19 July 2007
Birmingham (AL), Alabama Theatre

Panic
First Of The Gang To Die
In The Future When All's Well
All You Need Is Me
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
Disappointed
The National Front Disco
Let Me Kiss You
Girlfriend In A Coma
You Have Killed Me
At Last I Am Born
That's How People Grow Up
Everyday Is Like Sunday
I Will See You In Far Off Places
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Irish Blood, English Heart
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
Life Is A Pigsty
How Soon Is Now?
/The Last Of The Famous International Playboys
This was an excellent concert, it was generally reviewed very positively by the fans and the press. Morrissey was in great spirits and very talkative. He joked a lot and passed the microphone to fans in the front rows. The audience was very receptive and energetic. One fan made it on stage.

Setlist-wise the highlight of this show was the return of "Panic". It was speculated that Morrissey decided to play it again because of its line "Panic on the streets of Birmingham", and he did gesture and nod to the crowd as he sang the word "Birmingham". The recently dropped "At Last I Am Born", "I Will See You In Far Off Places" and "Irish Blood, English Heart" also returned, while "The Queen Is Dead", "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" and "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" were dropped.

Morrissey reached out to the local fans by making many references to Alabama throughout the show. He said "We'd like to try our own version of 'Sweet Home Alabama'..." before going into "Girlfriend In A Coma". He mentioned that the day before the show he had gone to the dentist for the first time in 19 years. He thanked Hoover dentist Dr. Betty Lee and ended "...at least I got some part of me fixed, and it was in Birmingham... Alabama." He tended to pause each time he said "Birmingham..." before adding "...Alabama". He apologized for a series of "drastic cancellations" in the 1980s that kept him from playing Birmingham.

At one point a fan in the front row handed something to Morrissey and said something to him. The man responded by asking the crowd "was that funny?" At some other point someone else told him that Truman Capote's name was outside on the Alabama Walk of Fame. He was taken off guard, scratched his head and asked "Really? Really?"

 


An audience recording of this concert is out there, but it is not being shared yet. The most interesting thing to be found at this point in time are audio recordings of three songs - "Girlfriend In A Coma", "Everyday Is Like Sunday" and "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys" - circulated in digital format on the internet. The sound of these is rather muffled.

 

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