Mayfair, Swansea
William, It Was Really NothingThere was no surprise in the setlist, Swansea were treated to the same set as earlier in Gloucester and Cardiff. This was a great show, Morrissey was at his most talkative and made many minor changes in his lyrics.
Handsome Devil
Nowhere Fast
How Soon Is Now?
Barbarism Begins At Home
Rusholme Ruffians
This Charming Man
Reel Around The Fountain
Jeane
You've Got Everything Now
Girl Afraid
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Still Ill
These Things Take Time
/Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
/Hand In Glove
//Miserable Lie
After entering stage, Morrissey greeted his audience and said "It's nice to be in Swansea, yeah" before the band launched into opener and current single "William, It Was Really Nothing". The song was very well received so Morrissey said "Thank you so much, I'm glad that you understand..." and then asked someone in the audience "pardon?". After a rockabilly-ish "Handsome Devil" came "Nowhere Fast", the first of a few songs the audience wasn't familiar with.
"How Soon Is Now?" was introduced by Morrissey with the words "If anybody really understands this song, come and see me later..." After "Barbarism Begins At Home" Morrissey explained "So we brought the rain... but this is what life is..." and then introduced the yet-to-be-released "Rusholme Ruffians" which was again played in a medley with "This Charming Man". A few lines into the latter Morrissey changed some of his words to "This man said it's gruesome that someone so ugly should care".
Following that Morrissey said "Somebody's spitting... and it's very old fashioned... People who did that five years ago were laughed at... so if you don't like us, leave." In "Reel Around The Fountain" he added the funny "badda badda" at the end of the line "You can pin and mount me like a butterfly" as he would be doing for most of the rest of this song's live career. In live performances of "You've Got Everything Now" Morrissey often changed some of his lyrics, but on this date he really took many liberties. As he had done before, he sang "You've got nothing now", "Well this is true and it's false", "No I never had a job in fact I've never even had an interview" and "I've seen you smile, but can you throw back your head and laugh?". He also sang "And what terrible mess we've made of my life" and later "And what terrible mess we've made of our lives" as well as "No I never had a job because i'm too fey."
"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" was sarcastically introduced with "This song got an incredible amount of airplay on the radio... an incredible amount..." In "Still Ill" a line was changed to "(undecipherable) is mine, and it owes me a living". "These Things Take Time", the final song of the main set, ended with an extended guitar wall of noise while Morrissey wailed in a high pitched voice. When the Smiths returned to stage Morrissey said "We'd just like to say thank you to all our friends who follow us around, we know who you are and we love you" before the band launched into the first of two encores, a dry acoustic version of "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want".
Tickets were £4.
A reasonably good audience recording of this concert is available on fanmade compact discs. A first generation transfer is circulated on the internet, but it is much more scarcely found at this point in time than an inferior transfer probably taken from a higher generation tape.
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