Your Arsenal Tour
| Concert by Morrissey | |
| Location | North America, Europe, England |
|---|---|
| Associated album | Your Arsenal |
| Start date | July 4, 1992 |
| End date | December 23, 1992 |
| Legs | 4 |
| Number of shows |
56 |
The "Your Arsenal Tour" was the tour in support of Morrissey's latest album, "Your Arsenal". The tour was Morrissey's last until 1995's Boxers Tour. Unfortunately, the tour started on a sour note. Morrissey cancelled his first Glastonbury Festival appearance, not counting his 1984 appearance with The Smiths. Morrissey eventually ended up canceling another festival date, the Madstock held by the band Madness. Although it started roughly, Morrissey played through the entire tour without having to cancel a single date.
Madstock and the NME
The next two festival dates went down much smoother until Morrissey made it back to London to perform at Madness' reunion concert, dubbed "Madstock". Morrissey and his backing band suffered mostly verbal abuse from the crowd, that composed of mostly racists and non-racists, most of which were none too fond of Morrissey. The situation quickly grew worse as objects were thrown on stage, including a carton of orange juice. Unfortunately, Morrissey himself chose a cropped image of two female skinheads, which disturbed the fervour of the already hostile crowd. Opening band Gallon Drunk also suffered the same abuse. After the set opener, the band went into "Glamorous Glue", in which Morrissey draped himself with a Union Jack flag, raising the brows of many audience members and making tensions mount. The singer cut the set short in which all band members quickly retired their instruments and fled backstage. The fiasco was given much media attention in the UK, in which the campaign was spearheaded by NME. It soon affected ticket sales in the UK, where rumors of Morrissey being racist were heightened by media outlets. Yet, Morrissey soldiered on and ended up touring in his homeland at the end of the year. Throughout the year, British music magazine NME would try to paint Morrissey as a racist, utilizing false accusations, with little to no evidence. The only incriminating evidence was the headline for the current issue at the time: "Morrissey - Flying the flag or flirting with disaster?" Due to this, Morrissey decided to not tour the UK immediately, only the end of year, which only ended up lasting ten days. Instead, Morrissey toured North America relentlessly.
Morrissey was still selling out shows, but not as much as last year's Kill Uncle Tour. One notable feat, was selling out two shows at the Hollywood Bowl, beating a sales record previously held by The Beatles since 1964.
Setlist
Setlists composed mostly of material from "Your Arsenal" and earlier b-sides, plus other material that was debuted on the previous year's Kill Uncle Tour. Surprisingly, nothing was played from "Kill Uncle", all material was dropped from the previous album, and nothing has been played since. Also, during these songs, Morrissey's backing band developed new traditions. Such as, during "The National Front Disco", the band produced feedback from their instruments, resulting an unsettling, chaotic ending. Also, during many early performances, guitarist Boz Boorer would read a poem into his microphone during the feedback jam, and then throw the book into the audience. Or Morrissey would play a tambourine during the beginning and ending of "The Loop", both times the tambourine would end up into the audience.
Tour dates
Live recordings
The second London show and the Paris show were professionally recorded and released later in 1993, as a live album. Most of it was recorded in Paris, as the London show was used to fill in for Paris recordings that may not have been up to par. This release was called, "Beethoven Was Deaf".