UEA, Norwich, UK
You're Gonna Need Someone On Your SideMorrissey was ill and didn't give the best of performances. The crowd, perhaps because of this, was rather tame. This probably explains why "Alma Matters" was on the setlist before "Tomorrow" but skipped. Otherwise there were no planned changes in the set besides minor resequencing.
The Boy Racer
Billy Budd
Reader Meet Author
Is It Really So Strange?
Hairdresser On Fire
Speedway
Sunny
Lost
Trouble Loves Me
November Spawned A Monster
Tomorrow
Now My Heart Is Full
Meat Is Murder
Break Up The Family
/Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Morrissey's first words when he picked up the microphone were "Hello Norwich... we are as common as muck... and so are you because you come here tonight." After "The Boy Racer" he usually extended his greetings, but on this date he said "I have a wee touch of Swansea throat but I'm very pleased to be here, if that means anything, maybe it doesn't, I don't know..." After "Billy Budd" the crowd broke into a chant of his name and he answered back "It's a lovely song, thank you... it makes me look forward to Christmas when you sing that song... no it doesn't..." Then to someone who was probably shouting for "I Don't Owe You Anything" he answered "Yeah what? You owe me something."
In "Reader Meet Author" Morrissey replied to someone else mid-song by singing "But you write as if you... stop laughing at me!" After the song he answered shouts from the audience: "Yeah I know, it's just something I have to live with... it's a struggle though, it's a struggle... (about something else) Doesn't that slightly contradict itself, that statement?" After the 13-year old "Is It Really So Strange?" he joked "Some of you are over 40, some of you must remember..." After "Hairdresser On Fire" he cryptically answered someone with "These squatties..."
After "Speedway" Morrissey enquired "Who said they wanted the t-shirt? I'm not gonna give 'em, I'm just curious, who said?" The band then launched into "Sunny", did a few bars, someone messed up, Morrissey said "ooops" and the band restarted the song. After that number Morrissey asked if anyone had seen the Smiths in Norwich in 1983: "I suppose there's nobody here who was at the, the funny little Gala Ballroom place in... no there isn't, but I was there, I'm anyone... shut up Morrissey! Alright..." After "Tomorrow" he replied to someone "Sorry say that slowly please? Which millennium do you mean? Just kidding..."
Returning to the stage after a short break to perform the encore, Morrissey quoted from Frank Sinatra's "My Way", with his own twist: "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again too many to mention... thank you for watching..." In encore "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me", after singing "so tell me how long before the last one", he replied to someone with a sharp "fuck you!". Then a few bars further into the song he encouraged someone who was trying to get on stage with "I'll save you, I'll save you, I'll save you, I'll save you..."
A very good audience recording of the complete set is circulated on bootlegs, physical and digital, sometimes under the title "Norwich 1999", and also under the strange title "Sorry You Because You've Come Here Tonight" (recorder: Soundsville International's Steve).
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