2 December 1999
The Olympia Theatre, Dublin, Ireland

You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
The Boy Racer
Billy Budd
November Spawned A Monster
Alma Matters
Tomorrow
Is It Really So Strange?
Hairdresser On Fire
Speedway
Roy's Keen
Break Up The Family
The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils
Reader Meet Author
Trouble Loves Me
Now My Heart Is Full
Meat Is Murder
/Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Morrissey was always in his element in Dublin and this gig was no exception. This was actually one of the best Irish dates of this tour. Morrissey was in an excellent mood and the audience was very receptive. The stage was very high and the barriers too far away, but one or two fans still successfully made it on stage. There was no change in the setlist content.

As he entered stage Morrissey greeted his fans by saying "How are ya? How are ya? How are ya?... Hello Publin!", in a Dublin accent. After "The Boy Racer" he continued with "Thank you bowsies! So nice to see you! Truly, truly nice to see you... and I'm sure the feeling's likewise..." After "November Spawned A Monster" he told someone who was handing him a gift "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, thank you... Is this for me? I'll take it very happily, thank you, thank you..." Then as the first notes of "Alma Matters" were heard, he said "This is the Submarine! No it's not..."

After "Alma Matters" Morrissey acknowledged a sign being held by a fan: "So there's a message for me at the front and I can't go any further so I really... 'Morrissey it is my last night with you, may I please have your sweaty shirt'... They're obviously from Harold's Cross..." There originally were two dates planned for Dublin, but one had been cancelled and tickets for both nights were honoured on this one. This prompted Morrissey to apologise after "Tomorrow": "I'm sorry about the - What? What? I didn't see that... I'm sorry about the venue change, we did try and squeeze into the Submarine but they said 'Morrissey who?', and when they said that, I couldn't actually answer them so... here we are!"

Morrissey at this point had probably just thrown the shirt he was wearing into the audience because after "Is It Really So Strange?" he said "I did throw this in, and somehow it came back. But really, I insist!" In live performances of "Hairdresser On Fire" at the time he usually sang the slightly different "Where is London, so much for London, is it home of the free or what?". On this date he jokingly followed this with a shout of "It's 'what'!" After the song he said "I would actually like to say hello to all my Dublin relatives but they're not here because they can't stand me so... there's no point!... And they're very wise..."

In "Speedway" Morrissey distractedly sang "you won't rest" instead of "you won't sleep". Knowing that the Irish were big fans of their compatriot Roy Keane, he teasingly introduced his song "Roy's Keen" with the line "This next song has absolutely no meaning... unless I wear this... slight... costume change... and even when I've made the costume change, it still doesn't really have any meaning... at least you know!" The costume he changed into was an Irish football jersey. After the song he said "I have a strange feeling that song was completely out of tune... but you didn't notice, did you?"

At the end of "Break Up The Family" someone successfully managed to make it on stage so after the song Morrissey commented "You see there are still some real men left - exception - there are still some real men left in the world... and... am I one of them?" After "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils" he interrupted a chant of his name with his own "Dolphin's Barn! Dolphin's Barn! Dolphin's Barn!" He then apologised by saying "Why do I do those things, I don't know... it ruins everything..."

After "Trouble Loves Me" Morrissey had another exchange with various fans in the front rows: "What?... Ssshhh, just a minute she's trying to say something... Oh no, sorry about that... it's okay, you can drown her out now..." Following that there was a huge singalong for the crowd favourite "Now My Heart Is Full". Another person tried to make it on stage near the end of the song and Morrissey encouraged their efforts and said between two lines "Good try... I'll save you, I've got testicles, I'll save you..."

Morrissey returned for the encore weraing the sailor suit he liked to wear now and then on this tour. He teasingly introduced the final song with the line "I just want you to know that if you find yourself a bit later tonight at a loose end, I'm free for sex and (crowd cheers)... I'm quite desperate actually so... please don't hold back!".

 


Two different audience recordings of the complete concert are circulated on bootleg compact discs and in digital format on the internet. One is very good and captured very well the energy of the audience. Its only flaw is that it lacks the latter half of the encore song. The other one sounds reasonably good but it was badly edited when converted to digital files and an alternate transfer of "Break Up The Family" was used instead of the original corrupted or missing one. These recordings are sometimes found with artwork under the titles "Hello Dublin" or "Dublin 1999".

 

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