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4 May 2009 Stirling (UK), Albert Halls
This Charming ManThis was an excellent show. Morrissey was at his best and looked like he was enjoying himself. Scottish crowds are known to be appreciative and energetic, and the Stirling one was no exception. A few changes were made to the setlist and regulars "Ask" and "Sorry Doesn't Help" were temporarilty dropped in favour of "I Keep Mine Hidden" and "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell". As he entered stage Morrissey greeted the audience by shouting "Och Sturlin' Sturlin' Sturlin' Sturlin'..." in a broad Scottish accent. After "Billy Budd" he pointed to his band and said "These are my younglings." After "Black Cloud" he asked "So... since we last played here, who else has been here (points microphone at audience)... Who? (shrugs, asks the balcony)... Who else?... No-one?" Besides the numerous other lyric changes in "How Soon Is Now?" he also sang "There's a club if you'd like to go, you could meet somebody who might stab you..." Following "Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey had more questions for the audience: "Who has traveled to be here? (spots someone in the crowd) I know you've traveled. Where are you from?" He handed the microphone to a few people so they could answer. He followed "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" with the introduction of the band: "Crawling from the black fog, Boz Boorer... Solomon Walker... and would you believe, Matt Walker... you must believe, Jesse Tobias... believe, believe, Kristopher Pooley... and there's someone else (looks around then points to himself, which makes the crowd cheer loudly)". "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" was being released as a single that very week so Morrissey introduced it by saying "We've just released a new single... which has already been deleted... What a surprise!" He had trouble either with his microphone or the playback during "When Last I Spoke To Carol", which prompted him to ask "can you hear me?" between the song's lines. The crowd answered in the affirmative, but Morrissey still looked troubled and kept looking to the technicians stage right. After the song Boz was fuming at someone at the side of the stage. Morrissey then asked someone, mocking his broad Scottish accent, "Whit's it fur, Laddie?" He then switched back to his normal voice to say "Something's exploded... and it's not my emotions for once! I think it's the theatre, it's falling down..." Following "Let Me Kiss You" Morrissey simply said "And the Mercury Music Prize (angrily) they can shove it up their arse!" He replied to the crowd chanting his name with his own chant of "Sti-irling! Sti-i-rling". After "The Loop" he asked for the venue lights to be turned on: "Max, can I see the crowd? Well, please? Max, can I see the crowd? (after half a second) That's enough!" then turned around trying to hide a chuckle. When he returned to the stage for the encore, his parting words were "Dundee... here we come!" As he had done here and there during the final dates of the previous leg, he replaced sections of encore "First Of The Gang To Die" with lines from Big Dee Irwin's "Swinging On A Star". This was the first show on this leg of the tour where the action on stage was enough to distract him (he did help to pull a fan up on stage) and make him switch into the latter song. Thanks to Requiescant Inpacce for concert description.
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