Tendastrisce, Rome, Italy
William, It Was Really NothingFor the Smiths' first visit to Italy, the setlist was slightly modified. "This Charming Man" which had more or less been dropped in 1985 was reintroduced but regular "Barbarism Begins At Home" was skipped. The rarely played "You've Got Everything Now" was also given to the Italians. The Tendastrisce was a big circus-like circular tent striped in red and white.
Nowhere Fast
I Want The One I Can't Have
What She Said
How Soon Is Now?
Stretch Out And Wait
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
Shakespeare's Sister
Rusholme Ruffians
The Headmaster Ritual
Hand In Glove
Still Ill
Meat Is Murder
/Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
/Handsome Devil
//This Charming Man
//Miserable Lie
///You've Got Everything Now
The Smiths were not playing with their instruments in Italy, which would explain the slightly different performances of certain of the songs. They were still extremely well received. The Italians cheered profusely and sang along many songs. This much to Morrissey's surprise it seems, as he said, while the crowd were cheering after "How Soon Is Now?", "I didn't really expect this, so thank you... Do you understand?". The ending of "Still Ill" and the beginning of "Handsome Devil" were voxless, probably because Morrissey was struggling with fans on stage.
Morrissey wasn't overall very talkative, he seemed to be under the impression no one could understand him. He commented "I hope you understand us, I truly don't." Besides those comments and the occasional thank you, he only announced two songs, with lines such as "This is our single, 'Shakespeare's Sister'" and "This is our first record, 'Hand In Glove'." He did fewer lyric changes, probably because he expected them to be lost on the Italian audience.
A selection of tracks from an audience recording of this concert were released on a vinyl bootleg titled "Live In Rome 85". Unfortunately the sound is not the best, the track listing is incomplete, many songs are faded out early and the in between song banter was completely removed. Track listing: Intro / "William, It Was Really Nothing" / "Nowhere Fast" / "I Want The One I Can't Have" / "How Soon Is Now?" / "Stretch Out And Wait" / "Rusholme Ruffians" / "Hand In Glove" / "Still Ill" / "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" / "Handsome Devil" / "This Charming Man" / "You've Got Everything Now".
However an 'official' cd version was produced from an alternate audience recording, with the same title and front artwork as the LP above. The sound is still not the best, but still better than the LP and at least the whole show is included and none of the tracks are altered. MP3s of both the LP and compact disc can be found on the internet, the latter more common than the former.
Do you have information about this concert? Or do you own an uncirculated recording of it? If yes please contribute and get credited.