Coachella Festival, Indio, CA
You're Gonna Need Someone On Your SideThis Morrissey appearance at the Southern California Coachella festival went down very well. Having to play in front of a crowd comprising fans and non-fans can potentially turn out badly, but in this case, it was a success. Morrissey was in great spirits and a few fans managed to make it on stage.
The Boy Racer
Billy Budd
Reader Meet Author
Is It Really So Strange?
Hairdresser On Fire
Speedway
Roy's Keen
November Spawned A Monster
Break Up The Family
Meat Is Murder
Tomorrow
The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
The singer and his band were booked for one hour between 6pm and 7pm so the usual setlist had to be shortened. "Sunny", "Now My Heart Is Full", "Alma Matters" and "Trouble Loves Me" were dropped, but "Roy's Keen" returned, and "November Spawned A Monster" was played for the first time in 1999. The lesser known b-sides "Lost" and "The Edges Are No Longer Parallel" were on the setlist but skipped.
As Morrissey entered stage he greeted the audience by slowly enunciating "We is Morrissey!". At the end of "Billy Budd", instead of singing the second occurrence of "if it meant you could be free", he went on a succession of "I love you, I love you, I love you, ahh!" After the song he enquired "Are you having a great time? (crowd cheers) Too bad!... not really..." In "Reader Meet Author" he sang "I'd be the first away because I'm that type". In "Is It Really So Strange?" he changed a line to "Oh yes you can chin me, and you can butt me, and you can dislocate my shoulder but you won't change the way I feel".
After a particularly well received "Hairdresser On Fire" Morrissey replied to loving shouts from the audience with "We love you too! We really do!" After "Speedway" he prompted the audience into a chant of "Mexico! Mexico! Mexico! Mexico!" In "Roy's Keen" he sang twice "we've never seen a keener midfielder". In "November Spawned A Monster" he sang "You're just so ugly, you're so ugly", "Oh hug me, please hug me" and "could you even bear to kiss me full on the mouth or anywhere". More interestingly he sang "but she'll be walking your streets in the clothes that she went out and stole for herself".
Before "Break Up The Family" Morrissey announced "I hope that... I'm hope nobody's in a rush to go home... because we're not!" After the song he said "I can smell your sweat..." In "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils" he jokingly sang "to be Finnish would be a relief", and to make sure everyone got the pun, he followed this with "to be Mexican would be a relief..." After the song the band did "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" which was usually reserved as an encore. Because of time constraints Morrissey had decided to skip the break and give the fans all of his allotted time. At the end of his vocal part he just shouted "I love you, goodbye!" and dropped the microphone, leaving the band to finish the song.
The performance of "November Spawned A Monster" from this concert was featured in that festival's documentary movie simply titled "Coachella". The movie was released in cinemas and on dvd in 2006.
A distorted and slightly too slow audience recording of the complete concert is circulated on physical bootlegs as well as on the internet, sometimes under the title "Coachella 99" (recorder: Dave Hamblen).
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.