Breekend Festival, Bree, Belgium
Hand In GloveThis festival appearance, one of the very few the Smiths did over their short career, didn't start very well, but ended up a success. The set up wasn't much at the band's advantage. They were supporting the Bollocks Brothers and were not given any soundcheck time and therefore Morrissey didn't sound his best.
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Girl Afraid
This Charming Man
Barbarism Begins At Home
This Night Has Opened My Eyes
Still Ill
Handsome Devil
What Difference Does It Make?
/You've Got Everything Now
/These Things Take Time
The tone was set as early as the first number when the band had a bad start on opener "Hand In Glove". Morrissey went "Ha ha ha-ha-ha and the audience whistled, cheered or booed until the song was started again. After that song Morrissey introduced the band and the following yet-to-be-released number: "Thank you, we are the Smiths and this song is called 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'." Future b-side "Girl Afraid" was also unreleased at this point in time and was also introduced by Morrissey: "This song is called 'Girl Afraid'... So?"
The general mood started to get better by the middle of the concert. This might have given Morrissey enough confidence for him to start teasing the audience after "Barbarism Begins At Home": "Does anybody have anything to say? Anything sensible? Anything English? Anything? Anything? Any messages? (pause) Anybody like this microphone?".
By the time the band left stage after the main set, the audience was conquered. When the Smiths returned to the stage to perform the encore, Morrissey thanked the audience "Thank you so much, we're very pleased". He changed a line to "You said I was ill and you were wrong" in the final song "These Things Take Time". Following that the audience cheered and cheered again for more, but the show was over.
A fair audience recording of this concert is available from certain bootleg traders and on the internet.
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