Favourite tour?

[evennow]

Since the OP asked about tours rather than specific shows, Oye Esteban is easily his best as far as song choice goes. I think for energy, sheer madness and peak Moz-mania (particularly in America) you can’t go past the ‘91 Kill Uncle and ‘92 Your Arsenal tours.

Sadly never saw the Smiffs live and while the crowds for TQID tours look pretty wild for me it is the Meat Is Murder shows that look the best. That was easily the most ‘muscular’ Smiths album, kinda like Your Arsenal in that regard which I think lent itself to a great concert experience. The band who had been pretty much nonstop touring for 3 years sound beyond tight. What I’d give to get a copy of that complete Barrowlands show. I’ve got VHS of both the Spanish shows from around that time and they are easily my favourite live footage of the band. I love, love, love watching those 2 concerts. Peak Smiffs!!!!!

This in spades! I went to see the first Las Vegas concert although cancelled due to Alain's injury, and returned I believe in December to the best of my memory and the info. provide by this site (It was almost twenty years ago after all). Here was to be the entire set list:

1. You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
2. The Boy Racer
3. Alma Matters
4. Reader Meet Author
5. Is It Really So Strange?
6. Hairdresser On Fire
7. November Spawned A Monster
8. A Swallow On My Neck
9. Half A Person
10. Speedway
11. Break Up The Family
12. The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils
13. Now My Heart Is Full
14. Meat Is Murder
15. Tomorrow
    Encore
16. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

From memory a fight broke out and he left around number 6 or 7, but still other than Meat I would love to see this concert in it's entirety. I did see him on the Kill Uncle tour and even though the album itself may leave a little or a lot to be desired the band and Moz made it a great concert. and I agree the scope of music covered on his tours squarely remains in the present. I just don't think his current concert output puts out the energy of past tours.

And a side note from Wikipedia:

The ¡Oye Esteban! Tour was a concert tour by Morrissey. Its name came from the fact that Morrissey was planning to release ¡Oye Esteban! on video, but lacked a contract with any label, and that the video was not yet put together to promote it. Despite speculation that Morrissey would cancel the tour, it did happen and it was a huge success, with Morrissey traveling to Mexico and South America for the first time. The man drew huge crowds at all eight shows, proving that he was hugely popular in that part of the world. A cameraman followed Morrissey, filming Morrissey and his fans at these concerts. Some of the footage was used for the 2003 documentary, The Importance of Being Morrissey.

Track listing

1. "Everyday Is Like Sunday"
2. "Suedehead"
3. "Will Never Marry" (Live)
4. "November Spawned a Monster"
5. "Interesting Drug"
6. "The Last of the Famous International Playboys"
7. "My Love Life"
8. "Sing Your Life"
9. "Seasick, Yet Still Docked"
10. "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful"
11. "Glamorous Glue"
12. "Tomorrow"
13. "You're the One for Me, Fatty"
14. "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get"
15. "Pregnant for the Last Time"
16. "Boxers"
17. "Dagenham Dave"
18. "The Boy Racer"
19. "Sunny"
20. Credits

And the only song that slightly rubs me the wrong way is Dagenham Dave, but I can live with it. Some I really like more than others but still a strong showing of what his solo effort was capable of producing at the time.

 

[bhops]

Do you mean the full 25th September 1985 Barrowlands gig (as opposed to the bits of radio broadcast)?
If so, I will drop the full gig in the bootleg section.
Regards,
FWD.

Yes, yes, yes!!!!

 

[Stanley the 2nd]

Oye Esteban tour. No contract. Nothing to flog. No problem getting tickets. Good venues. Great gigs.

UK leg, for me. I’d seem him many times before , solo and in The Smiths.

I also enjoyed the Maladjusted tour too.

Both marked the end those gigs before the new crowd arrived. And when I say new crowd, I’ve nothing against younger fans. I’m talking about a small group who think that they ARE the fan base. We all know who they are.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Went to 3 of the 4 London Forum shows in 1999 which were ace. The 2002 shows were also great - 2 nights at the RAH and 1 night in Brixton.

Would liked to have gone to more shows on the boxers tour in 1995 but I was only a teenager at the time. Again Brixton was great but for some reason I missed out on Croydon Fairfield Halls which was local to me.

2006 onwards tours I've been indifferent to. Maybe it's me getting older, the songs, Morrissey getting older or just the band but the excitement just isn't there.

 

[Anonymous]

I actually think that the arrival of the video projections have brought a feeling of monotony to the evenings. We used to have the “Intermission Tape” as we called it, and they had more gravitas and depth. To start with I liked the videos, but the longer he’s used them, the more I switch off. I can hear a song repeatedly, but stick a film to that music and the effect is totally different.

The old intermission music, the old backdrop, or maybe two. It added more, in a theatrical sense rather than perfunctory technics.

Of course this is all peripheral to the gig, but important aspects nonetheless. It’s all part of that mix that creates a good gig and lasting memories.

I still enjoy the tours, and go to as many gigs as I can. My perspective, having notched up close to three digits if I cared to count, is naturally different from that of a younger or newer fan, but equally valid.

Definitely Oye Esteban. A really great tour. Loved it.

 

[Anonymous]

The best tours are always the ones when the most amount of time has elapsed since the last album as you get a much broader selection of songs, and maybe one or two news ones. so I think the 1999 and 2002 ones would probably fit the bill.

 

[Famous when dead]

Yes, yes, yes!!!!

Enjoy - now available in the downloads section.
https://www.morrissey-solo.com/thre...ultiple-live-shows-compilations.141741/page-8
Regards,
FWD.

 

[URBANUS]

Utter nonsense.

Oh dear, another history revisionist!

 

[URBANUS]

You said that he is now, "part of the establishment" though. I really don't think that's the right phrasing. I agree that he was never really affiliated to any political cause (even Red Wedge and he was on that tour).

And let's not forget that when he did the Maladjusted tour his career was really sinking into the depths. I can only speak for the UK, but I can say for certain that he was considered to be utterly irrelevant at that time. That album and its predecessor nearly killed his career stone dead and it was little wonder that it took him 7 years to release another album.

You may think that he means nothing now, but he meant nothing then and he was only 38 years old. His career certainly isn't in perfect shape, but he is doing better than anyone could have imagined 20 years ago.

He's been irrelevant all his life and his fans have no idea how unknown he really is in the great scheme of things.

 

[Charlie Cheswick]

My favourite show was on the Quarry tour in Dublin so I'm going Quarry. I've seen Morrissey a few times but nearly every time he was completely disinterested so that one stands out.

 

[billybu69]

It's a difficult question to answer, but I was watching Introducing Morrissey on you tube last night, and I thought then this tour was special 1995 no album to sell just a setlist of his very finest and touring for the love of it. special.

 

[URBANUS]

The fact that he wore the same jacket as me bought at the skinhead store in Carnaby Street when supporting Bowel at Wembley Arena in 1995 made that tour and those many gigs there extra special. It was also the only time I could watch him live and then walk across the street to Wembley Stadium to catch the second half of England-Switzerland friendly with the swiss having a certain Woy Hodgson in charge, a man that speaks fluent swedish after all his years here.
I was one of many leaving for that game when Moz was done for the night.

 

[Flibberty]

He's been irrelevant all his life and his fans have no idea how unknown he really is in the great scheme of things.

Try telling that to all of the bands that he has inspired.

 

[Anonymous]

Luckily, I think he played two Quarry tour gigs in Dublin quite close together. The first - Alains last gig which was great - outdoors on a lovely summers evening but the second in Nov/Dec at the old Point venue which in my opinion was the superior and really a fantastic gig.....not sure if he ever did it previous or even since but he sang TIALTNGO early in the set and after encore the crowd started chanting the chorus and he came back to sing it again...I have a piece of his shirt from this gig tucked away in a drawer somewhere as a memory of a great gig.

 

[URBANUS]

Try telling that to all of the bands that he has inspired.

Got their phone numbers?

 

[Bluebirds]

Fave tour - Boxers 1995 or Oye Esteban 1999.

Fav shows would include the Royal Albert Hall 2002, Blackpool 2004, London Palldaium last night 2006, Manchester 50th birthday night

 

[gordyboy9]

ringleaders for me.first time GANGLORD was ever played in my small town of Greenock made it special.

 

[Jamie]

My first show was the Chicago Theatre in 2000, the night he said that JM had originally been cast as E.T. I saw him thirteen times subsequently and perhaps the only two that measured up in my heart were the Eagle Ballroom in Milwaukee in 2004 and Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL, in 2007. The latter included a quite unexpected - and, I believe, never repeated since - performance of "Whatever Happens I Love You."

After the Chicago Opera House in 2015, I knew enough was enough for me.

 

[markreed]

Best tour? "Kill Uncle". The band were young, enthusiastic, unstoppable - they had the world on a plate and they knew it. I've never seen a band as hungry, ever. The audience were the same. The "Boxers" tour, especially the Drury Lane gig, was fierce.

Each tour has been a slow decline after Alain stepped out, and now the shows can feel like a slog or a career or another night at the office. Earls Court, 2004 was boring. The Arena shows are generally vast, and empty, to me. The smaller shows are fabulous, but the larger the venue, the colder the gig.