Click on date for concert information:
After a break of a month Morrissey resumed the Oye Esteban tour in February 2000. Still without any new release nor a record contract, he and his band traveled around the USA (including one date in Canada) because only a few West Coast dates had been covered earlier on the tour.
Morrissey was still surprising his fans with his general playfulness and sexyness on stage. He was very communicative, he had something to say between almost every song, and he often stopped to chat with fans in the front rows. His banter ranged from absurd wit to self-deprecating comments on his situation within the music business, his ageing body or the adoration of his fans. He also commented on the meat industry and even american television.
Personnel: Boz Boorer (guitars), Alain Whyte (guitars), Gary Day (bass) and Spike Smith (drums).
Different bands, often local ones, were chosen to open for Morrissey on this leg of the Oye Esteban tour:
Spokane: Shrinking Violet
Portland (OR), Seattle: Sigh
Boise: Lovesick
Minneapolis: The Cultivators
Madison: Promise Ring
Chicago, Detroit, Akron: Verbow
Hamilton: Hawksley Workman
Boston, Portland (ME), Red Bank, Washington1, New York2: the Sheila Divine
New York1: Black Beetle
Los Angeles, Irvine: Phantom Planet
Washington2: none
- Olive t-shirt with yellow shirt Morrissey, new American tour dates on back (Spokane to Washington); 20$. View.
- Black t-shirt of Morrissey wearing pink shirt/black jacket, "MOZZER" on the back, 20$. View.
- Same as previous, but in white with "MOZ ANGELES" on the back 20$. Image needed.
- New t-shirt with Kenny Lane skipping, this one grey, "Morrissey Boys Club" around photo; 20$ for boys, 22$ for girls skinny. View.
- Pillowcase with the words "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" on it; 15$. View.
- Condoms offered in three colours. These were different to the ones previously sold on the European leg and were not offered in every city. 3$ to 5$. View yellow, green and red.
- New small size poster of Morrissey in pink shirt and black jacket, 5$ to 8$. View.
- Magnet with pink shirt/black jacket photo, 5$. View.
- Beanie cap 15$ to 20$. View.
There was no merchandise for sale at the Beacon in New York because the venue was asking for too much of the profits.
Cockney Rejects - Greatest Cockney Ripoff
Klaus Nomi - Der Nussbaum
Elvis - Tiger Man.
The Cats - Swan Lake
(punkish song, probably Cockney Rejects or Angelic Upstarts)
The Business - Scagheads
Maya Angelou - No No No No
Timi Yuro - Smile
X-Ray Spex - Warrior In Woolworth's
(punkish song, probably Cockney Rejects or Angelic Upstarts)
Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot - Bonnie and Clyde
Nico - You Forgot The Answer
Cockney Rejects - East End
From Spokane to Chicago Morrissey and his band hit the stage to the drum intro to "The Operation". Then in Detroit and after, the intro track was changed to the John Barry Orchestra's James Bond theme "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". The version used in Detroit was an older one than the one used for subsequent concerts.
After the show, the fans were treated to Frank Sinatra's "My Way" as they exited the venue.
For the final two concerts, Morrissey returned to a shorter version of the 1999 intro tape, without Mr Bloe, "Cigarettes", "Gimme Some Truth", "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and "Strawberry Fair".
None, except for the final two dates in California where these were projected (not hanged). More information at given link.
The average setlist length for this portion of the tour was 17 tracks. Because there was no new recorded material to promote and because Morrissey wanted to make changes to the setlists from the 1999 portion of the Oye Esteban tour, quite a few songs or live arrangements were debuted. The opening date in Spokane saw the live debut of b-sides "I Can Have Both" and "Heir Apparent". Morrissey must not have been very happy with the latter because it was dropped after that first night. The second Chicago date saw the live debuts of "Ouija Board Ouija Board" and "I Am Hated For Loving". Neither had been played in front of a live audience before. Finally for many fans the highlight was the one-time cover of David Bowie's "Drive-In Saturday" at New York's Beacon Theater. This would remain the only performance of that song until 2007 when Morrissey did it another handful of times.
Morrissey also debuted new arrangements. A new semi-acoustic version of "Boxers" with Spike on bongos was debuted at the second Chicago date. A very powerful semi-acoustic slow version of "Now My Heart Is Full" was debuted in Portland Oregon. It started very mellow until halfway into the song where the band switched to a harder electric sound. Morrissey reverted to the usual live arrangement for a few weeks after that, then returned to the semi-acoustic one halfway into the leg. The Spokane concert is interesting for another reason. On that night only "The Boy Racer" segued into "Shoplifters Of The World Unite", a pairing that never happened since.
All in all, the "Viva Hate" / "Bona Drag" period was represented by regulars "November Spawned A Monster" and "Hairdresser On Fire", by semi-regular "Break Up The Family" and from Chicago on, by "Ouija Board, Ouija Board". The "Kill Uncle" album was ignored altogether. The much toured "Your Arsenal" was only represented by "Tomorrow", played on two dates out of three, and by "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side", slotted as set opener on four dates.
"Vauxhall & I" was mainly represented by "Billy Budd" and "Now My Heart Is Full", both played on most dates. The album's "Speedway" and "I Am Hated For Loving" shared a spot on the setlist, the former for the first seven dates of the leg and the latter for the rest. "The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get" was occasionnally performed to add variety. "Southpaw Grammar" was mostly present with "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils". "The Boy Racer" and "Reader Meet Author" were performed for the first week or so, then dropped after Chicago when new songs or arrangements, like the acoustic "Boxers", were added to the set.
"Maladjusted" was only represented on a bit more than half of the leg, where "Alma Matters" was included in the set. That era's b-side "Heir Apparent" was performed once in Spokane but dropped after. However two other b-sides from that period became live favourites despite not being as familiar to fans as the rest of the material: "I Can Have Both" and "Lost". The latter was occasionally performed with a harmonica line by Alain towards the end.
Finally, five different Smiths-era songs were featured on this portion of the tour. "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" was the preferred choice for the encore and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" the more common main set closer. When the former was not on the setlist then the latter took its place in the encore seat. "Meat Is Murder" with its dramatic stage performance and short speech about animal cruelty was a setlist staple. "Is It Really So Strange" was another regular and "Half A Person" was performed on most nights.
Here is the number of times each song was performed on this leg, in descending order of frequency. This is based on 21 concerts.
A Swallow On My Neck - 21
Hairdresser On Fire - 21
I Can Have Both - 21
Is It Really So Strange? - 21
Meat Is Murder - 21
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me - 20
The Teachers Are Afraid Of the Pupils - 20
Half A Person - 19
November Spawned A Monster - 18
Now My Heart Is Full - 17
Billy Budd - 15
Lost - 15
Tomorrow - 15
Boxers - 14
I Am Hated For Loving - 14
Ouija Board, Ouija Board - 14
Shoplifters Of the World Unite - 14
Alma Matters - 13
Break Up the Family - 13
Speedway - 7
The Boy Racer - 7
Reader Meet Author - 5
The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get - 4
You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side - 4
Drive-In Saturday - 1
Heir Apparent - 1
Click here for more tour statistics.
Morrissey didn't have new material to give his fans on the Oye Esteban tour, but he updated many of his songs, either musically or lyrically. "Now My Heart Is Full" was one of the best examples. On most dates the song started very mellow on acoustic guitar, and halfway through the band switched to a harder electric sound. The only remaining previously heard lyric changes were the one from "I'm tired again - I tried again" to "I was tired again - I tried again" and the occasional "every jammy Stretford poet". The others were all new: "just some rain-coated lovers' sisters" or "just some rain-coated lovers' sisters and brothers", "Anthony Newley raised to wait" or "Tony Newley raised to wait", "Now this heart is full" (with finger pointing at the heart), "every jammy Manchester poet", "loafing oafs in all-night pharmacies" and "I just can't explain so why should I try to?". Of course all of these were not necessarily done every night, but generally quite often.
"Hairdresser On Fire" was also still heavily transformed. The Oye Esteban version started with the alternate lines "Where is London, so much for London" and the other occurrence of "here is London" was replaced by "so much for London" as well. Morrissey sang "psychologically shave me", "stoned around Sloane Square", "when he said I'm gonna screw you, I really felt happy for you" or "...I felt so happy for you", "home of the crass (or rash or trash), outrageous and free" and finally "too busy to kiss me". He also replaced "you are repressed but you're remarkably dressed, is it real?" with "you might be depressed, but you're remarkably dressed, and that's all you need".
In "Break Up The Family" Morrissey usually replaced "I want to see all my friends tonight" with "I want to be with my friends tonight". He also replaced "to move away from those younger years" and "...darker years" with "to move away from those awful times". "I'm in love for the first time" was often - but not always - changed to "I'm in love for the last time". The performances of "Meat Is Murder" were always very heartfelt and powerful. The Oye Esteban tour arrangement of this song was very dramatic. Morrissey always sang it under red spotlights, with a lot of emotion in his voice and ended it with the alternate question "And do you care how animals die?". On many nights the song was preceded by a speech and followed with a moral that ended with "Just. Say. No!"
In "Is it Really So Strange" Morrissey always changed "I found a tiny house" to "I found a modest house". He sang "Oh yes you can kick me, and you can punch me, and you can break my teeth but you won't change the way I feel" and later in the song "Oh yes you can chin me, and you can shin me, and you can even skin me" or "...later you can skin me". The title question "is it really so strange?" was sometimes followed with the answer "yes, it is" or a shout of "yes!". The funniest change was still the one to "I lost my wig in Newport Pagnell".
In "November Spawned A Monster" Morrissey sometimes made minor changes to "You're just so ugly" and "Oh hug me, please hug me". The changes to "but she'll be walking your streets in the clothes that she went out and stole for herself" and "a symbol of where mad, mad lovers (or
In "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side" the change to "Someone kindly told me that you've thrown away... every good thing in your life" was standard. Morrissey didn't sing the previously heard "Oh you don't need to look so peeved" or "you're gonna need someone on your snide. In "Tomorrow" the man now always replaced "something that you never do" with "something that you shouldn't do". He also replaced "I won't tell anybody" with "I won't tell anyone" (and at least once "I won't tell everyone"). The second occurrence of "through my shiftless body" was replaced with "through this miserable body". In a few cities Morrissey even sang the similar "through this morbid body" or "through my useless body". On the last two dates he replaced every occurrence of the word "tomorrow" in that song to its Spanish translation "mañana".
"Billy Budd" was not updated to "now it's 18 years on" anymore, instead Morrissey sang the basic "now it's 12 years on" or went overboard with "now it's 50 years on", "now it's a hundred years on", "now it's 500 years on" or "now it's 1000 years on". A common change on this leg was the one to "so what! they turned me down". The Oye Esteban tour version of "Speedway" still lacked the album version's three opening lines. The line "it won't work" was alternately changed to "it just won't happen" or "it's never gonna happen". Morrissey always sang "you won't smile until this ugly mouth gets shut good and proper". This was followed by a shout of "Yes!" instead of "...forever".
In "The Boy Racer" Morrissey still mumbled, breathed loudly or made funny noises instead of singing the line "I'm gonna kill him". He did sing the alternate "I'm just too good looking" in at least two cities. The tradition of waving a banana at crotch level during the 'urinal' line of this song was carried over to the 2000 leg. The only constant change in "Reader Meet Author" was "you hear the way this sad voice sings". The change to "I'd be the first away because I'm that type" was only done once. However Morrissey introduced new changes. For the song's final performance of this leg he introduced "the year 2000 it hasn't changed anyone here". This would become standard over the following years. Morrissey also introduced the previously unheard "you see no one really knows how hard I try".
As in earlier live performances of "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils" only the first verse was done, followed by the litany of "to be finished would be a relief", so that the song would not last 10 minutes like it does on the album. Morrissey often changed a line to "in fact you think it's essential" and sometimes extended "to be finished would be a relief" with "...for you". For some reason on this leg the man often talked or sang different words over Alain's back vocals during the "to be finished would be a relief" part, which sometimes made it quite confusing to listen to.
Morrissey was more conservative with "Alma Matters". The only regular change left was the one to "So, the life I have thrown away". He replaced "it's my life to ruin my own way" with "it's my life to wreck my own way" on one or two dates. In "Swallow On My Neck" the whole chorus was still changed to "But then you drew a swallow on my neck, there was no more to say, you drew a swallow deep and blue, and from then on I knew". Morrissey also sometimes replaced "same old patter" with "same old chatter". Near the end of "Lost" he often stretched a line to "believe me I'm lost".
In "Ouija Board Ouija Board" the second occurrence of "would you work for me" was replaced by "would you help me" and then both occurrences of "would you help me" were replaced with "would you spin for me". Morrissey never repeated "ouija board, ouija board, ouija board" three times the way he does on the studio version. He only sang "ouija board" once at a time. He sometimes extended a line to "please hear my voice". The band always played the instrumental portion that follows the "table is rumbling" line, but Morrissey never did the vocals. He only hummed or sang "the glass is moving" and "the dark spell is weaving" and didn't spell out his name. In "Heir Apparent" he slightly changed both occurrences of the line "you think it's so easy" to "you think this is easy".
Just like "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", the latter part of "I Can Have Both" was instrumental only because Morrissey never sang the "I can have both, there's no need to choose" outro. The most common change in that song was the one to "I'm trying to explain to you, I can have both". He also sometimes followed "I've not been feeling myself tonight" with the contradictory "...yes, I have!". He sometimes reversed the lines "should I hang around to be inticed inside" and "should I wait and hope to be dragged inside". The major changes in "I Am Hated For Loving" were the one from "haunted for wanting" to "haunted for dreaming" and the change of the final line to "I don't want to belong to anywhere". Besides this, Morrissey sometimes changed "I still don't belong" to "I just don't belong" and alternately ended those lines with "...to anyone", "...to anything" or "...to anywhere".
"Boxers" was sometimes made very reflective of Morrissey's current situation in the music business when the man sang "I will return one day because of all the things that I see when my eyes close". The change to "I wish the ground would open up and take me down" was another very personal one. Of course he also had to go for the self-deprecating "will time never pass for you". In "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" Morrissey sometimes made the previously heard "you're asking for it, and it you shall get", "somebody let me in", "take the complicated way and give in" and "whether you like it or do not".
Two different audience recordings of the complete Irvine show are also out there, both of reasonably good quality, but these are not shared much at this point in time. The fanmade mix of the two recordings is more easy to find.
Casual collectors might be more successful getting their hands on the more commonly found DVD bootlegs of earlier or later dates. A very good one from Chile on the following Latin American leg might be the best option.
Therefore non-completists might want to look to the setlist to make their choices. The New York Beacon recording is the only one to feature "Drive-In Saturday" while the Spokane recording features the unique performance of "Heir Apparent". Generally speaking, the earlier sets are the ones to features "The Boy Racer", "Speedway" or "Reader Meet Author" while the later ones have the unique acoustic arrangements of "Boxers" and "Now My Heart Is Full". Casual collectors might also want to look out for the more rarely played "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" and "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side", but then the latter songs were heavily featured on previous legs of the tour.
At this point in time, nothing from these dates has been made available on official releases. 
The most common - although not that commonly found - visual souvenir for this stretch of the Oye Esteban tour is a bootleg video of the complete second New York date. The footage was shot from center balcony and is steady and clear of obstructions. 
There is at least one recording of each and every date of this leg of the Oye Esteban tour in circulation on audio bootlegs. All these recordings feature the complete or near-complete concert, but none are soundboard. It must be said however that the audience recordings of Boise, Madison and one of the two recordings of Red Bank are almost as good as soundboard. All the others except for Chicago Metro are still quite good as far as audience recordings go.