The Smyths performed at the The Gov Thursday 27th of February 2020.
To put this show into context I have to first acknowledge John Peel. He was an English disc jockey, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004 on BBC1.
He was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock and progressive rock records on British radio, and broadcast recordings allowing many bands to play to a much wider audience than the local pub. There are many recordings with (Peel session) featured after the title that feature as extra tracks on numerous artists albums.
The four piece line up performed strictly singles and album tracks from “Hatful of Hollow” which was released in 1984 and recorded at the BBC 1 Studios with John Peel and David Jensen during the summer of 1983. 16 songs on that album were variations of songs featured The Smiths self titled album and second studio album “Meat is Murder” which was released after Hateful. The singles included in the first set, How Soon is Now, William it was Really Nothing, This Charming Man, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, What Difference Does it Make? Somewhere amongst those songs the Bass guitarist broke a string and the lead singer was looking for a stand up comedian, I nearly jumped up on stage, but thought I have no material prepared!
An intermission around 20 minutes for the three quarter size crowd and they started the second set with The Headmaster Ritual, Shoplifters of the World, I Started Something, Shyness, There is a Light That Never Goes Out from the other two studio albums “The Queen is Dead” and “Strangeways Here We Come”.The encore trio was Last Night I Dreamt, Panic (complete with the chant when played at The King’s Head Hotel, Hang the DJ!) and by coincidence The Queen is Dead finished the evening off. I was disappointed they didn’t play my favourite Smiths song Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before.
Review and photo by Damian Woodards
Interesting fact Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce are all in appreciation and flattered by The Smyths! Come on Morrissey!
Apologies for the quality of pictures.

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