Victoria Hall, Hanley
William, It Was Really NothingThe Smiths were very well received in Hanley. There were singalongs to many songs and the fans favourites were profusely cheered. Morrissey wasn't very talkative at first, but he warmed up halfway into the concert. As the Smiths entered stage after the usual intro of Prokofiev's "March Of The Capulets", he greeted the fans "Hello scallywags!", then the band launched into standard opener "William, It Was Really Nothing". In "Handsome Devil" Morrissey was briefly kept from his microphone, perhaps by a fan who had made it on stage. Before "How Soon Is Now?", he said "thank you for spending all that money on us."
Nowhere Fast
I Want The One I Can't Have
Handsome Devil
What She Said
How Soon Is Now?
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
Stretch Out And Wait
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
Shakespeare's Sister
Rusholme Ruffians
The Headmaster Ritual
Still Ill
Hand In Glove
Meat Is Murder
/Miserable Lie
//Barbarism Begins At Home
The Smiths performed the single version of "Stretch Out And Wait", not the alternate version with different intro they would be doing later in their live career. Just like "Shakespeare's Sister" it was released that very week. Further down on the setlist, the latter was distractedly introduced by Morrissey with the line "Thank you, this is our new single, which is called... (hesitates)... which is called... 'Shakespeare's Sister'." The following number, "Rushome Ruffians", was also given an introduction: "This is a little social handiwork called 'Rusholme Ruffians'." Before "Hand In Glove", Morrissey thanked the fans again: "Thank you for coming... thank you for staying."
Just a few lines into "Meat Is Murder", the final song of the main set, someone threw sausages on stage. Morrissey has since said in an interview that the sausages actually hit his mouth and he accidentally bit into one. This obviously angered the singer. He rushed off stage, leaving the rest of the band to finish the song as an instrumental. When he returned shortly after for the first encore, he announced "There's always some charming intellectual who has to throw things... they actually paid 5 pounds to throw things... very clever..." He then proceeded with the concert as if nothing had happened.
In "Miserable Lie", Morrissey changed a line to "and life is just a miserable lie" and echoed the endings of certain lines as was typical at that point in time. Someone or something kept him away from his microphone at some point into that song so Morrissey distractedly skipped the four lines of the "...mystical air" / "...underwear" part. A bumper 8 minute version of "Barbarism Begins At Home" ended the set.
Review collaborator: Nigel S.
A very good audience recording of this gig is available on untitled bootleg cd-rs from bootleg traders (recorder: Soundsville's Steve). MP3s of the this are also circulated on the internet.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.