24 September 1985
Playhouse, Edinburgh
Shakespeare's Sister
I Want The One I Can't Have
What She Said
What's The World
Nowhere Fast
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Frankly, Mr Shankly
Bigmouth Strikes Again
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
Stretch Out And Wait
Still Ill
(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame/Rusholme Ruffians
How Soon Is Now?
/The Headmaster Ritual
/Meat Is Murder
//Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
//Hand In Glove
///William, It Was Really Nothing
///Miserable Lie
This was an excellent concert. Throughout the show fans were kept in their seats by security men patrolling the aisles. However this did not stop the front rows rushing to the front of the stage when the house lights went down and intro music started. No changes were made to the setlist.

As the Smiths came on stage, Morrissey greeted the audience by burping loudly (or feigning to) then said "Pardon!... Good evening!". After the cover of James' "What's The World", the singer announced "That song was written by... errm..." and never finished his line, something that would turn out to be a tradition on this short tour. The current single "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" was introduced as: "This is our new single... I hope that... the fastidious members will find it politically right to buy it..."

Following the then unreleased "Frankly, Mr Shankly", Morrissey explained "That was a new song called 'Frankly Mr Shankly'... this is another new song... called err... Mmm? what?... which?... I can't hear you, louder... Sh-Sh-Sh! Which? Oh yeah, Bigmouth... 'Bigmouth Strikes Again'!" In "Stretch Out And Wait", which was played in its original single form for one of the last times, Morrissey sang the slightly different "Ignore all the silly codes of the day". Soon after, "Still Ill" was introduced with the words "This is a funny old song called 'Still Ill'." This was followed by the recently introduced pairing of "Rusholme Ruffians" with Elvis Presley's "(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame". "How Soon Is Now?", which ended the main set, was "...dedicated to anybody who's ever had to use Blend The Blemish".

In "The Headmaster Ritual" - the first song of the first of three encores - Morrissey sang the slightly improved "He does the military two-step right down the nape of my neck". He actually had a hard time saying the first few words of that line, as some fan kept him away from his microphone. At the end of the song, when everyone thought it was over and started to cheer, the Smiths returned to it for a few bars before ending it again. At the start of the second encore, Morrissey shouted "No! No!" to various requests before going into "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now".

When the Smiths took the stage for the third encore, Morrissey said "You've been very nice" and the band launched into "William, It Was Really Nothing". The version of "Miserable Lie" that followed was particularly interesting and unique as Morrissey made numerous changes to the lyrics, mostly minor ones but also a few important ones. He first changed "please put you tongue away" to "put your mother's dress away" and followed with many other hard to decipher minor changes. Fans knew that the end was approaching and so, those who wanted a piece of Morrissey took this as their opportunity to invade the stage. Morrissey was suddenly swamped with fans who wouldn't let go of him and he had to stop singing. As the band kept on playing, the bouncers really struggled to free Morrissey from the fans. The microphone ended up in the hands of a girl who was dancing next to Johnny. Despite having an open microphone in her hand, she chose not say anything into it. Finally Morrissey was free and now shirtless, the microphone was handed back to him. Immediately he sarcastically said "Gad bless security, hooray!... Macho man!" and posed flexing his biceps, which was ironic as he was painfully skinny. Morrissey adlibbed his way through the rest of the song, mixing familiar lyrics with lines such as "I've wanted to say to you", "I've nothing to say" and others that were undecipherable. After the song the singer simply said "Goodbye... God bless you... we love you!" and the band left the stage.

Some of the above info provided by Gogz and by Requiescant Inpacce.

 


A complete and excellent audience recording of this concert is available from bootleg collectors (recorder: Soundsville's Steve). Its only downside is that the playback speed is a bit too fast. It is circulated in various transfers. The best one, produced from the Soundsville International master, is also one of the scarcest. Another one of good but slightly inferior quality is miscredited as coming from a radio broadcast. Then the most common is often found under the title "Edinburgh Playhouse". Unfortunately it is also the least interesting transfer, quality-wise, because it was produced from an audio tape a few generations down from the master.

 

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