mind, they served their time, they were press-ganged: Boz Boorer... Gary Day... Matt Walker... Jesse Tobias... Michael Farrell..." At this point people started shouting for him to also introduce himself - "Who are you?" or "Who's the singer" and Morrissey feigned not to understand. He said "Who? (more shouts) Who? (even more shouts) To me..." He then pretended to understand and feigned yawning.

After "Let Me Kiss You" Morrissey had more end-of-tour thanks: "We'd like to say congratulations to Kristeen Young (crowd cheers; someone in the audience enquires why) Why? - well Kristeen and Jeff - on their first British chart position this week, with me... with 'Kill The Mozzer' which is a great single and of course we'd like to thank Kristeen for opening for us..." Of course Kristeen's single was actually titled "Kill The Father" and the title Morrissey used was just him having a bit of fun. In "At Last I Am Born", besides most of the usual changes, he changed a line to "It took me a hell of a long time but now I am born".

After "You Have Killed Me" Morrissey asked his favourite fan "Julia, some parting words?" and handed her the microphone so she could answer with a line from one of his songs: "I thank you with all of my heart". At the very beginning in "First Of The Gang To Die", he followed the line "You have never been in love" with "... I believe!, until you've seen the stars..." He also sang "the first lost lad to go under the sod, ciao!" After the song the audience broke out into a chant of his name and it prompted him to say "It's too much Julia..." He then started "So..." but was interrupted by a fan shouting "we love you!". His reply was "...likewise". He then managed to properly introduce the final song of the main set: "Whatever happens, 'I Will See You In Far Off Places'..."

In the latter song Morrissey changed "so why then do I know" to "but in my heart I know". When he returned to the stage after a pre-encore break, he and the band got into a line and bowed again, but Morrissey pretended to faint and had to be held back by Gary. He then picked up the microphone and said "Thanks for listening" before the band launched into the crowd-favourite "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before". The audience went crazy at this point and to a fan attempting to get on stage Morrissey had to say "Steady!". In "Now My Heart Is Full" he did not drop the word 'puny' in "just some rain-coated lovers' puny brothers" as he often did, and sang "Tony Franciosa raised to wait".

 


Two different audience recordings of the complete set are circulated on audio bootlegs. Both are rather good. They can also be found on the internet, but at this point in time the better one of the two is also the scarcest.

 

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: "Thanks to everyone who came to Brussels for our 70th concert of this year. The audience was fantastic and the night was one of my most enjoyable. It was the perfect way to end our jaunt. We were immediately asked back to Belgium to play four major cities, something I could only manage if steel rods supported my lower back..... not a great look".