It’s Morrissey’s birthday today, and while the ever-dour singer celebrated by declaring war on foie gras, one of his fans took the opportunity to drop a real surprise, marking Moz’s 54th with a leak of ultra-rare, pro-shot video capturing the singer’s first-ever solo concert in full — the one and only solo show at which Morrissey was backed by former Smiths bandmates Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, as well as the band’s onetime touring guitarist, Craig Gannon.
Video of the Dec. 22, 1988, concert at Wolverhampton Civic Hall — originally intended as a Smiths farewell concert, and filmed for an aborted release — was posted today to smithstorrents.co.uk, and it features the full 8-song, 39-minute concert at which Moz played a mix of latter-period Smiths songs and solo material. Mostly, though, he was accosted by a steady barrage of stage invaders.
The video was uploaded to YouTube by hipsterdisco2 — check it out below before it’s yanked.
Setlist: Morrissey, Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, UK, 12/22/1988
1. “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”
2. “Disappointed”
3. “Interesting Drug”
4. “Suedehead”
5. “The Last Of The Famous International Playboys”
6. “Sister I’m A Poet”
7. “Death At One’s Elbow”
8. “Sweet And Tender Hooligan”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS:
- Listen to a robot read Morrissey’s Wikipedia entry out loud — for a full hour
- Morrissey to resume touring this summer with concerts set for Mexico, South America
- Rare tape of early The Smiths rehearsals surfaces — hear 40-minute set from May 1983
- Morrissey cancels U.S. tour over ongoing medical problems: ‘I hope this isn’t the end’
You get a few of these tunes as well as the fan lead-up to this show in the Morrissey ‘Hulmerist’ video, which I may still have on VHS somewhere. Not sure it’s ever been available on DVD…
T-shirt mate
OK mate
Hulmerist is available on a UK dvd. It’s interesting to hear him play Death at One’s Elbow live.
Brilliant!!!made my day watching this! Morrissey morrissey morrissey!! Hes my gld they’ll neva be any1 else like him,without him theyd be no oasis,stone roses verve ect!
If not for Morrissey’s PERFECT haircut this would be unwatchable!
They’re saving their own skins by ruining people’s lives…
I’m having duck liver for breakfast lunch and dinner in honor of Stephens birthday.
What a witless comment. And it’s Steven, you silly twat.
A fascinating glimpse into the cult of personality that was Morrissey 25 years ago. Of course, concert security has also “advanced” since then.
This is bittersweet. Nice to see Craig Gannon!
Quite the time capsule.
Cool as hell! I didn’t get to see the Smiths, and this is the closest I will get to it. First time seeing Mozz was in 1991 for the Kill Uncle Tour.
Nice drumming and Bass :-)the rest madness :-)
Top notch songs . . . all of them.