#84 THE SMITHS - Amsterdam 1984 (Flac)

De Meervaart
Amsterdam,
Netherlands

21 April, 1984

Coming off the back of the UK Spring tour, a short European tour had been arranged to promote the debut album 'The Smiths' had released in February. This show was the group's first appearance on mainland Europe, a party performance for 'Vinyl' magazine with Nick Cave as support, the next day they appeared at Brecon festival in Belgium and on the 24th in Zurich. They flew back to England for a Top of the Pop's TV appearance. On boarding the plane Morrissey announced they were not coming back.

The remaining dates in Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne and Bremen were cancelled as Morrissey returned to his mother's home in Manchester. Scot Piering their manager claiming that "it really boiled down to the fact that they couldn't find anything decent to eat." and "It was a serious business if they couldn't get egg and chips 24 hours a day." Unable to appreciate their first tour of Europe, the next single release was appropriately titled 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'.

Fortunately Dutch radio recorded and broadcast their appearance at De Meervaart in Amsterdam. The Smiths were a much more muscular proposition live than their jangling indie reputation would suggest. Even on early shows like this one, their is a substantial rhythm on songs such as 'Hand In Glove' and 'Barbarism Begins At Home.' The mix on this helps as Andy Rourke's bass is right up front and with Mike Joyce's drumming gives the songs a really powerful driving propulsion in comparison to their studio work.

The set comprises six of the debut album tracks, plus five songs that appeared on singles, 'Barbarism' was released on their second studio long player 'Meat Is Murder' in February 1985 and finally 'These Things Take Time' appeared in November 1984 on the wonderous gatefold double LP compilation, 'Hatful of Hollow'.

If a Japanese bootlegger is seeking to produce a vinyl product from this, then please send me a finished copy as your work on the demos outtakes compilation was worthy of any official release. Finally Mr. Record Company, instead of the usual remastering and repackaging, what about a vinyl box of unreleased Smiths studio and live shows?

Setlist:
01. Hand In Glove
02. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
03. Girl Afraid
04. This Charming Man
05. Barbarism Begins At Home
06. This Night Has Opened My Eyes
07. Miserable Lie
08. Still Ill
09. I Don't Owe You Anything
10. What Difference Does It Make
11. encore break
12. Handsome Devil
13. You've Got Everything Now
14. encore break
15. These Things Take Time

 FM broadcast, aired on Dutch Radio 2, 27 February 2009

Lineage: FM > Audacity 1.2.6 > CD Wave 1.95.1 > FLAC Frontend 1.7.1
Remaster: FLAC > wav > wavemerge > SF8 > AA 1.0 > CDWav > FLAC

Notes: I've pitch corrected, brought the volume up, and added the intro to Hand In Glove. This is the first time this show has been broadcast complete and in the correct order. Originally recorded and seeded by Laurens van der Weijden. Remastered by terrapinstation 2009-03-01.