Castellon (Spain), Benicàssim Festival
The Last Of The Famous International PlayboysThis concert went down quite well considering the fact that it was a festival appearance. The weather was beautiful and Morrissey was in fine form, playful and talkative. The crowd was generally more receptive than it had been the night before in Madrid. Morrissey's musicians all played shirtless and they had different phrases written across their chests: Matt - "Wanting"; Solomon - "L'Uomo" ; Boz - "death in the bath"; Jesse - "Conquistador" and Kristopher - "poeticism".
Ask
First Of The Gang To Die
That's How People Grow Up
Irish Blood, English Heart
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
Sister I'm A Poet
Vicar In A Tutu
All You Need Is Me
The Loop
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
What She Said
Death Of A Disco Dancer
You Say You Don't Love Me
Stretch Out And Wait
Life Is A Pigsty
How Soon Is Now?
There was very little change in the setlist "Mama Lay Softly On The River" and "Billy Budd" were replaced with "What She Said".
Morrissey's first words when he entered stage were "Buena noches!... Good Morning!... Will you and your Spanish eyes please wait for me?..." At the very end of set opener "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" Morrissey shouted something undecipherable in a high pitched voice. On hearing French electro-tech group Justice's pounding racket in the distance he complained: "We're being overpowered by techno... how very intelligent..." Before going into "Vicar In A Tutu" he joked "I cycled all the way here from Seville... I didn't really!"
At some point Morrissey tried to endear himself to the audience by saying "It pleases me that I've been invited here, because all Spanish bands are simply dreadful... don't worry, all English bands are dreadful too!" He lamented the Benicàssim Festival for not being cruelty free, having 'death for sale' in the food stands. The comment was of course not very well received by the audience. Morrissey also mocked the Spanish 'matador' institution when talking about the animal cruelty issue. Before leaving at the end of the show he removed his shirt and dragged it along the edge of the stage, teasing the people in the audience to try and reach for it.
The festival was broadcast on RTVE Radio 3, but the show was cut off after they played "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" and half of "Ask". British television channel ITV2 showed highlights of the festival, including two songs by Morrissey: "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" and "First Of The Gang To Die". These could also be viewed through ITV's webpage. A newspiece on the festival, featuring excerpts of Morrissey doing "Ask", was shown on ScannerTV, the visual section of Scanner FM's webpage.
Very little from this concert is being traded on bootlegs at this point in time, in either audio or video. The two songs shown on the ITV2 highlights programme mentionned above are found on their own in digital format on the internet, or tagged at the end of DVD bootlegs of other shows from the era.
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