Opera House, Cork, Ireland
You're Gonna Need Someone On Your SideThis concert started out on a bad note but did go uphill after that. Fans were asked to remain seated and this put a damper on the atmosphere. Eventually Morrissey commented on the situation and security was unable to stop people from standing up and moving forward. The man himself was in great spirits. He was quite talkative and spiced up his banter with local slang. The setlist was slightly scrambled and "Sunny" was replaced by local favourite "Roy's Keen" (read further).
The Boy Racer
November Spawned A Monster
Alma Matters
Tomorrow
Is It Really So Strange?
Hairdresser On Fire
Break Up The Family
Speedway
Roy's Keen
Trouble Loves Me
The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils
Billy Budd
Reader Meet Author
Now My Heart Is Full
Meat Is Murder
/Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Coming on stage, Morrissey welcome the Cork fans in the local accent "Jesus Cork how are ya?". As usual after "The Boy Racer" came the second part of the greeting : "Welcome to a night of bowsie music played by bowsies, two bowsies hopefully and, if you stay in your seats, Ste Bernadette won't cure you or anything, so feel free... would she mind, I don't know..." After "November Spawned A Monster" he said "Well it's very nice to be here and... I hope at least ten of you feel the same way (crowd cheers)... (to someone in particular) How are you? Good... Was that, that was a condom wasn't it? I'm not as silly as you think!"
After "Alma Matters" Morrissey said "I do recognise some faces from Limerick". After "Tomorrow", seeing how many fans were still seated, he teasingly asked "Are you comfortable?" After "Is It Really So Strange?" he tried to spark the audience into action by saying "Some people are still sat down so, obviously we're really not much cawhake (crowd cheers)... they will try harder... I mean, I know the seats are really comfortable because... (fans shout requests) What? Say that slowly..." This seems to have worked because after "Hairdresser On Fire" Morrissey announced "We only have two people sat down now... but they're quite old, so it's okay..."
In live performances of "Break Up The Family" Morrissey usually changed a line to "I want to be with my friends tonight", but this time he actually sang "I want to live with my friends tonight". After the song he asked "What happens next? I've actually forgotten, do anybody know? (someone shouts an answer) Yes, very accurate!"
Because Morrissey was playing near Mayfield - Roy Keane's birth place, "Roy's Keen" was reinstated in the setlist and it was introduced with "This song has nothing to do with a boy from Mayfield but (crowd cheers)... Oh, stop it... (?) because I think it will have incredible effect..." For the occasion he slipped into an Irish football shirt. This had the expected 'incredible effect' on the audience because after the song it went into a chant of Morrissey's name.
There was a serious attempt by someone trying to climb on stage during "Billy Budd" and it prompted Morrissey to say "very brave, very brave!" between two lines. After the song he added "You see there could be crocodiles in this pit and to some people, it wouldn't make any difference (crowd cheers)... but I'm not one of those people...". The latter comment somehow unwillingly served as a good intro to the following song "Reader Meet Author" because of its similar sentiments ("they live where you wouldn't dare to drive", etc.)
After "Reader Meet Author" Morrissey told someone "You're missing (some tv programme?) you know..." As he did now and then on the Oye Esteban tour he returned for the encore wearing his sailor suit. Before going into the song he said something about being a sailor coming home where Tesco's used to be in 1940.
A very good audience recording of the complete set minus the encore is circulated on bootleg compact discs and in digital format on the internet.
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