25 February 1984
Brighton Polytechnic, Brighton
Hand In Glove
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Girl Afraid
This Charming Man
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Still Ill
This Night Has Opened My Eyes
Barbarism Begins At Home
Back To The Old House
What Difference Does It Make?
/Reel Around The Fountain
//You've Got Everything Now
//Handsome Devil
The Smiths arrived late in Brighton and when they finally did, Morrissey entered the venue through the front doors, making his way through the fans queing to get in. He was wearing a long grey tweed coat and carried an old looking briefcase. The gig itself didn't start until 11pm. This didn't seem to have any negative effect on the audience. There was a rapturous response after every song, prompting the band to play a second encore. There were flowers everywhere. There was no surprise in the setlist.

After opening number "Hand In Glove", Morrissey greeted the audience "Good evening we're four scooby individuals called the Smiths". He then launched into a very impassioned "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now". Despite being unreleased and unknown to all who attended, the latter song as well as "Girl Afraid" were very well received.

"This Charming Man" was quickly introduced as "A song about a bicycle". The audience's very enthusiastic response to the latter number prompted Morrissey to exclaim "Well thank you... hysterical animals...". He then introduced the next one with the words "Another lesson I'm afraid, 'Pretty Girls Make Graves'."

Morrissey was feeling talkative and thought the following song also needed an introduction: "So listen... this is a very romantic song about the best position in life... 'Still Ill'!" After that one, to someone shouting "Morrissey!", the man in question barked "What!?". In the very short break between the last two songs, he again shouted a reply-question to someone in the audience: "Well!?".

 


A reasonably good audience recording of this concert is available from certain bootleg traders and on the internet. It lacks the very end of "Barbarism Begins At Home" and the beginning of "Back To The Old House" (probably the segment of the show where the taper had to flip the tape over) as well as the ending of final song "Handsome Devil".

 

Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.