29 June 2009
St. Petersburg (Russia), Manezh

This Charming Man
Billy Budd
Black Cloud
How Soon Is Now?
Irish Blood, English Heart
Ask
I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
Girlfriend In A Coma
Let Me Kiss You
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Life Is A Pigsty
One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
Sorry Doesn't Help
When Last I Spoke To Carol
The Loop
I'm OK By Myself
/First Of The Gang To Die
With an estimated attendance of 500 people, this was probably the smallest show on this tour. As with most small Morrissey shows, it was a success. Morrissey was in a very good mood and very energetic. He was very talkative and treated the Russian crowd to the few Russian words he learnt, such as "privet" and "spasibo". The audience was completely into the show, they sang along to many songs, and Morrissey was clearly surprised and moved by this. There were no stage invasion because the stage was too high and security too strict.

Minor changes were made to the setlist. "Girlfriend In A Coma" returned, while "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby" and "Best Friend On The Payroll" were temporarily dropped.

Morrissey came on stage and asked the audience "Are you as drunk as a skunk?" He greeted them by shouting "dobryy vecher" (good evening). He would use more Russian words when he thanked the crowd (spasibo). The traditional introduction of his musicians ended with him saying "...and I am... from hell!" After "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" he said "Even if you don't understand the words it's OK because neither do I... you can understand the feelings..." He was surprised to see so many people singing along so he asked "I assume there are a few expats in the crowd seeing as some of you know the words..." Someone shouted that they were from Caversham and Morrissey asked "Did you say Amersham?" The fan replied, "No Caversham" and Morrissey playfully retorted "You mean Amersham or maybe Basingstoke?... (fan repeats) Oh Caversham, so you are from Reading?..."

After "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell" Morrissey had his traditional chat with fans in the front rows, starting with front row regular Julia. He said "Julia, words?" and handed her the microphone. She welcomed him to Russia on behalf of the Russian people. He then took the microphone back, said "Words?" and handed it to a girl who said "We love you!", which prompted him to make a funny face. The microphone was passed to a rowdy guy nearby whose group sang the football chant "Glory, Glory Man United". With an amused look on his face he patiently waited for them to finish, clapping his hands to the tune. When he managed to get the microphone back with the help of security, he said "Very touching". The same group also had a Russian flag with Morrissey's name painted onto it. The singer took it and wrapped it around his waist for the encore. Right before that, when he and the band had their traditional pre-encore line-and-bow, he pulled them all to the right and everyone ended up rolling on the floor. Morrissey turned to the crowd and said "very childish behaviour..."

 


There are no significant audio or video bootlegs of this show in circulation. Digital video files of "Girlfriend In A Coma", "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others", "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell" and "When Last I Spoke To Carol" are circulated on the internet.

 

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