William, It Was Really Nothing
I Want The One I Can't Have
What She Said
Handsome Devil
How Soon Is Now?
Shakespeare's Sister
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
Rusholme Ruffians
Hand In Glove
The Headmaster Ritual
Nowhere Fast
Still Ill
Stretch Out And Wait
You've Got Everything Now
Meat Is Murder
/Reel Around The Fountain
/Barbarism Begins At Home
//Miserable Lie

Five songs from the recently released #1 album "Meat Is Murder" had been performed already in 1984 although they had yet to be released. Now that the Smiths were promoting that album, they added three more songs from it to the setlist: "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore", "The Headmaster Ritual" and "Meat Is Murder". To those three, two more songs that would only be released three weeks later on the non-album "Shakespeare's Sister" single were also given their live debut: the title track and "Stretch Out And Wait".

"William, It Was Really Nothing" was the standard opening track on the "Meat Is Murder" tour and it was now played with an extended intro. It started with Mike and Andy playing the rhythm track, then Johnny added the guitar and then Morrissey entered stage, took the microphone and started "The rain falls hard on a humdrum town...". In "Handsome Devil", a line was changed to "I know what teeth are for and I'd like to help myself". After that song Morrissey said "Thank you for coming!" and then introduced "How Soon Is Now?" with "This is a funny little song..."

The first of the five tracks that were performed live for the first time was the rocking "Shakespeare's Sister". Morrissey introduced it with the line "This is our new single, and it's called 'Shakespeare's Sister'." "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" was then introduced with "This is for the older generation". After "Hand In Glove", Morrissey presented the following number with "This is a song that probably means something to somebody... it's called 'The Headmaster Ritual'."

Soon after came another unreleased number. This one would be released within a few weeks on the "Shakespeare's Sister" single. It was introduced with "This is a new song, with a very relevant message... it's called 'Stretch Out And Wait'." It got a subdued response from the audience, so Morrissey exclaimed after it "Oh come on, don't pretend, you didn't like it". In "You've Got Everything Now", Morrissey changed the meaning of a line when singing "You've got nothing now".

Returning to the stage for the first encore, Morrissey first thanked the audience "Thank you sixth formers... what about your revision?" then introduced the next song, "Reel Around The Fountain", with "This is for all you punk rockers". He added the funny "buddum buddum" at the end of the line "You can pin and mount me like a butterfly" as he had started to do at the end of 1984.

Two different audience recordings of this concert are out there. Unfortunately the best one of the two, with the best sound and featuring the full concert, is also the scarcest. It is traded on cd among collectors and scarcely found on the internet (recorders: Soundsville's Steve and Paul). An alternate recording is commonly found on the internet, but it lacks the beginning of the first song, the whole of "Miserable Lie" and its sound quality is slightly inferior.

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