Birmingham (UK), NIA
PanicThis concert was one of the better ones of this arena tour despite the fact that the venue was only half filled. The crowd was generally more lively and danced and sang along to most of the set. Morrissey was in a playful mood and very talkative. He particularly kept talking about his being nominated among Britain's greatest living icons and his related appearance on the Culture Show. 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
I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now
William, It Was Really Nothing
Irish Blood, English Heart
I Will See You In Far Off Places
Girlfriend In A Coma
Everyday Is Like Sunday
In The Future When All's Well
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
Let Me Kiss You
The National Front Disco
Dear God Please Help Me
How Soon Is Now?
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
/Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
/Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
Morrissey's greeting as he first picked up the microphone was "Brum! Brum! Brum! Brum! Brum!" In set opener "Panic" he took a funny accent on the word 'Birmingham' in the line "panic on the streets of Birmingham". As soon as the song was finished he said "more dirty laundry in public" and the band immediately went into "First Of The Gang To Die". In the latter number, after the line "the first lost lad to go under the sod" he exclaimed "Ciao! Bye bye!". Then before going into "The Youngest Was The Most Loved" he announced "Very nice, very nice to be back in your city... this is Stockholm isn't it?" After the song he said "Thank you music lovers".
At the very beginning of "You Have Killed Me" Morrissey sang "Pasolini is he" while pointing at the Pasolini backdrop then, pointing at himself, he continued "Mozalini is me!". Later in the song, instead of the usual live change "Anna Magnani you will never be", he sang "Sophia Loren you will never be". Similarly instead of the usual live change "who am I that I come to be standing here" he sang "who am I that I come to be standing on this stage".
After "You Have Killed Me" Morrissey started rambling, but this eventually turned out to be his band introduction: "Now as I'm sure some of you know, Mickey Hargitay... (shades his eyes looking for his front row regular) Julia, Julia, Julia, Julia, Julia? Mickey Hargitay? No? Well, he was Mr Universe, and he was married to Jayne Mansfield, and he had - they had - three children. Their names were Julia, Mozzer, Uh-huh... So Mickey Hargitay died a couple of weeks ago, he was Mr Universe but he had nothing on Boz Boorer! And he had nothing on Gary Day... and he (funny noises) on Matt Walker... and this is a real live Mexican, Jesse Tobias... and last, last and in every human regard least, Michael Farrell... and you would have heard of me on the Culture Show I think..."
In "Ganglord" Morrissey slightly changed the meaning of a line by singing that the clock on the wall is making fun and makes a joke "...of you all". Near the end of the song he sang "get your fat ass back to the ghetto". After the song he explained "That song was about the LAPD which means... (waits in vain for an answer from the audience) well... (waits some more) well it's the lap dancing club... (some fans laugh) the lap dancing club from Fairfax... Fairfax and Beverly... (giggles at his joke, then seeing as he's the only one laughing, pretends to leave) there's nothing else to say, goodbye..." He then returned to the subject of Britain's Greatest Living Icon: "So one thing about the Culture Show and this voting thing... because you realise I'm in the final three (crowd cheers)... thank you! And thanks for your votes, however, you may have noticed about the final three people in this icon doo-dah... ppfftt, (pointing at himself) master of words... We have Sir Paul McCartload (crowd boos)... we have Sir David Attenborough (crowd boos)... and we have scruffy me (crowd cheers).. So because this land is democratic, fair and just, it means at this very moment the Queen is probably in her bedroom preparing to knight me (crowd cheers)... and is probably etching into her very special trophy M-O-double R-I-S-E-Y (some fans laugh that he purposely used only one S), and she's probably rehearsing 'Arise Sir Mozzer'... but maybe not, I know..."
In "I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now" Morrissey sang "They who shouldn't love me walk right through me" and "I'll never be anybody's hero now, just watch!". After the song it was time for one more intervention about the Living Icon thing: "Sorry, there's just one more thing I'd like to say about the Culture Show, just one more thing... If Sir Paul McCartload wins, it will be world news, he'll be on Rolling Stone magazine in America blah! If David Attenborough wins, six o'clock new, nine o'clock new, ten... If I win it will be dropped like the hottest potato you have ever ever seen..." In "I Will See You In Far Off Places" a line was changed to "I will close my mouth forever".
After that song Morrissey decided to chit-chat with two regulars in the front row: "Julia? Julia! Thank you... are you okay? Are you okay?" He then asked his bodyguard Arturo to hand her the microphone so her answer could be heard by everyone in the room. She returned the question to Morrissey and he answered "Well, if this is Stockholm and it's a Sunday, then I'm fine, otherwise... (turning to other fan) Paulie are you okay? Is anything happening in Emmerdale? Have I missed anything?" Morrissey again asked Arturo to hand the fan the microphone so he could answer that Morrissey hadn't 'missed nothing'. Morrissey replied "How very eloquently put, I've missed nothing... that goes for life as a whole I think..."
In live performances of "Everyday Is Like Sunday" Morrissey usually changed a line to "scratch on a postcard" and on this date he actually extended it to "scratch on a postcard oh help me! how I dearly with I was not here". He also extended another line to "Everyday is silent and grey at least when you're on your own". After "In The Future When All's Well" he thanked his audience and said "Very, very kind" twice. In "Dear God Please Help Me", after the line "dear God did this kind of thing happen to you?" Morrissey exclaimed "No never, no!". In "How Soon Is Now?" he sang "I am the son and the heir of a shyness that is crippling and vulgar".
Upcoming single "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy" was introduced by Morrissey before its performance, and while he was at it the man also made another announcement: "For those committed family members I should say that Kristeen Young is talking tonight on the Janice Long show between 12 and 2 and if you go into HMV tomorrow, they're not prejudiced, they'll sell to anybody and you might see or you might not see this." In final song "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice", between the outro lines "no te divertes con pappy", Morrissey repeated "stop!" and "stop it!". He concluded with "take that!", said goodbye, and left the stage to his musicians to dispatch memorabilia (plectrums, setlists, etc) to the fans in the front rows.
"Speedway" was again rehearsed at soundcheck. Because of this it was expected to make the setlist on one of the upcoming dates, but this never happened.
A rather good audience recording of the complete concert is circulated among bootleg collectors and on the internet (recorder: Omsaps). This is sometimes seen with artwork under the title Birmingham N.I.A..
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.