Moscow (Russia), B1 Maximum club
This Charming ManMorrissey's first ever concert in the Russian capital was a great success. If was obvious that the singer was enjoying himself because he was very theatrical, playful and talkative. At some point he had a running nose and made a joke about it, but that did not slow him down. The crowd was very receptive, the fans sang along to most of the songs, and he obviously enjoyed that. The setlist was brought back to 20 songs with the reintroduction of "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself".
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?
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?
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
Morrissey entered the stage crying out 'prive-e-et!' (hello) and then added a few more words in Russian. He thanked the crowd in Russian ('spasibo') after set opener "This Charming Man". After "Billy Budd" he said "welcome to (undecipherable)..." After "Irish Blood, English Heart" he said "Thank you to the good people of Moscow... Moscow, Moscow, Moscow..." After "Ask" he asked the crowd if they had appreciated the opening band: "Did you enjoy Doll & The Kicks? (crowd: yes!) I'm glad..." After "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel" he said "It doesn't need to be said, but I will say it, it's a great joy to be in your majestic city and... and your beautiful country..."
Following "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" Morrissey commented on a publicity banner for Myspace hanging from the venue walls by asking "What the hell is Myspace?" He said something undecipherable over the opening bars of "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores". After the line "take me in your arms and love me" in the latter number, he asked "what does that mean?" After the song he proceeded with the introduction of the band: "And of course, behind me, beside me, unsmiling, but the delightful Boz Boorer... (leads the crowd into chanting Boz's name)... and also, playing the bass guitar, Solomon Walker... and, on the drums, Matt Walker... and standing around here, it's usually Jesse Tobias... and pianoforte, Kristopher Pooley... and if you'd like to know more, well then you're nosy!"
After "Girlfriend In A Coma" Morrissey asked someone a question and handed her the microphone so she could share her answer with everyone. She welcomed Morrissey to Moscow and when he got the microphone back the singer commented on what she had said. After "Let Me Kiss You" he asked "Will you stay for more? (crowd cheers)... Very strange..." He slightly extended a line in "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" to "Some girls' mothers are bigger than other girls' mothers, apparently". The epic "Life Is A Pigsty" segued into "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell". After the latter song Morrissey asked the crowd a question then over the opening bars of "Sorry Doesn't Help" he shouted "WHAT!" He struggled with the russian word for goodbye before going into encore "First Of The Gang To Die": "And, with only midnight ahead, all I can say is da-svi-da-niya, da-svi-da-niya, da-svi-da-niya, (pretends to sneeze)"
An audience recording of the complete set is commonly found on the internet. However this was very likely recorded with a cellphone as the quality is very bad. The existence of a proper audience recording is rumoured.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.