Gala Ballroom, Norwich
You've Got Everything NowThis was overall a good show. Morrissey wasn't very talkative throughout the evening. He simply introduced some songs by shouting or whispering their titles. There was no surprise in the setlist. The Smiths did most of their catalogue, including two servings of both "Hand In Glove" and "Handsome Devil".
What Difference Does It Make?
Handsome Devil
Wonderful Woman
Reel Around The Fountain
These Things Take Time
I Don't Owe You Anything
Hand In Glove
Miserable Lie
/Accept Yourself
/Hand In Glove
//Handsome Devil
As the band entered stage Morrissey greeted the already excited fans by saying "Hello..." then, after a pause, he teasingly added "Goodbye..." After "What Difference Does It Make?" he barely had the time to introduce the next planned number ("Handsome Devil") before the band launched into it. "Reel Around The Fountain" was a crowd favourite at this early stage so it was very well received by the audience. "These Things Take Time" was introduced with the words "It's really sad... 'These Things Take Time'..." In these early days a drum roll intro kick-started the song, but on this date there was a false start and a short pause before the band managed to successfully get into it. Morrissey must not have been happy with the performance of the song because he followed it by saying "Rubbish! Rubbish!"
After the main set and a short break the band was loudly called back on stage for the first encore and they treated the fans to a great performance of "Accept Yourself", followed in quick succession by a second serving of "Hand In Glove". Morrissey then simply said "Goodbye, thank you!" and the Smiths left the stage again. The crowd wanted more, requests and praise were shouted, so the band returned for a second encore. Morrissey first had to negotiate with the audience. They wanted more but the band had nothing more to offer. Finally Morrissey shouted "Okay, 'Handsome Devil'!" and the Smiths launched into a second helping of the latter oft-requested song.
A reasonable sounding (for 1983) audience recording of the complete concert is being traded on bootleg compact discs. This is also limitedly found on the internet. An inferior transfer of the recording, very likely via a low quality cassette transfer, has made it on fanmade cds and in digital format, sometimes under the title "Gala Ballroom". Unfortunately the inferior transfer is also the more commonly found one. On the internet the best transfer is usually found in lossless format while the inferior one is usually found on MP3.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.