Hippodrome, Birmingham
William, It Was Really NothingThis was a great show despite the fact that the whole band seemed to be in a bad mood. The audience was still very welcoming and appreciative. During James's (opening band) set, the audience was forced by security to sit down. But when the Smiths came on stage, they were unable to hold the crowd back.
Nowhere Fast
I Want The One I Can't Have
What She Said
Hand In Glove
How Soon Is Now?
Stretch Out And Wait
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
Shakespeare's Sister
Rusholme Ruffians
The Headmaster Ritual
Still Ill
Meat Is Murder
/Miserable Lie
//Barbarism Begins At Home
The band's mood might explain why the setlist was shortened by a few songs. Regulars "Handsome Devil" and "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" were dropped.
Morrissey's banter consisted mostly of "Thank you"'s and "Goodnight"'s, but there were also a few song introductions. "How Soon Is Now?" was introduced with the line "This song - excuse me - this song was ahead of its time... well, once, whatever... Is anybody listening? (crowd cheers)..." The following number was simply announced with the words "This song is called 'Stretch Out And Wait'..." Later on, "Shakespeare's Sister" was introduced with "This is our new single... this is about one of the greatest person who ever existed... 'Shakespeare's Sister'..." In the latter number Morrissey slightly extended a line to "I really thought that if you had an acoustic guitar..." Seemingly unsatisfied with its performance, he followed it with the comment "That song is better on record..." Then, after a pause, he asked the crowd "Any questions?". In the first verse of "The Headmaster Ritual", the belligerent ghouls ran "Birmingham schools". At the end of the show, Johnny Marr kicked the base drum.
Some of the information above was provided by Michael Lampard and Johnny Brum.
Unusually, two different audience recordings of this set are found in circulation. Both feature the full set. The best of the two is of reasonable quality, and is usually traded on cd and in lossless format on the internet. The other one is slightly below average, it is more commonly found on the internet in lossy format, and some of Morrissey's banter was edited out.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.