3 July 2004
Roskilde Festival, Roskilde, Denmark

Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
Shakespeare's Sister
How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
Let Me Kiss You
I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday
The Headmaster Ritual
Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference
I Have Forgiven Jesus
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
First Of The Gang To Die
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
All The Lazy Dykes
No One Can Hold A Candle To You
Rubber Ring
Subway Train/Everyday Is Like Sunday
I'm Not Sorry
/Irish Blood, English Heart
This concert was mentioned by Morrissey in 2006 as his favourite one from the 2004 tour. The man was in great spirits, playful and in a very chatty mood. Festival concerts are not his favourites, but he didn't show any signs of it. He often thanked the crowd in Danish ("Tak!") and when he introduced the band he asked the people in the audience to say "Hej Boz, Hej Gary, etc" (Hi Boz, hi Gary, etc). The concert took place in a large tent. Because of fatal incidents in the year 2000 (when 9 Pearl Jam fans were crushed to death), security was very tight so no one made it on stage or even managed to touch Morrissey. It also certainly didn't help that the stage was very high. There was no change in the setlist.

Morrissey's first words when he came on stage were "Good morning Roskilde! Hej hej!" After set opener "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" he simply said "Festival, rain, festival, rain, always the same..." After "Shakespeare's Sister" he said "thank you friends" then annouced "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?" with the line "We have a new album called 'You Are The Quarry'... this is a song from 'You Are The Quarry'..." After the song he thanked the audience in Danish: "Tak tak! Tak tak!... it's all I know..."

"I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" was introduced with the line "Some of you may remember a very old album called 'Your Arsenal' (crowd cheers)... Julia?" The Smiths classic "The Headmaster Ritual" was in turn introduced with "Oscar Wilde said 'the past is what one is', which isn't true, but here is the past..." After the song Morrissey asked his favourite fan "Julia, you're not too sad and sorry? No? You sure?" In "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference" he followed the line "how I love all of the very simple things of life..." not with the usual "God's good air", but an exclamation of "mad!"

Before going into "I Have Forgiven Jesus" Morrissey proceeded with the introduction of the band: "Would you please say hej hej hej to the boys in the band? Uhm, one at a time, hej hej hej, Boz... (crowd repeats) Very good. Now would you say hej hej hej Gary... (crowd repeats) Very good. Would you say hej hej hej Deano... would you say hej hej hej Little Barrie... would you say hej hej hej, a man of many parts, Mikey!... (fans ask Morrissey to introduce himself) Me!?". Having failed to introduce himself the crowd then broke into a chant of his name. As an introduction to the crowd favourite "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" Morrissey quoted from another song from the Smiths days, "Still Ill": "Well, if you must go to work tomorrow... then maybe you really should?... Bla-bla-bla..."

The new single "First Of The Gang To Die" was introduced with "This is our new single in Iceland and it's called 'First Of The Gang To Die'!" The following title on the setlist was "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores" and this one was introduced with "This is a wonderful night for us but generally we find that the world is full of crashing bores..." The album track "All The Lazy Dykes" was introduced with the line "This next song is for all dykes in Denmark... we love you!" The cover of Raymonde's "No One Can Hold A Candle To You" was dedicated by Morrissey to his guitarist Alain who had quit the tour a few weeks earlier because he was ill: "We have a very good friend back in London, called Alain, Alain Whyte (crowd cheers)... and today is his birthday... so this is for Alain..."

Before going into "Rubber Ring" Morrissey asked "Are you bored to death? (crowd: no!) You will be!" Before going into "Everyday Is Like Sunday" which was segued from the first verse of the New York Dolls' "Subway Train", and having just changed into a New York Dolls t-shirt, Morrissey asked the crowd "And of course you do know (with accent) the New York Dolls? Yes, New York Dolls? No?... Julia they don't really know the New York Dolls... they're just pretending..." He still decided to flatter the audience by changing a line in that song to "Oh how I am so pleased I am here..."

Morrissey's last significant words before going into encore "Irish Blood, English Heart" were "Now before we all have a major attack of the cutes - the cutes! - can I say you've been fantastically kind to us and (crowd cheers)... we're very grateful, thank you!" At the very end of the song he shouted "Ole! Goodbye!" Before leaving stage he and his musicians stood in a line at the front, arms around each other, bowed down and thanked everyone.

One hour from this concert (full set minus "The Headmaster Ritual", "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference" and "I Have Forgiven Jesus") was broadcast in October 2004 on Swedish radio channel P3. This programme was also webcast from the radio station's webpage for a few weeks after that. The complete concert was broadcast within the following few years. "Irish Blood, English Heart" alone was shown on Danish television, very likely in a special various artists feature on the Roskilde festival.

 


The bootleg featuring the original one-hour radio broadcast mentioned above is definitely the most popular and most widespread one from the 2004 tour. The recording sounds excellent and captured very well Morrissey's performance as well as the crowd. It could also be considered the best bootleg of 2004, but that honour should be reserved for the rarer radio broadcast of the complete set.

The partial broadcast is found on the internet under the titles "Live In Roskilde" aka "Roskilde Festival 2004-07-03" or "No One Can Hold A Candle To You". The full broadcast is sometimes found under the title "Dedicated To Alain White".

The television footage of "Irish Blood, English Heart" is often found tagged at the end of DVD bootlegs from other dates from this tour.

 

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