18 October 1986
Leisure Centre, Gloucester
The Queen Is Dead
Panic
I Want The One I Can't Have
Vicar In A Tutu
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Ask
(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame/Rusholme Ruffians
Frankly, Mr. Shankly
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
What She Said (with Rubber Ring intro and outro)
Is It Really So Strange?
Never Had No One Ever
Cemetry Gates
London
Meat Is Murder
I Know It's Over
/The Draize Train
/How Soon Is Now?
//Still Ill
//Bigmouth Strikes Again
This was an excellent concert. The band was in excellent form, the audience very receptive, one feeding off the other's energy. There was no surprise in the setlist.

As the band took the stage Morrissey picked up the microphone and roared "HELLO!" During the very energetic performance of set opener "The Queen Is Dead" that followed he roared some more. To keep up the momentum, there was no break between the latter title and "Panic", which was performed with an extended intro. Before going into "I Want The One I Can't Have" Morrissey greeted the audience once again. His first real banter came after "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" when he said "Thank you, you're very nice... very well kept..." He then tried to introduce the following song with the words "How do you do? This is our new - this is our new s-..." but the microphone gave out and his words barely came out. He finally managed to say "This song is called, 'Ask'!"

Morrissey introduced the follow-up to "What She Said" with the words "This is another new song: 'Is It Really So Strange?'..." Before "Never Had No One Ever" he asked "Somebody just called me?" Next up, "Cemetry Gates" was simply introduced with a shout of its title. Johnny started "Meat Is Murder" with a slowed-down version of the verse of "The Headmaster Ritual", while Morrissey hummed a different melody and sang a few undecipherable words. He did the same after the song's final line "who cares if animals die".

"I Know It's Over" was followed by a short break then the Smiths returned to the stage without Morrissey to perform the first encore, the instrumental "The Draize Train". Morrissey joined the rest of the band after the song and said "I just slipped out for a quick lozenge... (answering someone's shouts) don't be silly..." He changed the usual "Oh no, oh yes" in "Still Ill" to a growling "Oh yes Oh yeaaaah!" He also sang "there are brighter sides to life and I should know because I see them, oh but not often".

 


Two different audience recordings of the complete concert are circulated on bootlegs. Both captured very well the energy of the evening. The best of the two sounds quite good and is credited to DJ. Its only flaw is that the middle part of "How Soon Is Now?" is missing. The other one is credited to Soundsville International's Paul and it is circulated in more than one form. The straight transfer from the master sounds a bit muffled so some non-completists may prefer the clearer and louder transfer from a first generation copy.

 

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