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7 November 2007 Melbourne (FL), King Center For The Performing Arts
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One BeforeThis concert, which was originally scheduled to be the penultimate one of 2007 but ended up being the final one, went down well despite unfavourable conditions. As on the previous few dates Morrissey had a throat illness which was now and then making it difficult for him to sing. This would cause the cancellation of the show scheduled the next day in Miami. Meanwhile Morrissey still gave the best of himself and was very talkative with his fans. The sound was overall too low and the microphone was mixed in too low as well. The audience was very quiet, and overall not very receptive. Most of the fans kept to their seats and the standing ones were quite still. Only during the encore did the crowd wake up and invade the stage in numbers. "Let Me Kiss You" was replaced with "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" so this means that very little change was made in the setlist, comparatively to earlier on the tour. It is believed that an extra song was planned following "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores", but as they were about to launch into it Morrissey went to his musicians and motioned them to skip through to "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want". There was no intro music on this date. Morrissey and his musicians just walked on stage and, as he picked up the microphone, Morrissey said "The question of today is, why wait?" Over the closing bars of set opener "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before", instead of the usual shout of "Some! of us! is turning! nasty!" (a tradition at the time), Morrissey shouted "Why... wait... when... all... (undecipherable)..." Then after the song he said "Very good ending!" He improvised many minor lyric changes in "Tomorrow", such as "and if it does come, will I still be slightly human?", "all I ask of you is one little pathetic thing that you'll never do", "through this useless body" and "through this shell of a body". After the song he quoted from the Smiths song "Unloveable": "and if I seem a little strange, that's because I am, that's because I am..." Over the length of the previous few weeks Morrissey had been having trouble with his bracelet which kept falling off his wrist. This happened here again during "Irish Blood, English Heart" and he had to pick it up and give it to someone backstage. So after the song he joked: "I know... I realize you are applauding the bracelet, as you should... God knows it works very hard..." A fan was wearing a very glittery shirt so Morrissey then asked him "What are you wearing?" The fan answered "You" and Morrissey promptly retorted "He didn't answer the question... very wise!" The first stage invader made it on during "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys". As she approached him, Morrissey quickly turned with his microphone stand to form a barrier. She was tackled by security and could only grab Morrissey's leg. He told her "That's my leg!" and she was dragged off and thrown into the crowd by security. After the song he said "It's not really that easy for you, really?" Following "Sister I'm A Poet" Morrissey said "If you look for meaning in that song you will waste hours and hours of your life... as I have... as you can see! Any questions before we proceed?" Various things were shouted from the audience, Morrissey grimaced and told one fan in particular "Well that's an easy one, that's an easy one... You've heard of Ativan I take it?... Ativan! Ativan, yes. That would help you, would it help you? (someone shouts that they came all the way from California)... Well, many people do, you know..." He then crouched down, put his thumbs in his ears, wiggled his hands and made a face at the crowd. At the beginning of "The Loop" he sang "I just wanna say, I haven't been away... I have!" After the song he said "Disgraceful!... So you see, you see it isn't as good as Hannah Montana, who gets four photographs in USA Today... Why? (takes on American accent) Why? Is this American society? Hannah Montana? (giggles) I don't think so!" After the outro of "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy" Morrissey looked at his keyboardist and joked "Is that it?". He then proceeded with the customary introduction of the band: "You are in the company of... the Boz that wouldn't die, Boz Boorer... from Chicago, Solomon Walker... from the same parents, Matt Walker... found on a doorstep, Jesse Tobias... and do you remember, do you remember the Partridge Family? Do you remember the small boy who banged the tambourine?... Michael Farrell!" In new composition "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell" Morrissey changed a line to "and when I die I'll definitely go to hell". After the song he told the audience "Well, I know, but they can't all be zingers... So much pressure Julia, so much pressure... Everything has to be perfect... It's not like that when you work in Rite-Aid, there's no pressure..." During "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" someone gave him a James Dean tie and during the song's bridge, while his back was turned, he tucked it from his waist in front of his crotch. So when he turned facing the crowd again it was hanging between his legs. He kept it there for the length of a few songs. The crowd favourite "Jack The Ripper" was introduced with the words "I know when you, when you live somewhere as beautiful as here, it's hard to imagine Whitechapel in 1888... but I can..." He made many minor lyric changes in the song, including replacing "but tonight you presume too much" with "but tonight you presume this much" while showing his index and thumb about three inches apart. He also sang "crash into these arms", "you don't agree, but would you dare refuse?" and "you don't agree, I didn't hear you refuse?". Besides the usual lyric changes in "Stretch Out And Wait" he sang "will the world end in the night time, why ask me, I don't know". After the song he asked an audience member "Are you okay?" and handed the microphone to a man who thanked him and thanked his wife for putting up with him. Morrissey then made a puzzled face and said "People are too nice". At this point another fan nearby gave Morrissey a book while saying "Something to read on the beach." Morrissey looked at the gift and quizzically asked "Uh? You live on the beach?" So she repeated herself and this time Morrissey understood correctly: "Me? Oh, for me to read by the beach..." He then handed the microphone to his favourite fan Julia who said hello and asked him how he was doing. But a contingent nearby was chanting "Stretford! Stretford!" so Morrissey told her "Julia, you're being drowned out by... They are saying Stretford, yes?... Stretford..." Finally one more fan was given the chance to share his thoughts. He requested the Smiths classic "Reel Around the Fountain" and was rewarded with Morrissey's reply "Never in a million years!" In new composition "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" Morrissey changed a line to "In the absence of your smiling face, I surf all over the place". He bridged the latter song to "All You Need Is Me" by introducing both: "That was called 'I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris' (crowd shouts)... I knew you'd say that... This is called 'All You Need Is Me'..." He changed many occurrence of a line in the latter number to "I think you're gonna miss me when I'm gone", then to "You're gonna miss me when they stick me under the ground, with the worms, under, in a casket, goodbye!..." In the Smiths classic "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" Morrissey followed the line "no hope no harm just another false alarm" with "of course!" The song was extremely well received and he smiled, answered someone's shouts with "what?" and handed the microphone to a fan who started singing the latter number. He wasn't very good and didn't have the chance to go very far before security snatched the microphone and gave it back to Morrissey. The crowd cheered and Morrissey asked "Please tell me I don't sound like that?..." After "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" Morrissey told the audience "I know you understand the sentiment, and that's all I ask... all I ask..." He then motioned to drummer Matt to hold on, walked over to Boz and then back to Matt for acknowledgement. With a throat cutting motion he was obviously asking them to change something in the planned set. Meanwhile a crowd member shouted something about Miami and Morrissey retorted "What for? What's happening in Miami?" There was more shouting from the audience, which was mocked by Morrissey in a silly voice. As on many other dates in the previous few weeks the encore was performed in a chaos of people on stage. Morrissey remained on through the whole song. He sang when he could and improvised many lines describing what was happening around him. He clearly looked like he was enjoying himself, it probably was his favourite moment of the whole show.
Another audience recording of the complete or near-complete concert has been reported, but this has not made it to common circulation yet.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.
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