1 May 2006
Alexandra Palace, London

First Of The Gang To Die
Still Ill
You Have Killed Me
The Youngest Was The Most Loved
Ganglord
To Me You Are A Work Of Art
Girlfriend In A Coma
I Will See You In Far Off Places
Let Me Kiss You
At Last I Am Born
On The Streets I Ran
Life Is A Pigsty
Trouble Loves Me
In The Future When All's Well
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
How Soon Is Now?
/Irish Blood, English Heart
The Alexandra Palace turned out to be not the best choice of venue. Its size and the subpar sound had a negative effect on the atmosphere. There was also a good deal of pushing and shoving in the front sections, which didn't help. Morrissey seemed unimpressed by it all and still gave an excellent performance, backed by a very tight band.

The setlist was slightly resequenced, and in the process "Reader Meet Author" and "My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye" were dropped in favour of the return of "On The Streets I Ran".

Morrissey came on stage in a maroon shirt which was tied in a knot at the front and greeted the audience "For what you are about to receive, may you be truly, truly sorry" before going into opening number "First Of The Gang To Die". After the song came part 2 of his greeting: "Welcome to the lost art of live music!" He bridged an incredibly well received "Still Ill" to "You Have Killed Me" with the line "Life in all its filthy glory rolls on..." In the latter, Morrissey made the very occasional change "Who am I that I come to be standing here.

"You Have Killed Me" was followed with the customary comment about the performance of Morrissey's newest album, and this led to the introduction of upcoming single "The Youngest Was The Most Loved": "Thank you for our week in the sun with 'Ringleader Of The Tormentors' which, if you keep an eye on the British charts you'll notice has now been deleted, and with reason! However, this is our single..." After "Ganglord", Morrissey said "So recently the press, the glorious press say I'm in love, which of course is complete shit... so if anybody out there etc..."

Near the end in "To Me You Are A Work Of Art", after singing, "... that's if I had one", Morrissey added "...which I do". After the song came the usual band introduction: "Would you please, in your own good time, in your own way, say hello to the extremely mighty, legendary, Boz Boorer... to the incredible Gary Day... to the great Matt Walker... to the extremely sultry Jesse Tobias... to the man with the horn Michael Farrell... and for some absolutely shockingly reason, I ended up being Morrissey... help!" After "Girlfriend In A Coma" the man said "When it was originally released, that song received zero airplay with Radio 1, so as you can see, life really hasn't changed".

After "I Will See You In Far Off Places" Morrissey enquired about his opening acts "We hope you enjoyed Kristeen Young... and we hope you enjoyed Sons And Daughters". In "Let Me Kiss You", one line was changed to "I heard that you'll try anyone twice". In the following number "At Last I Am Born", besides the usual changes ("vegetarians note" and "miserable child"), Morrissey also sang "historians write this down" instead of "historians note". When he sang the line "I'm living the one, true, free life", he lifted successively one, two, three fingers, which led many fans in the audience to think he sang "I'm living the one-two-three life".

"I was born in a delightful place called Manch-fester... sorry Manchester, I always get confused" served as an introduction to "On The Streets I Ran". During the opening bars of the songs, Morrissey continued "... and... and..." The cheering faded too quickly after that song, so Morrissey asked "Are you still here? Incredible, incredible..." As was tradition on this tour, "Trouble Loves Me" was preceded by an old-style well known tune played on the piano by Michael Farrell. In London the tune in question was "Maybe It's Because I'm A Londoner". While it was being played and the amused crowd chanted along, Morrissey jokingly apologized "I can't stop them... I tried many times..." During the song a fan crowd surfed his way to the front holding out his hand, hoping Morrissey would shake it. But he was stopped and as the bouncers carried him off, Morrissey, between two lines of the song, teased him "Ciao! Have you got somewhere to go?" Shortly after but still in the same song, as he sang "Trouble loves me...", he added "Thank God!"

In "In The Future When All's Well", a line was changed from "and the best of health" to "and the worst of health". Morrissey also sang the more common change to "something must have gone wrong". A very powerful "How Soon Is Now?" brought the set to an end and everyone then exited stage. When they returned, Morrissey and his musicians got into a line at the front of the stage and bowed. Then as they were to return to their usual spots, Morrissey pretended to lose the usage of his legs and Boz and Jesse who were on each side of him dragged him backwards. After a highly energetic "Irish Blood, English Heart" Morrissey'S parting words were "Ciao! I love you!"

 


A live version of "The Youngest Was The Most Loved" recorded on this date was offered for purchase by official download at the time of release of that song as a single.

 


A good fanmade video recording of the full concert (minus the first few notes of "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy") is circulated among fans, on dvd and as digital video files on the internet (recorder: Chris A). The footage is mainly clear and has nice close-ups. The audio was lifted from this video recording and is circulated on the internet at various bitrates and at various levels of remastering.

 

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