THE FIRST TIME I SAW THE SMITHS

It was actually five days earlier than the above ticket but it was the same tour.

My gig was at the Queen Margaret Union, which was part of Glasgow University.  I don’t think actual tickets were used but instead it was some sort of specially numbered pass only determined as and when the gig was announced and only available from the venue box office.  That was certainly the method used at my regular haunt at nearby Strathclyde University – the benefits were the venue could pre-print a year’s worth of passes and save a fortune; the downside of course was that without the name of the band being on the ticket it wasn’t anything worth keeping and besides the entire ticket was taken off you by the security folk at the venue.  Such happy and innocent times indeed….

Here’s some words from an external site:-

2 March 1984
Queen Margaret Hall, University Of Glasgow, Glasgow

This concert was very crowded, sweaty and memorable, like most visits to Glasgow. There was a lot of heckling so Morrissey lectured the crowd about bad behaviour. Performance-wise and sound-wise, it was one of the best concerts of the period, probably because it was recorded.

After “Hand In Glove” Morrissey greeted the fans by shouting “Hello Glasgow!”. He changed one line in “This Charming Man” to “This man said it’s gruesome that someone so ugly should care”, as he had been known to do now and then. “Pretty Girls Make Graves” was introduced with the words “And now, a lesson for everybody…” The following song, “Still Ill”, was introduced as “…a nice song about the most enviable position imaginable, ‘Still Ill’!..” There was a lot of heckling from the audience so after “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” Morrissey shouted “Aaarrgh, listen! What?”. In the part in “Barbarism Begins At Home” where Morrissey just moans and la-la-la’s, echo effect was applied, making it sound eerie. “Back To The Old House” was introduced with the line “This is for all you marsh-mellows…” Before “Handsome Devil” Morrissey teased the audience by shouting “More?”

This concert was recorded and broadcast in full on Scotland’s Radio Clyde.

It was an incredibly hot and sweaty night.  It was, after at least one false start with gigs being postponed, the band’s first time on a Scottish stage.  I so wanted this night to be special.  I loved the songs and I just didn’t want them to be a disappointing live act.

They weren’t.

I’m actually not so sure there was a load of heckling at the gig as this would imply fans were unhappy or being critical.  To my ears it was just a lot of shouts of joy aimed for the most part at Morrissey.

A few days ago, box were contacted and subsequently deleted a file which had linked to a track from that gig which had been posted ages ago on the long-defunct blog.  I don’t like to take these things lying down, so here for your enjoyment is the complete Radio Clyde broadcast (with thanks to Mike from Manic Pop Thrills who supplied it to me from his own collection)

Hand In Glove
Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
Girl Afraid
This Charming Man
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Still Ill
This Night Has Opened My Eyes
Barbarism Begins At Home
Back To The Old House
What Difference Does It Make?
Reel Around The Fountain
You’ve Got Everything Now
Handsome Devil

Enjoy!!