6 December 1999
Civic Centre, Aylesbury, UK

You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
The Boy Racer
Alma Matters
Tomorrow
Reader Meet Author
Is It Really So Strange?
Hairdresser On Fire
Speedway
Break Up The Family
A Swallow On My Neck
Half A Person
Billy Budd
Roy's Keen
Now My Heart Is Full
November Spawned A Monster
Meat Is Murder
/Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
The final concert of the UK portion of the Oye Esteban tour was a success. The fans were very receptive and energetic, and quite a few made it on stage. Morrissey was in an incredibly playful mood. He talked constantly between songs, made funny lyric changes that he had never done before and was so high that he sometimes distractedly forgot his words and sang something else or just mumbled. He helped fans to make it on stage, or encouraged them by saying "Swim, swim, swim!"

This gig saw the live debut of "Half A Person", making it the fourth Smiths-era song in the setlist. It had never even been performed by the Smiths during their living days. This was the second consecutive date where Morrissey introduced a new song live. The previous date's debut "A Swallow On My Neck" remained in the set, but "Trouble Loves Me" had to be dropped to make space for "Half A Person".

The fans were greeted by Morrissey with a comment about the venue "Very Macbeth-ish, how do you do?... How do you do? That doesn't tell me anything..." In set opener "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side", besides more common live changes such as "someone kindly told me that you've thrown away every good thing in your life", he also sang "give yourself a break before I break down". After "The Boy Racer" he thanked the audience and delivered the second part of his greeting: "My name is Ramblin' Sid and I'm delighted to be in Aylesbury although I'm not sure why, but erm..." The audience went into a chant mentioning Kentish Town and Morrissey enquired "Where is Kentish Town? Where is it? Is it near Gravesend?"

Morrissey often seemed distracted throughout the evening and it was very apparent in "Alma Matters". He sang lines such as "So the life I have thrown away, it may seem strong to you" and "but I've never been shorter", plus many more that were undecipherable because they were mumbled. After the song he said "I suppose there's four people in the audience who actually live in Aylesbury... everybody else came from places like (fans shout names of cities)... Middlesborough, sorry about that..." In "Tomorrow" Morrissey replaced "All I ask of you is one thing that you'll never do" with the first of a few mentions of his testicles: "I've got testicles, I've got two testicles". He repeated this further into the song. He also sang "tell me that you hate me".

After "Tomorrow" Morrissey asked someone "How is your baby? Five? Oh, four, oh well... What? Oh, four years? It's a lifetime... (to someone shouting a reply to that) I'm a lifetime? What kind of a lifetime? Ah..." Over the first bars of "Reader Meet Author" he chatted with a fan: "Are you alright? I dunno, I have no idea... it's very sweaty... and so is yours..." In the song he changed a line to "if a fight broke out here tonight, we'd be the first away because he's that type". After the song he replied to a shout with the question "What's wrong with Stockton?"

Besides the numerous more common live changes in "Is It Really So Strange?" Morrissey also sang "I left the South, I think, I traveled North..." After that number he commented about its final line ("I could never go back home again") with "But where is home? I don't know... I don't care..." Then to something shouted to him he answered "That's easy for you to say!" After "Hairdresser On Fire" he joked "Whoever gets the t-shirt gets me (crowd cheers)... that's the catch! Don't throw it back, please!" He then commented about his socks always sliding down his legs: "Does this ever happen to your socks?"

After "Break Up The Family", to someone who kept shouting at him that he needed a belt, Morrissey asked "What size waist are you?". The person said "36" to which Morrissey replied "Just the right fit!". At this point Boz, looking concerned about Morrissey's state of mind, tried to get his attention. The man replied "Yes Boz? (Boz: 'Are you alright?') I've never been alright, that's why I'm here!"

In "Swallow On My Neck" Morrissey changed the whole chorus to "But then you drew a swallow on my neck, there was no more to say, you drew a swallow on my neck, and from then I knew". After the debut live performance of "Half A Person" he exclaimed "I've got ya!" then, seeing how the crowd suddenly got quiet, asked "Have you peaked?" In live performances of "Billy Budd" at the time he sometimes sang "It's 18 years on, now it's 18 years on...", but in the playful state of mind he was on this date he sang "It's 95 years on, now it's 95 years on..." After the song he said "Thank you, all my children...", waited a few seconds, and added "You've gone very quiet (crowd cheers)... typical response!" He then turned to someone and asked "Could I have your belt please?"

After "Roy's Keen" Morrissey replied to shouts with "Stop it!". Then to fans who were chanting "there's only one Boz Boorer", he replied "Well, there's two actually!" A fan tried to make it on stage during the latter part of "Now My Heart Is Full" and Morrissey encouraged him by saying "Yes, I've got testicles!" After the song he said "I realise you can't resist the urge to whistle... I do understand... Yeah, I do actually..." After "November Spawned A Monster" he told someone "Your voice is very high... if you deepen it I can understand you..."

Morrissey returned for the encore wearing a Cockney Rejects t-shirt. Before going into "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" he said "So before you run off to bed and have your porridge... well, what's gonna happen before you have your porridge, nothing!"

 


A good audience of the complete set is circulated on bootleg compact discs and in digital format on the internet. This is sometimes seen with artwork under the titles "Goodbye To The UK" or "December Spawned A Monster".

 

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