Glasgow (UK), SECC
PanicThis concert went down well, but it wasn't the best of this leg. The audience was generally very receptive, but as is often the case in Glasgow, there were troublemakers in the audience who disturbed other concert attendees and even threw objects at Morrissey. Also, the SECC is an aircraft hangar type of venue and the acoustics in there are notoriously bad. The man was in a playful mood, but at times seemed annoyed at the sound, and perhaps more detached from the crowd than he is when he plays smaller venues. He also seemed to have been experiencing vocal difficulties on and off. There was no change in the setlist.
First Of The Gang To Die
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
You Have Killed Me
Disappointed
Ganglord
William, It Was Really Nothing
Everyday Is Like Sunday
Dear God Please Help Me
Let Me Kiss You
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
In The Future When All's Well
I Will See You In Far Off Places
Girlfriend In A Coma
Irish Blood, English Heart
Life Is A Pigsty
How Soon Is Now?
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
The National Front Disco
/Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
Morrissey's greeting as he entered stage was "We are the Royal Scots Dragoon Guardsmen", delivered in a thick Scottish accent. In the extremely well received crowd favourite "First Of The Gang To Die" he followed "...the first lost lad to go under the sod" with a roaring "my God!" After the song he said "Very nice to see your apple cheeks!" The following song "The Youngest Was The Most Loved", like the two ones before it, got the crowd in a huge sing along. During that number's ending Morrissey was hit by a crumpled paper cup thrown from the audience. He had fortunately endured much worse on previous visits to Glasgow and this didn't affect his performance or his mood. The first line in "You Have Killed Me" was changed to "Mozalini is me, Pasolini I'll never be".
After "You Have Killed Me" Morrissey proceeded with the customary band introduction: "The rhumba... the conga... the samba... (pointing to the band) they can play anything, they can play anything... Would you please knock your knees together for Boz Boorer... for Gary Day... for Matt Walker... for Jesse Tobias... for Michael Farrell... And my life... my life has often been compared to spilt milk..." In "Disappointed", after the line "...and there's nowhere to go but down", Morrissey exclaimed "thank God!" After the song he discussed his previous visit to Glasgow, particularly the venue where he had played, the Carling Academy: "So we came back here because we found the Academy to be a bit smelly and... did you notice? I think Molly Weir had died backstage and nobody'd bothered to bury her... the smell was very strong... so here we are and you have some (interrupted by someone) What? What? Julia the pressure! The pressure..."
At the very end of "Ganglord" Morrissey sang "get your fat ass back to the ghetto". After the song he said "Very kind of you, thank you..." before enquiring about a television appearance from the night before: "Did you see us on the Russell Brand show? (crowd cheers)... Were we alright? (more cheers)... Do you like Russell Brand? (crowd: no!) Why not? (...) Is it simply because he's Southern? (...) Well I see your point but he's actually very very sweet, so (crowd boos)... I know, I know, I know but he's really nice, he's really sweet so... so please give him a chance... if he ever comes to play East Kilbride (laughter and cheering)... If, if, if, if, if..."
After "William, It Was Really Nothing" Morrissey said "Them was rotten days". Those words had been etched 20 years earlier between the run out grooves on the UK vinyl copies of the "The Queen Is Dead" album and now Morrissey was using them to describe his days in the Smiths. After "Everyday Is Like Sunday" he joked "That song was called 'Everyday Is Like Dundee'." After "Dear God Please Help Me" he said "I really don't understand why you like me, I mean, I've never had a Brit Award... so I can't be (undecipherable word)". After "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty" he asked the audience "Can you actually recognise the face on the backdrop? (crowd mostly: no!) Well it's not Wee Willie Harris (blank stares)... Julia, they don't remember Wee Willy Harris... very depressing, very depressing..."
Apart from the usual live lyric change in "In The Future When All's Well" Morrissey sang "Everyday I play a horrible game called..." and "the future is ended by a long long sleep thank God!" After the song he exclaimed "You have nerves of steel!" In "I Will See You In Far Off Places" there were more lyric changes, the usual ones and the previously unheard "I will shut my mouth forever" instead of "I will close my eyes forever". After the song Morrissey cryptically stated "I'm just a very small Chinaman, I try my best, I do my best, it's all you can do Julia, it's all you can do..."
In "Life Is A Pigsty" Morrissey slightly changed a line to "Even now, in the final hour of my life, I am in love again". His voice went on and off during the closing and higher passages of that song. The crowd helped him out but he missed several lines and seemed really unhappy about it. His voice then became much louder in the mix as the sound desk tried to over-compensate, but Morrissey reacted by saying "A bit loud... take it a little bit down..." to the sound engineer while pointing to his microphone. He then walked off and returned as Michael was playing the "Auld Lang Syne" outro. Before going into "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy" Morrissey announced the song's release as a single: "Because Kristeen Young has a new single out on Monday, we thought we'd do the same..." He held the single up then made a funny "Bada-bum-bum..." as he threw it into the audience. He then asked "Well, would you play it? My God..." Kristeen Young's single was actually released on Morrissey's Attack label, so this was just joking.
Before main set closer "The National Front Disco" Morrissey started "So afore we go... (crowd chants Morrissey's name) Michael! (Michael looks at him)... nothing..." Morrissey then walked to the front of the stage to lap up the adulation. Returning for the encore, he and his musicians formed a line at the front of the stage and bowed. Before going into "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" Morrissey said "Thank you for staying..." The crowd joined their idol into a huge sing-along for that Smiths favourite. After this very intense ending Morrissey shouted "God bless you!", saluted his fans, and left his musicians to milk the audience's rapture, throwing items to the fevered crowd.
"Speedway" was heard soundchecked before this show. It was expected to be reinstated in the setlist on one of the following dates, but never was.
A reasonably good audience recording of the complete concert is circulated on the internet (recorder/distributor: TeaWithTufty).
The first 60 minutes of the show were filmed from the crowd (recorder: G.O'G.). The footage is generally not very good, there are a lot of black outs but the recording also has some nice close-ups. This is not shared much yet. The same bootlegger also filmed the later Frankfurt gig so he also made available on DVD a montage of footage from the latter and this one over an audio track of the Glasgow concert. This isn't circulated more than any one of the two originals at this point in time.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.