The Smiths Newcastle Mayfair 17th July 1986
This was the last time I saw the Smiths, and is also the concert which I remember the least, in terms of their performance. What I do remember is that the gig was quite violent, with a lot of heckles and some trouble in the crowd on the ballroom flood. A few guys down at the front were throwing pint glasses (some full of p*** I think) at Morrissey. At times quite a lot of beer and p*** was thrown on stage, and there was a lot of spitting, which Morrissey (quite rightly) didn’t take kindly to. During the last encore “Hand In Glove”, Morrissey was spit on again. This time he had enough, and he left the stage, leaving the band to finish the song by themselves.
Support came from the Stockholm Monsters, a band from Burnage in Manchester who recorded for Factory Records and were produced by Peter Hook.
Setlist: Bigmouth Strikes Again; Panic; Vicar In A Tutu; Frankly, Mr. Shankly; There Is A Light That Never Goes Out; Ask; I Want The One I Can’t Have; Never Had No One Ever; Cemetery Gates; The Boy With The Thorn In His Side; Is It Really So Strange?; Shakespeare’s Sister; Stretch Out And Wait; That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore; The Queen Is Dead
Encore: I Know It’s Over
Encore 2: (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame/Rusholme Ruffians; Hand In Glove
26 Aug
Vintagerock's Weblog. 
Posted by Ross Anderson on March 21, 2021 at 10:44 pm
I missed this gig as I was late getting into the Smiths, I’d heard a few things I liked such as How Soon is Now particularly, but over all wasn’t convinced, then the Queen is Dead album was the tipping point, played it loads at the time and got stuff into the back catalogue, then fortunately they did a second UK tour toward the back end of 1986 and we tootled down to Carlisle to the Sands Centre to see them, so glad I did, one of the best gigs I ever attended, they were on fire, massive stage invasion, Morrissey and Johnny were dancing with the fans on stage after the encore, loads of pogoing and moshing, incredible atmosphere, one and only time I saw them but a great memory…
Posted by vintagerock on March 22, 2021 at 1:12 pm
I wasn’t a massive Smiths fan Ross; the best time I saw them was the Red Wedge tour when they came on as a surprise act and below the place apart. Happy days Peter
Posted by Ross Anderson on March 22, 2021 at 11:17 pm
Ah yes Peter in retrospect I’m well aware of the Red Wedge gig, and that they stole the show, I got kicked out of the Labour Party as a Bennite trot militant in 1984 so I was on the outs with Labour by then, and Kinnock was every bit the disaster I always thought he would be, though worse was to come in the form of Blair, though that’s a different discussion!
Posted by vintagerock on March 23, 2021 at 10:57 am
Strange times Ross. Cheers Peter
Posted by Mark on November 28, 2024 at 8:58 am
Bullshit review, I can guarantee whoever wrote this review was not there.
I WAS and about 3 bodies away from the front with my arm round my (at the time) girlfriend, at the middle, slightly to the left.
There was a wee moshpit of skinheads/punks to our right but nothing more than you’d see at the time at a punk gig. A bit out of place at a Smiths gig but just a bit of fun – I had joined into worse / more violent at other places.
There was absolutely no pints of piss flying and the small amount of spitting was just at the very end and went unnoticed by us and all around us – everybody was puzzled and asking why Morrissey walked off until Johnny said about the spitting.
Great gig though, main memories are of Morrissey leaning forward and staring straight at us at one point and Andy not looking very well!
Posted by vintagerock on November 28, 2024 at 1:25 pm
I absolutely was there. Sorry if my memory is playing tricks or if I over exaggerated anything. I am an old guy now and have very little memory at all about what happened. Cheers Peter