Brixton Academy, London
Billy BuddThe penultimate date of this short tour was the biggest one, and arguably the best. Morrissey was in a great mood, very playful, he pulled fans to him and teased them. He even attempted a somersault at one point, staying for a short time with one leg in the air. The audience was ecstatic, they cheered, whistled and screamed from the first note to the last. Security was very tight and only a few fans made it on stage. Boz was dressed very formal, with black trousers, a long black jacket, white shirt and bow tie.
Have-A-Go Merchant
Spring-Heeled Jim
London
You're The One For Me, Fatty
Boxers
Jack The Ripper
We'll Let You Know
Whatever Happens, I Love You
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get
The National Front Disco
Moonriver
Now My Heart Is Full
Speedway
/Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Morrissey entered stage with a tambourine that had the word "ERIC" written on its skin. He shook it for a few verses into set opener "Billy Budd" then threw it into the audience. After that opening song he exclaimed "Welcome back to Brixton!". He changed a line in "Spring-Heeled Jim" to "take life at five times the average speed I never do". Following "Jack The Ripper" he probably wanted to mention how he was still ill from the flu when he struggled to say: "I'm still... I still am... I definitely am... nothing will change me! I'm still extremely... I still can't speak French... And I'm still... I'm still... What am I? What am I? I'm still... hang on, hang on..." Then over the first notes of "We'll Let You Know" he moaned "Oh dear..." During "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" he helped a fan who was trying to get on stage to hug him.
During the noisy ending of "The National Front Disco", as he had done the night before in Croydon, Morrissey came to the front of the stage and stood still at the very edge, with his face turned upwards. With the smoke filling the stage and the lights flashing from behind, the effect was quite unsettling. It had become a habit on this tour for fans to get on stage during "Now My Heart Is Full" because they knew the end of the show was approaching. However no one did on this date, to Morrissey's apparent disappointment because after the song he said "I don't mind if you're bored... I really don't..." The standard tour encore "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" was played in full, a rare occurrence on the Boxers tour. Usually the number of fans on stage made it impossible for the band to finish the song.
A good audience video recording of the full concert is available on bootleg DVDs (recorder: Chris A). The filming was done from the left balcony. The footage is steady and features many close ups. The sound is quite good for a video recording of that era.
The manufactured bootleg cd "Shoplifters From London" features a rather good audience recording of the following 10 tracks: Billy Budd / London / You're The One For Me, Fatty / We'll Let You Know / Whatever Happens I Love You / The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get / Moonriver / Now My Heart Is Full / Speedway / Shoplifters Of The World Unite. The songs are faded in and out, and are paired with 7 FM-quality songs from 17 November 1995 (mislabeled as from 18 November 1995).
There are no audio recordings of the full concert out there besides the audio which has been lifted from the video recording mentioned above and circulated on the internet. It was actually probably taken from a bad quality video transfer of the original, as it sounds much more muffled than the audio track on the original video.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.