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The 1992 book "Morrissey Shot" by Morrissey friend Linder Sterling is a fantastic visual document of the Kill Uncle tour. She followed Morrissey on key moments, taking photographs on and off stage. In the USA, she was on board for the California dates at the beginning of the tour and the last three dates around New York.

The older tradition of littering the stage with flowers and the newer one of throwing cigarettes during "Our Frank" held strong throughout this American leg of the Kill Uncle tour.

The personnel was Boz Boorer (guitars), Alain Whyte (guitars), Gary Day (bass) and Spencer Cobrin (drums).

Phranc was scheduled to support for the whole tour, but she was replaced by Melissa Ferrick after her brother was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. She did support until Boston when Ferrick replaced her.

- T-shirts showing Edith Sitwell on front (view) and "Morrissey '91" on back (view). The first version of the t-shirt was first sold on the second date of the tour (Costa Mesa), it had Edith Sitwell on both front and back, but Morrissey didn't like the back print as it was too blurred so they were replaced with the one described above.
- Three more t-shirts seem to have been added somewhere into the tour. These were all white with nothing on the back. One featured a variation on the cover to the "Kill Uncle" album on the front (view), another a variation on the artwork to the "Bona Drag" album (view) and another the artwork to the "Ouija Board, Ouija Board" single.
- A white t-shirt showing a Morrissey questionnaire (view).
- A bracelet similar to the one Morrissey wore was added to the merchandise from Boston on. On one side was written 'Morrissey' and on the other '1991'. It was limited to 1000, sold for $10 in Boston then $15 from the following night (view).
- Mini-posters of Morrissey throwing a ball in the air were added at some point during the tour (view; bigger/better image needed).
- Tour programme showing Edith Sitwell on the front (view).

Complete information needed. The following songs have been reported:
Siouxsie And The Banshees - "Mirage"
Tommy Roe - "Sheila"
Ronnie Dawson - "Rockin' In The Cemetary"
Eddie Cochran - "Nervous Breakdown"
Billy Fury - "Gonna Type A Letter"
Elvis Presley - "I Need Your Love Tonight"
David Bowie - "Laughing Gnome" (this leg or another)
Patrick MacNee and Honor Blackman - "Kinky Boots" (this leg or another)
The Planet Rockers - "There'll Be No More Crying The Blues"
Band intro music was Klaus Nomi's "Wayward Sisters" and audience exit music was Shirley Bassey's "Ave Maria".

For most dates if not all, backdrops showed the Harvey Keitel image (view original and in situ) during the main set and the Edith Sitwell one (view original and in situ) during the encore. It is not impossible that the Edith Sitwell backdrop was the only one used on certain dates. An Elvis backdrop has been reported, but this might have been caused by confusion with Harvey Keitel.

The average setlist length for this first North American leg of the Kill Uncle tour was of 18 tracks. Lucky fans attending the final show in New York City were given 19 songs. Midway into the tour, until new tracks were introduced, the setlist length dropped to 17 songs.

As in Europe before this, the "Kill Uncle" album was mainly represented by its A-side, "Our Frank", "Asian Rut", "Sing Your Life", "Mute Witness" and "King Leer" were regulars. "(I'm) The End Of The Family Line" which had only been played once on the previous leg, was performed for the first six dates of this portion, then dropped. A rocking version of "There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends" was added to the setlist on the first date of this section and performed for the entire leg. The latter had never been played in front of an audience before.

Older singles and b-sides "Interesting Drug", "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys", "November Spawned A Monster", "Will Never Marry", "That's Entertainment", "Everyday Is Like Sunday", "Piccadilly Palare", "Suedehead" and "Disappointed" made up the rest of the regular setlist, along with the cover of the New York Dolls' "Trash".

"Cosmic Dancer", which was performed mostly as an encore with "Disappointed" on early dates, was soon dropped and replaced in the setlist by "Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together" which had never been performed on stage before. The yet unreleased "Pregnant For The Last Time" was also introduced to the American fans on the same night as the latter, but the song was not to be released in the USA so it was dropped after just one performance. It would return on the following first British leg of the tour.

"The Loop" was introduced in Boston, extending the setlist back to 18 songs. It was replaced after just one night with "Yes I Am Blind" which would be played for the remainder of this leg. On the final date in New York "Alsatian Cousin" was debuted, bringing the setlist length up to 19 songs.

Here is the number of times each song was performed on this leg, in descending order of frequency. This is based on 21 concerts for which the setlist is known, plus one for which it is partially known.

Our Frank - 22
Asian Rut - 21
Interesting Drug - 21
King Leer - 21
Mute Witness - 21
November Spawned A Monster - 21
Piccadilly Palare - 21
Sing Your Life - 21
Suedehead - 21
That's Entertainment - 21
The Last Of The Famous International Playboys - 21
There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends - 21
Trash - 21
Will Never Marry - 21
Disappointed - 20
Everyday Is Like Sunday - 20
Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together - 16
(I'm) The End Of The Family Line - 6
Yes I Am Blind - 6
Cosmic Dancer - 4 (once with David Bowie)
Pregnant For The Last Time - 1
Alsatian Cousin - 1
The Loop - 1

Click here for more tour statistics.

Most songs from the "Kill Uncle" album were given a rockabilly style when played live on this tour, while older mid-tempo singles such as "November Spawned A Monster", "Everyday Is Like Sunday" or "Piccadilly Palare" were played faster or with more punch. The latter was systematically ended in a short jam that segued into Morrissey's cover of the New York Dolls "Trash". At the end of "That's Entertainment", the band broke into a frantic drum and guitar frenzy not in the studio version.

In "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys", Morrissey almost always sang "just to make myself attracted to you" and after a few dates, occasionally reversed Reggie and Ronnie Kray's names. In "Sing Your Life", he usually changed a few lines to the more personal "I have a lovely singing voice" and "They stole the notion from me" as he did earlier, and sang "All the things you love, all the things you don't love" instead of "All the things you love, all the things you loathe". In "Everyday Is Like Sunday", he made quite a few lyric modifications. He often sang "back down to the bench where your clothes were stolen / I do believe this is the coastal town" and always "scratch on a postcard" and "please come, please come nuclear bomb".

While "Cosmic Dancer" was still in the set, it usually segued into "Disappointed". In the latter song, Morrissey usually changed the line "Young girl one day you will be old" to "Young girl one day I really will be old" and finished that song by repeating "yes! yes! yes! yes!" instead of singing "No I've changed my mind again". He also sometimes sang "Young boy please believe I wanna help you".

"Yes I Am Blind" was a much more minimal affair than the studio version. Morrissey didn't sing the two occurrences of "God come down if you're really there, well you're the one who claims to care". Instead the song stopped and restarted. On the first occurrence of this he sometimes started "there must be something horribly wrong..." and held back finishing "...with me?", teasing the audience into singing along. He sang "Little lamb on a hill, run fast if you will" to make it rhyme with the previous line.

The "Live in Dallas" video was released in 1992 as a live souvenir from this tour. The concert featured was (obviously) the Dallas one. With the California dates, this was one of the wildest shows given in 1991. It ended in a massive stage invasion from which Morrissey had to escape, leaving his bandmates to finish the song they were doing as a near-instrumental.

The audio for "Cosmic Dancer" from Costa Mesa was released in 1998 on the "My Early Burglary Years" collection of oddities, while "Trash" was released on the 2010 reissue of "Everyday Is Like Sunday".

Three dates from this section are available on bootleg videos. The most common recordings at this point in time are two different ones of the final show, in New York. Both feature the near-complete set, but one lacks "Disappointed" and the other one lacks "Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together" and a few snippets here and there.

Fan filmed video footage of the full Long Island, Jones Beach set minus one song and a half is scarcely circulated among collectors. It was filmed from the right balcony and the quality is subpar, with lots of obstruction. It is often miscredited as St. Louis 1991, but Morrissey never played St. Louis that year. A nine-song edited and resequenced version of this set is more commonly found on bootleg DVDs. It features the songs "Will Never Marry", "There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends", "That's Entertainment", "Our Frank", "Suedehead", "Piccadilly Palare", "Sing Your Life", "King Leer" and "Mute Witness" and most of the banter was edited out. The Santa Barbara show is available on VHS but this is scarcely found on DVD at this point in time. The recording is from a raised position in the audience. The footage is of reasonable quality and steady. The whole concert is featured except for the second half of "Trash" and the intro to "That's Entertainment".

Three songs from Costa Mesa were presented on American television programme "In Concert '91". The whole concert was filmed but never broadcast in its entirety. The three tracks ("Sing Your Life", "Mute Witness" and "Will Never Marry") are commonly found on VHS and DVD bootlegs of various television appearances.

Soundwise, the best recording from this leg of the Kill Uncle tour is undoubtedly the soundboard one from Costa Mesa. It was very likely produced from the unreleased official video footage (see 'video bootlegs' above for more info). This recording is occasionally available from collectors and on the internet under the titles "My Chance To Shine" and "There's A Place In L.A. For Me And My Friends".

The sound quality is also excellent on audio bootlegs produced from the official live video "Live in Dallas". But collectors should purchase this great video instead of the bootleg. For more or less the same price they will get the image as well as the sound.

Most other bootlegs in circulation on fanmade cds or on the internet for this leg, at this point in time, are of very poor or at best average quality. The next decision criteria for collectors interested in exploring further should therefore be content.

The Boston gig is relatively easy to find on a bootleg titled "Beautiful Liar". It features the only performance of "The Loop" on this leg of the Kill Uncle tour, though it lacks "Disappointed". Bootlegs of the Sacramento date are interesting for the only live performance of "Pregnant For The Last Time" in this section. The final date in New York features the only time "Alsatian Cousin" was performed on this leg. The latter show also features "Yes I Am Blind" which is otherwise only available from the Toronto and Long Island recordings.

The above are all available on the internet as well as on bootleg cds from traders. At this point in time, other concerts from this leg available to completists on cds or digitally are the following: San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Berkeley, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto and Long Island.