8 December 2006
London (UK), Wembley Arena

Panic
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
Life Is A Pigsty
/Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
/Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
This was one of the best concerts of this leg of the tour. Morrissey was on top form vocally and physically and in apparent great spirits. The sound was good given the size of the venue. The audience was very receptive. Three people had to be carried over the rail and carted off by security, probably due to exhaustion. One almost got to shake Morrissey's hand. The setlist was similar to that of the recent few dates, but "Life Is A Pigsty" was brought back, making this a record 22-song long set that lasted over 90 minutes.

Morrissey's greeting as he first picked up the microphone was "Just in case you don't know, you are present in the soft suburban underbelly of er, Wembley..." At the end of set opener "Panic" he pretended to sneeze. During the short break between the latter song and "First Of The Gang To Die" he said "You are extremely welcome!" In the latter number, after the line "the first lost lad to go under the sod" he exclaimed "Goodbye! Ciao!". After the song he looked at someone in the front rows and exclaimed "Wow!". After "The Youngest Was The Most Loved" he bridged to the following number - "You Have Killed Me" - with "Welcome to our collection of dazzling hits (crowd cheers)... such as..."

At the very beginning of "You Have Killed Me" Morrissey sang "Pasolini is he, him!" 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 "Diana Dors you will never be". Similarly instead of the usual live change "who am I that I come to be standing here" he sang, pointing to the big screen showing a close up of his face "who am I that I come to be on this screen". He also emphasised another line by singing "I entered nothing, and obviously nothing entered me..."

Before going into "Disappointed" Morrissey proceeded with the customary band introduction: "For your pleasure, for your pleasure, is Boz Boorer... Gary Day... Matt Walker... a real Mexican, and he's also alive, Jesse Tobias... last and by all means least, Michael Farrell... and (taking a theatrical pose) I am Russell Brand... kidding!" Then "Ganglord" was introduced with "I know I will pronounce his name wrong but you know who I mean when I say this next song is dedicated with love to Jean Charles de Menezes". In that number Morrissey slightly changed the meaning of a line by pointing to the audience and singing that the clock on the wall is making fun and makes a joke "...of you all". After the song he asked "Was that controversial? I don't think so..."

While waiting for his musicians to be ready to go into "I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now" Morrissey seemed to get impatient and asked them "Now? Now? Not now? But soon..." He then decided to fill the time by starting "On the subject of the Culture Show..." The crowd cheered, but then the musicians were ready so Morrissey stated "Now." and they launched into the song. It sounded like Morrissey didn't get a chance to say what he meant, but perhaps that's all he needed to say, that his words were actually an introduction to "I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now". In that number Morrissey sang "They who shouldn't love me walk right through me" and "...and as far as I know I haven't even died, yet!". "William, It Was Really Nothing" was cryptically introduced with the words "Now once upon a time there was a tavern..."

After "Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey announced "As far as I can see, there's only three things wrong with modern England, just three things... there's only three things wrong with modern England... three! One: Jamie Oliver. Two: Jamie Oliver. (looks angrier) And three: Jamie (mimes shooting) Pow! Oliver!" After "I Will See You In Far Off Places"'s opening line "Nobody knows what human life is", Morrissey asked "do you?" He later sang "I will close my mouth forever" instead of "I will close my eyes forever". Before going into "Girlfriend In A Coma" he had a word with his favourite fan: "Are you alright Julia? (looks for her) Julia? (finally finds her) Julia! It's these bifocal contact lenses, they tell you whatever you do don't look down, so I go through life without looking down. Julia, you have your friends, you have your enemies, you'll always have me (crowd cheers)... so you're well and truly trapped, I'm afraid, sorry about that..." Then impatient to start the next song, he said to his drummer "Now, Matthew!".

After "Girlfriend In A Coma" the crowd broke into a chant of Morrissey's name and the object of the attention replied "Yes my friends, what? All of this will pass!" 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 Mama! how I dearly wish I was not here, where?". He also changed one occurrence of "on your face" to "on your mush", sang "win yourself a cheap tray and why not share some grease-tea with me" and finally extended another line to "Everyday is silent and grey at least when you're on your own".

After "Everyday Is Like Sunday" Morrissey enquired "I just wonder did anybody see Madonna in the newspapers today in her new fur coat? (crowd boos)... A chinchilla fur coat which took the lives of 60 animals... So always I thought a very intelligent and caring woman, and she's obviously a wonderful mother, killing all those animals... so Madonna wherever you are..." In "In The Future When All's Well" Morrissey sang the slightly different "Everyday I play a stupid game called..." and "Lee, anybody! stand up and defend me". Every time he sang "I thank you with all of my heart", he pointed at different people in front of him. After the song he answered to something shouted from the audience with "For what?".

After "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty" Morrissey replied to some heckler(s) "Do you have anything of consequence to say? (sarcastically makes grunting noises)... very eloquent... It could almost be Robert Frost... doing one of his poems..." In "Dear God Please Help Me", after the line "dear God did this kind of thing happen to you?" Morrissey exclaimed "No! Never!". In "How Soon Is Now?" he sang "I am the son and the heir of a shyness that is crippling and vulgar". After that song Morrissey appeared to the front of the stage holding a 7" picture disc of his newest single "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy" and announced "So in the disgustingly grostesquely commercially horrible world where things are sold to the nice folk, we have released a new single (crowd cheers)... and I'm holding it in my hand... and that's me on the front... (flipping it over) and the back! (flipping) And the front! (flipping) And the back! (throwing the single on the floor) Oh well..."

Morrissey started to introduce "Life Is A Pigsty" with the words "Your fortitude..." but was interrupted by a fan: "What? Yes, what's the problem? Tell me? (fakes undecipherable words, crowd boos) You see, I don't know who it was who said life is a pigsty..." When he returned after a short break to perform the encores, he first got into a line with his musicians at the front of the stage and bowed, then took the microphone and said "I now have to, I have to go into a field and be hosed down but I take with me the memory of your beautiful faces and I'm - we're all extremely grateful so earnestly, because I have at last discovered The Importance Of Being Earnest, so earnestly, thank you!" In "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" the man followed "and it can come from the strangest direction" with a shout of "come here kid!"

 


An audience recording of the complete concert minus the intro to "Life Is A Pigsty" is circulated on bootleg DVDs (recorder Chris A). The footage is of reasonably good quality. It was filmed from the balcony to Morrissey's left but features nice close-ups and no obstruction.

A rather good audience recording of the full set is also circulated in audio form (recorder: rimbaud). This is not the audio from the DVD although the latter will certainly appear on the internet at some 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.