14 March 1984
University Of Liverpool, Liverpool
Hand In Glove
Still Ill
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
This Charming Man
Girl Afraid
Pretty Girls Make Graves
This Night Has Opened My Eyes
Barbarism Begins At Home
Back To The Old House
What Difference Does It Make?
/Reel Around The Fountain
//You've Got Everything Now
//Handsome Devil
Even though the Smiths' fanbase was growing sensibly in Liverpool, there were still quite a few hostile individuals in the audience. For the first time on this tour there was a slight shuffling in the setlist as "Still Ill" was brought forward and new songs "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and "Girl Afraid" were split apart. "I Don't Owe You Anything", which had just been re-introduced into the set two days earlier for Sandie Shaw to sing, was dropped again.

Morrissey greeted his audience after set opener "Hand In Glove". After "Still Ill" he answered 'yes' to someone in the audience then introduced the following number with the words "This song is called 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'." In "This Charming Man", one line was humourously changed to "This man said it's handsome that someone so gruesome should care". He acknowledged the audience's unfamiliarity with "Girl Afraid" by introducing the following planned number - "Pretty Girls Make Graves" - with the line "And something at least three of you know the words to..."

Before "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" Morrissey shushed the hecklers in the audience and asked them "Any more?". There was a sing along to the first encore "Reel Around The Fountain". The Smiths were called back on stage for a second encore during which they performed "You've Got Everything Now" and "Handsome Devil" in quick succession, not giving the fans enough time to voice their appreciation in between.

 


A good audience recording of this concert is available from cd traders, sometimes with two songs from Sandie Shaw in session on the British radio programme Saturday Live ("I Don't Owe You Anything" and "Jeane") tagged at the end. This is also found on the internet, but very limitedly in top quality (from a first generation tape) at this point in time. An inferior transfer of the same recording from a higher generation tape is more commonly found in digital format. This doesn't come with the Sandie Shaw radio session, but by itself or with the Smiths' four 1986 Peel sessions ("Sweet And Tender Hooligan", "Half A Person", "Is It Really So Strange?" and "London"). It is even sometimes seen in a messed order.

Fanmade artwork is sometimes seen tagged along digital files of the inferior recording mentioned above, under the title "Liverpool University".

 

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