Barrowlands, Glasgow
Bigmouth Strikes AgainThis show was a very memorable one. The atmosphere was incredible and the audience very receptive as was always the case in Glasgow. The crowd moved back and forth to the music as one huge mass. Unfortunately there were also many troublemakers in the crowd. Plastic cups filled with beer were thrown about and at some point Morrissey had to ask the audience not to spit. The band still seemed to be having a great time, even Morrissey was clearly having fun, he yodeled, growled and rolled some of his words. He seemed to feed off the audience's energy and not to mind the negative elements that much.
Panic
Vicar In A Tutu
Frankly, Mr. Shankly
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Ask
I Want The One I Can't Have
Never Had No One Ever
Cemetry Gates
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Is It Really So Strange?
Shakespeare's Sister
What She Said
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
The Queen Is Dead
/I Know It's Over
//(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame/Rusholme Ruffians
//William, It Was Really Nothing
This was the Smiths' first concert with Craig Gannon on board as second guitarist. He would tag along for the upcoming tour promoting "The Queen Is Dead", until the end of October. His addition was meant to improve the live sound of the Smiths, but he wasn't quite ready yet and many of the songs on this night sounded clumsy at times. He would quickly catch up however, and some numbers would be rearranged in a way to bring out the best of the two guitarists together.
The "The Queen Is Dead" album was barely released and already the Smiths were previewing new material written after its recording. Upcoming singles "Panic" and "Ask" were played here for the first time, as well as "Never Had No One Ever", "The Queen Is Dead" and "I Know It's Over" from the new album. The Smiths also debuted "Is It Really So Strange?", which at the time was considered as a potential single but would only be released within the next year as a b-side. Other songs from "The Queen Is Dead" such as "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "Vicar In A Tutu", "Frankly Mr Shankly", "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", "Cemetry Gates" and "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" which had been debuted in late 1985 or February 1986 were also played.
The debuting "Panic" was played with an extended drum intro that would not make it on the released version. After "Frankly Mr Shankly" the audience went into a Johnny Marr chant while the band was getting ready to launch into the next planned song. Morrissey exceptionally sang a few lines of the title chorus at the end of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". He had never done it before this date and would never do it again. He acknowledged the fans' unfamiliarity with the unreleased "Ask" by preceding it with the introduction "This is a new song... 'Ask'..." He slightly changed one line in "I Want The One I Can't Have" to "It's all over, all over my... mush..." Johnny followed the latter number with the introduction of the new addition to the Smiths' line up: "Everybody, Craig Gannon on guitar, Craig Gannon..."
After a very well received "Never Had No One Ever" Morrissey said "I don't really know what to say (crowd cheers)... except... as usual... please don't spit, please..." He took many minor liberties with the lyrics of "Cemetry Gates", such as "They were born, and then they lived, and then they died, which means, so unfair I want to cry". The unfamiliar "Is It Really So Strange?" was followed with the introduction "that was called 'Is It Really So Strange?'..." The rocking "What She Said" was played by itself for the only time of this tour. A few days later in Salford it was bookended by the intro and outro to "Rubber Ring". It would never be played otherwise anymore, at least not during the Smiths days. Before going into "The Queen is Dead" Morrissey quipped "This time next week is the day of some incredibly uninteresting event - giro day!". In fact the event he was referring to was the upcoming Royal wedding between Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. He sang the slightly alternate "Stuck like a boar between arches" in "The Queen Is Dead" and changed the "I know you and you cannot sing" line to "I know you and you're wonderful".
The original complete audio sample of "Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty" was played on the PA during the encore break. As the band took the stage again for the first encore, Morrissey said "Thank you, we're overwhelmed, we're speechless..." and just before going into "I Know It's Over" he cryptically announced "Annette, Annette, we'll get you yet..." There was mayhem in the front rows and probably on stage as well so Morrissey had a hard time keeping up with the lyrics of "Rusholme Ruffians". He mistakenly skipped to the second line of the second verse when he should have been going to the chorus. Unable to catch up, he decided to move directly to the second half of the song. After the line "Would you like to marry me" in "William, It Was Really Nothing", he shouted loudly "NO!".
Some of this info was provided by Gogz.
Three different audience recordings of the complete concert are circulated on bootlegs. In all cases the atmosphere of the evening was very well captured. The better sounding recordings are credited respectively to Soundsville International's Steve and Soundsville International's Paul. Both would be rated as good, while the third recording is slighly inferior.
Approximatively 45 minutes of this concert's soundcheck are available from bootleg traders and on the internet (recorder: Soundsville International's Paul). From this, the Smiths' instrumental soundcheck of the Jimi Hendrix song "Purple Haze" has found its way on the manufactured bootlegs "A Nice Bit Of Meat" (available on CD and LP) and "Before Love" [cd edition] with other material from other dates. It has also appeared on "Soundcheck" (with other soundchecks and radio sessions) and "The Cradle Snatchers" (with 5 radio sessions, 11 Troy Tate outtakes and "What Do You See In Him?" from 4 February 1983).
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.