4 October 1991
Hammersmith Odeon, London

The Last Of The Famous International Playboys
Sister I'm A Poet
November Spawned A Monster
Pregnant For The Last Time
Alsatian Cousin
Interesting Drug
Mute Witness
My Love Life
Piccadilly Palare
Driving Your Girlfriend Home
Everyday Is Like Sunday
Sing Your Life
The Loop
Suedehead
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
Disappointed (with Cosmic Dancer intro)
King Leer
/Our Frank
/Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together
//Asian Rut
This show didn't start on a good note. Security at the Hammersmith Odeon was very strict and no one was allowed to leave their seats, something that annoyed Morrissey. But he took care of the situation halfway into the concert (read further for details). "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" returned to the setlist, as set opener. "Pregnant For The Last Time" replaced the noisy "That's Entertainment", perhaps because of the venue being played.

In live performances of "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" at the time Morrissey was known to change a line to "just to make myself attracted to you", but on this date he took it a step further by singing "just to make myself less attracted to you". The line "If ever we had the nerve to" in "Pregnant For The Last Time" was changed to "If ever we had the chance to" and "And people being nice for the very first time" to "...the last time". There supposedly were microphone problems at the beginning of "Interesting Drug" although this can't be heard on any recording of the concert.

At the end of "Mute Witness" Morrissey posed for an extended period of time with his forehead on his fist, in a thinker pose. For some reason, at the end of the line "good sons like you, they never do..." in "Piccadilly Palare", Morrissey added "...at last!". After that number he asked the audience "I hope you haven't been hammered to your seats?" Then, at the beginning of "Driving Your Girlfriend Home", a fan who took Morrissey's cue and was trying to get on stage was brutally dragged away by security. This prompted Morrissey to move forward in order to see what was happening. He then stopped the band and asked "Why does the security have to be so ugly? We're going to have to have two minutes to do something about the security because this is shit." He and the band then exited the stage to discuss security matters. After 10 minutes, everyone returned to resume the show. Fans were obviously relieved that these events had not brought an early end to the show.

The venue's security was replaced by Morrissey's own and it did make a difference. But it might not have been the best of ideas because the crowd became uncontrollable. As soon as the first notes of a second take of "Driving Your Girlfriend Home" were heard, fans started climbing on stage and before he could barely sing his first word, Morrissey was already buried under 5 or 6 fans while others were struggling to follow. Meanwhile the band kept on playing the song as an instrumental, until Morrissey managed to free himself and make it back to the microphone. The whole situation could have angered any other performer, but it wasn't the case with Morrissey. He got back up with a smug look on his face, which he quickly hid and started singing again. The fans didn't miss a single word in "Driving Your Girlfriend Home" because he started the song from the beginning, and not where he would have been had he not been disturbed.

"Disappointed" was always slotted at the end of the setlist, or else as the main set closer on this tour, It was a natural position for that song, given its lyric "This is the final song that I will ever sing". Only twice was the song performed in a different position in 1991: on the very first date in Dublin, and on this one. On this date, the band actually started playing "Cosmic Dancer", but after Morrissey did the first line "I was dancing when I was twelve", the band went straight into "Disappointed". Although Morrissey acted surprised, the whole thing was planned. In "Disappointed" Morrissey changed a line to "your friends and your foes, would rather die than have to shag you". The end of the song usually saw more changes, but on this date Morrissey just decided to leave his lines unfinished: "Young girl, one day... but the thing is... this is the last song I will ever sing... ooooooooooooh aaaaaaaaaah..." A line was changed in "Our Frank" to " the world may be ending, but look, I'm practically human".

As the crowd started making their way out of the venue at the end of the show, the remaining people could see that the events of the evening had left the seats in the first four or five rows smashed to pieces.

This concert was broadcast on KROQ radio in Los Angeles three weeks later (the source was Morrissey's own recording of the show which he dropped at KROQ on DAT). Some tracks (possibly the first two) might have been edited out of later re-broadcasts. The concert was also shown on Japanese television, with Japanese subtitles for the lyrics. The first television broadcast took place on 21 December 1991 and it was limited to one hour, so only 13 songs were shown. However some later re-runs featured the complete concert. In all cases, the banter in between songs was edited out. For obvious reasons, the security matters and concert interruption were also edited out.

 


"Suedehead", "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty", "Alsatian Cousin" and "Pregnant For The Last Time" from this show were officially released as b-sides on the "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" single.

 


The Japanese television broadcast mentioned above is circulated on bootleg VHS and DVDs. The full concert is usually featured, although some of the older VHS bootlegs only feature the earlier 13-song broadcast. As of 2007, a version of the full television broadcast is circulated on DVD with 'remastered audio' taken from the "Digital Excitation" and "His Master's Voice" cd bootlegs mentioned below.

A good number of audio bootlegs were produced from either the audio or video broadcasts mentioned above. The best of them is the excellent sounding manufactured bootleg cd titled "Home Is Where The Heart Is", which features the complete set in order. This bootleg is also circulated with this alternate artwork. Someone else's recording of the KROQ broadcast is circulated with the DJ banter not edited out. This is mostly found on the internet with artwork under the title "Moz's DAT on KROQ".

"His Master's Voice" is a good alternate option to the above. It features the same recording (or perhaps the radio broadcast) in same quality, but the four songs following "Disappointed" were moved up so that the latter number ended up as set closer, as it typically was on the Kill Uncle tour. It must also be said that "Piccadilly Palare" was replaced with a different audience recording from 31 October 1991. The bootleg also features two bonus tracks, both new compositions featured on the latter date, "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" and "Pashernate Love".

"Digital Excitation" was probably produced from the radio broadcast because the sound is just as excellent. However the intros of certain songs have short bits edited out. This is possibly because radio DJ interventions were removed by the people who produced the bootleg. The track listing also lacks the first 2 songs. "King Lear" seems to have been produced from the same recording. Its sound is excellent, it also lacks the first two numbers, but the editing is even worse than on "Digital Excitation".

A selection of 11 songs from this show is available on a bootleg titled "There's A Place In LA For Me And My Friends", paired with full concerts from 1 June 1991 and 1 November 1991.

"Bona Fide Drag" features "Suedehead", "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty" and "Alsatian Cousin" from this concert, lifted from their official release on the "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" single. It also includes 9 songs from 26 February 1995, the studio version of the b-side "Skin Storm", a live version of "Disappointed" from Utrecht Holland 1 May 1991 (the latter two lifted from the "Pregnant For The Last Time" single) as well as the KROQ radio sessions of "There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends", "My Love Life" and "Sing Your Life" (certainly lifted from Morrissey "Live At KROQ" EP).

 

Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.