For more than twenty years, The Smyths – who play the Concert Hall on Saturday 19 July – have brought the music of The Smiths back to life. Not so much a tribute as an imagining of what The Smiths would sound like today after more than 40 years of playing the songs to several generations of fan, they have been acclaimed by legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and record producer Stephen Street. It promises to be quite a show...
Here though, we remember the night The Smiths played on the same stage...
The Smiths played Poole Arts Centre (as Lighthouse was known then) on 6 March 1985, as part of the Meat Is Murder tour, supported by future hitmakers James. The show, which has been widely bootlegged, was slightly shorter than many other dates on the tour as Barbarism Begins At Home was dropped from the set.
It was notable for some trademark Morrissey shenanigans.
- After singing What She Said, the singer apologised, saying: “Sorry about the barrier… this is to protect you from Moz.”
- During Handsome Devil he sang: “There’s more to life than Poole you know but not much more.”
- Before How Soon Is Now? he asked someone in the audience to “Speak clearly…” then introduced the next song, Shakespeare’s Sister, with the words: “This is our new single… which I’m sure will blaze up the pop charts.” This was sarcasm as that song was the Smiths’ least successful single since they had made it big.
- After Reel Around The Fountain, Morrissey started to apologise again: “Please excuse the sizzles… but err… when there’s noise…” but was interrupted by someone in the audience so he shouted: “WHAT?”
- In Nowhere Fast he sang the first line as: “I’d like to **** my trousers to the world…”
- Finally, in Miserable Lie, Morrissey sang: “I’d really like to see your underwear.”
The show was the only one The Smiths played in Poole, although they had previously appeared in Bournemouth, at the now-legendary Midnight Express club (1 July 1983) and the fondly remembered Town Hall concert hall (21 February 1984).
(Indebted to the forensic fan site http://passionsjustlikemine.com/ for the memoir.)
Tickets for The Smyths are available now at https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/event/the-smyths/ or on 01202 280000.
The Smiths, Poole Arts Centre, 6 March 1985
