Watch The Smiths play their last ever live show, 1986 - June 10/2019

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Watch The Smiths play their last ever live show, 1986
Far Out StaffJune 10, 2019

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-smiths-last-ever-live-show-1986-footage/

At an age when The Smiths’ most loyal fans begin to turn their back on the beloved indie band following Morrissey’s controversial political stance, we delve back to the ’80s to remember a band that was made up of three other members who, as of yet, haven’t manage to destroy their own legacies.

With Johnny Marr on guitar, Mike Joyce on the drums and bassist Andy Rourke, The Smiths were led by Morrissey onto the stage of London’s iconic Brixton Academy on December 12th 1986 for one last hurrah.


The show, which was originally booked for November, needed to be pushed back a month after guitarist Marr was involved in a near-fatal car accident which, in many ways, added to the overall success of the performance. Prior to Marr’s accident, the band were able to rest up having toured heavily for the better part of a year and, as was to be expected, were levelly fatigued as the dates came to a close.

Treating their fans to renditions of the previously unplayed tracks ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’ and ‘Shoplifters of the World Unite’, The Smiths rolled through a rousing set of their extensive back catalogue which ultimately ended in a rare performance of ‘Hand In Glove’ after the band had cut the song from their previous tour.

Despite tensions growing within the band dynamic, The Smiths members were unaware that the show at Brixton Academy was to be their last. A few months after the performance, the Manchester band were once again back in the studio and putting the finishing touches on their album Strangeways, Here We Come. However, as an exhausted Marr looked to take a break, the band would split before the record’s official release date.

“You have incredibly good taste,” Morrissey tells the crowd while in good spirits. The lead singer then held up a sign during the performance that famously read: “Two light ales please.”

Below, find the full performance and setlist:



The Smiths final concert setlist:

Ask
Bigmouth Strikes Again
London/Miserable Lie
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (only live performance)
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Is It Really So Strange?
Cemetry Gates
This Night Has Opened My Eyes
Still Ill
Panic

Encore:
The Queen Is Dead
William It Was Really Nothing
Hand In Glove
 
This is quite interesting:

That video of The Smiths has been on YouTube since 25 November 2016. It's been watched 63,588 times.



This video of Morrissey's recent opening night on Broadway, has been up since 4 May. It's already been watched 61,515.

 
I stopped listening to Morrissey's music because he made controversial comments. Now my life sucks because I don't listen to Morrissey's music anymore.
 
Bit 'far out' to post something 6 months before the anniversary, but nonetheless:

The last gig poster courtesy of @hatfulofhistory:

Po083.jpg


and Johnny's recollection about the crash that would lead to it being rescheduled at Brixton from Set The Boy Free:

"ANGIE AND I went out for dinner one Sunday night with Mike and his girlfriend after the tour finished. We were at my house afterwards, and when it came for Mike and Tina to go home I offered to drive them back. I still hadn’t bothered to get a licence, and had been content to take on the roads with my own unique driving style. Angie protested about me getting in the car because I’d had a bottle of wine and half a bottle of tequila, but we got to Mike’s without any problems and I turned around and headed back to my place through the rain. About two minutes from home, I stopped at a red light and waited. Suddenly a deafening blast of music came through the speakers as the cassette of the song I was working on flipped around in the machine. The light changed to green, the song kicked in, and I put my foot down and accelerated as fast as I could go.
Within seconds I hit a bend and steered violently. I was going way too fast. The car skidded and I lost control and it smashed with an explosive boom into the wall on one side of the road before bouncing back into the air across the road and into the wall on the other side. The front of the car crumpled, the dashboard caved in and the steering wheel shot up into the roof. The car kept bouncing on the road with steam hissing out of the front until it came to a stop and there was total silence. I heard myself breathing. I was suddenly sober. I stared out of the windscreen and saw that the front of the car was completely crushed and steaming. A chunk of the dashboard was centimetres from my face. I got out of the car and looked down at my body: I had to check that I was still alive. The car was stuck diagonally across the middle of the road, and I frantically tried pushing it in case any other cars were coming. I was in total shock, but what was happening was dawning on me and I started to run as fast as I could to my house to get someone or to hide. In my confusion I was hoping that no one had heard or seen anything and that by some miracle I’d be able to make the situation disappear. I was in a mad delusion as I ran over to my house, and I fell a couple of times. Some of the neighbours came out. They’d heard the crash and had seen a demented young pop star fleeing from a smashed-up BMW, running and falling in a torn-up Yohji Yamamoto suit. When I got to the door, Angie and Phil were already on their way to get me. They’d heard the crash and knew it was me. They led me back to the car and three police vans pulled up with their lights flashing. By now there were people everywhere. ‘Are you a charming man?’ asked one of the cops, who happened to be a fan. I had a severe pain down my side and my wrist had started aching. The adrenaline and the booze were wearing off and grim reality was kicking in as I sat on a wall and surveyed the scene in the middle of the night. The front of the car was completely crushed like a tin can.
When the band came round the next day and saw the wreckage, it came home to me how fortunate I was to have survived. I was bashed up a bit and had to wear a brace for my neck and my back and a temporary splint on my arm. The next week the band went into the studio and I produced our new single, ‘Shoplifters of the World Unite’. Two weeks later, on 12 December, The Smiths walked on to the stage at Brixton Academy. We were back to our original line-up and played a great show. It was the last one we ever did.
The crash was a huge wake-up call. I’d been living close to the line and I knew it. It was time to curb the excesses, and I had a new positivity and sense of purpose. I didn’t want to do the same as I had been doing, onstage or off, and I didn’t think the band should be repeating itself either. With the next album I wanted to move away from some of the things that were considered ‘hallmark Smiths’. It seemed that no one could ever talk about us without using the words miserable and jangle, even though we’d proved we were much more than that, and I was eager to see where we could take things musically. In the UK there had been a movement of bands that had a specific indie sound, but I felt it had nothing to do with us, other than National Health spectacles and throwing some sixties influences around. The indie scene in England had become dominated by such wimpy music that if it had been any more fey, butterflies and petals would’ve come out of the speakers. I was also sick of the way the band were being perceived. We were starting to be defined by all the things we supposedly hated, as if all we were about was negativity, which I didn’t feel. On the rare occasions I did interviews, they were always about what The Smiths hated. I wondered if that was always going to be my lot."

I wonder how people would have viewed things if it had gone ahead at the RAH?
Regards,
FWD.
 
Anonymous said:
Morrissey is still great! Not just on record either!

Proof:

Click to expand...



Just goes to show... that his true fans ..

still have incredibly good taste.

:cool:


Btw.. if any of the four is keeping the legacy alive,

it is Morrissey.
 
Last edited:
This is very interesting!

That video of The Smiths above, was viewed 63,588 times, when I posted this thread yesterday. Go check above. The viewcount today is 65,217. That's an increase of 1,629 views.

The video of Morrissey above, was viewed 61,515 times. It is now at 63,761. That's an increase of 2,246 views.

Therefore, Morrissey wins!

Twice! :)
 
The Smiths vs Morrissey update!

The Smiths video above, now has 67,741 views. That's an increase of 4,153 views since this thread was posted.

The Morrissey video above, now has 65,872 views. That's an increase of 4,357 views since this thread was posted.

So what does this data tell us?
 
The Smiths vs Morrissey daily update!

The Smiths video above, now has 68,630 views. An increase of 5,042 views since this threads creation.

Morrissey's video above, now has 67,509 views. An increase of 5,994 views since this threads creation.
 
Ketamine Sun said:
‘vs’?

... Morrissey is the Smiths.



:cool:
Click to expand...

I know. I'm just having a dig at that dick that wrote the Far Out article.

Btw, the gap in views between The Smiths' video and Morrissey's was 2,073.

It's now 1,121. And Morrissey's video has only been up about five weeks! :)
 
Yay!!! Morrissey's Broadway video above, now has more views than that video of The Smiths!

Morrissey - 70,470 views

The Smiths - 68,935 views

Morrissey's video has been watched almost 9,000 times since I posted this thread on Tuesday!
 
Anonymous said:
Yay!!! Morrissey's Broadway video above, now has more views than that video of The Smiths!

Morrissey - 70,470 views

The Smiths - 68,935 views

Morrissey's video has been watched almost 9,000 times since I posted this thread on Tuesday!
Click to expand...

Are you thinking that 9000 people have checked out Morrissey Solo over the last few days and then watched the video of the New York show?
 
Surface said:
Are you thinking that 9000 people have checked out Morrissey Solo over the last few days and then watched the video of the New York show?
Click to expand...

No. I'm simply stating that 9,000 people have watched Morrissey's Broadway gig on YouTube since I posted this thread. Even though some swine at Far Out wrote this:

"At an age when The Smiths’ most loyal fans begin to turn their back on the beloved indie band following Morrissey’s controversial political stance,..."

The truth is, Morrissey's fans haven't turned their back on Morrissey. As this thread proves!
 
It really doesn’t, the fact that sales of his latest album are pitiful combined with the fact that he had to cancel his UK tour due to lack of interest last year tell the real story.
 
Surface said:
It really doesn’t, the fact that sales of his latest album are pitiful combined with the fact that he had to cancel his UK tour due to lack of interest last year tell the real story.
Click to expand...

Another fact for you: California Son entered the UK album chart at number 4.
 
Surface said:
And sold 8k copies in its first week, which is his lowest ever first week sales.
Click to expand...

California Son is still selling well. It is currently number 4 on Amazon's Alternative & Indie chart:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sellers-Music-Alternative-Indie/zgbs/music/231193?tag=msamzn-21

If anyone here is on their pc, could you please post the streamed figures for each track off of California Son?

On mobile it shows that Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets has been streamed 271,172 times. So it would be interesting to see the figures for all other tracks.
 
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Anonymous said:
California Son is still selling well. It is currently number 4 on Amazon's Alternative & Indie chart:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sellers-Music-Alternative-Indie/zgbs/music/231193?tag=msamzn-21

If anyone here is on their pc, could you please post the streamed figures for each track off of California Son?

On mobile it shows that Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets has been streamed 271,172 times. So it would be interesting to see the figures for all other tracks.
Click to expand...

That means absolutely f*** all. Its number 61 in the real charts and that's the only one that matters to Morrissey.
 
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