Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
The Queen Is DeadThis concert was a success, the Smiths were very well received and the audience even engaged in singalongs on songs such as "I Know It's Over". The whole thing started rather quietly, but fan favourites such as "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" and "What She Said" stirred the audience's enthusiasm. Morrissey wasn't the most talkative. Hellos and thank yous aside, his first and only significant banter was delivered after "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". Nottingham was given the typical set of this leg of the "The Queen Is Dead" tour.
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
Near the end of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", after singing "and if a ten ton truck kills the both of us", he added "so what!", something that he would do regularly on the 2004 You Are The Quarry tour. In "Rusholme Ruffians", Morrissey sang "A girl is stabbed" instead of "A boy is stabbed". The yet to be released "Is It Really So Strange?" needed to be introduced, and it was done by Morrissey in the simplest way: "This song is called 'Is It Really So Strange?'." In that song Morrissey sang "Oh yes you can kick me" where in the studio version he sang "Oh yes you can punch me".
During the instrumental ending of "Never Had No One Ever", Morrissey stood at the front of the stage and tilted gradually his head backwards, to a point where it seemed like he was going to fall backwards. At the end of "Meat Is Murder" he added new lyrics that were clearly not from the studio version of that song. They sounded like "You'll never know... you'll never know...". At the end of "I Know It's Over", he gradually slowly pulled his shirt over his head until, reaching the end of the song, he pulled it off and threw it into the audience before leaving the stage.
Morrissey returned for the first encore after the instrumental "The Draize Train" wearing a James Dean shirt. This one probably also ended up thrown into the crowd to be fought over, just like the "Hang The DJ" shirt he wore for the second encore. During "Still Ill", Johnny and second guitarist Craig Gannon mocked a fight, pushing each other's shoulders and probably trying to make the other one miss his notes. In "Bigmouth Strikes Again", Morrissey screeched and yelped profusely, energised by the audience's reaction. As was standard on this tour, the song's ending was extended by repeating the final line. Meanwhile fans started to climb on stage, some of them helped by Morrissey himself.
A fan recording of this concert, filmed from the side of the stage, is available in its entirety on bootleg VHS as well as on DVD (recorder: Soundsville Steve). Some VHS versions lack "Never Had No One Ever".
The audio portion was lifted from the above video and is circulated on compact discs and in digital format 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.