[1]Watch The Smiths Play Their Last Live Show (December 12th, 1986):

[1]Watch The Smiths Play Their Last Live Show (December 12th, 1986):

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It couldn't have lasted-a flame burning twice as bright, and so on.
One of the best bands to emerge from the explosion of British new
wave and post-punk in the 1980s, The Smiths built a template for
thousands of mope-rock bands who followed. Longstanding animosity
has meant that their brief time together contains their total
legacy. No reunion shows or albums-despite rumors over the decades
since they broke up in 1987; no ersatz version of the band, missing
key members but limping ever on.

Live albums, compilations, and box sets may have appeared over the
years, but they all contain music written, played, and recorded
between 1982 and 1987, a period during which the songwriting duo of
Morrissey and Marr had as much creative energy and purpose as any of
the famous songwriting duos of twenty years earlier. Love them or
hate them-there seem to be few people in-between-The Smiths'
importance to alternative and indie rock is inescapable.

Like many other hugely influential bands in popular music, the
mythology can eclipse the complexities. Unmentioned in many a
glowing account, for example, are the unsung onetime-members who
played bass or guitar at points in the band's short life-most
significantly guitarist Craig Gannon, sometimes called the "fifth
Smith." Gannon played on such seminal hits as "Ask" and "Panic"
before being let go from the band before they played their final
concert, an Artists Against Apartheid benefit at London's Brixton
Academy on December 12th, 1986. See it above in a fan-recorded
video.

Delayed after Marr was in a car accident, the concert shows them
back to their core four lineup, reunited with fired, then rehired
(then arrested) bass player, Andy Rourke. They play "Shoplifters of
the World Unite" from their upcoming final album, 1987's
Strangeways, Here We Come; they play The Queen is Dead's "Some Girls
Are Bigger Than Others" for the first, and last, time live onstage;
they end the night where they began, with their very first single,
"Hand in Glove." No one knew at the time that it would be their last
gig, including the band.

They continued on for the next few months, recording, making TV
appearances, and pondering a major label move. Differences personal,
legal, and creative soon drove the four members apart. They have all
continued to contribute significantly to the direction of
alternative rock, as supporting players, superstar indie guitarists,
and, well, Morrissey. We might wish for a more polished document of
their last show, but so it is. Fans are extremely unlikely to ever
get chance to see it happen again.

"Yes, time can heal," wrote Morrissey in [2]his often embittered
autobiography. "But it can also disfigure. And surviving the Smiths
is not something that should be attempted twice." We should count
ourselves lucky-those of us in the love-the-Smiths camp-that they
survived as long as they did, producing jangly, gorgeous, snide,
maudlin, and morbidly hilarious indie-pop gems from the very
beginning to the very end of their maybe-perfectly-concise career.

See the full setlist below:

Ask
Bigmouth Strikes Again
London/Miserable Lie
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (only live performance)
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Is It Really So Strange?
Cemetry Gates
This Night Has Opened My Eyes
Still Ill
Panic
/The Queen Is Dead
//William It Was Really Nothing
//Hand In Glove

via [3]Sonic More Music

[4]Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow
him at [5]@jdmagness.

(Via [6]Open Culture)

I still kick myself for not appreciating The Smiths when they were
still a going concern. One of my brothers Eric became a fan in about
'84 or so. Still, they would have broken up anyway.

Or would they have had they known I was a fan? Doubtful.
__________________________________________________________________

My original entry is here: [7]Watch The Smiths Play Their Last Live
Show (December 12th, 1986). It posted Mon, 14 Jan 2019 13:37:48 +0000.
Filed under: culture,

References

1. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenCulture/~3/pJM06w4adSs/watch-the-smiths-play-their-last-live-show-december-12th-1986.html
2. https://amzn.to/2GzUl2a
3. https://sonicmoremusic.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/watch-the-smiths-final-concert-from-dec-12-1986/?fbclid=IwAR3oJ927U-hexWP5bUQwFG6FeTedkPmu2QIg6LbPoFfD6Dtnga_sI4dtBf4
4. http://about.me/jonesjoshua
5. https://twitter.com/jdmagness
6. https://feeds.feedburner.com/OpenCulture
7. https://www.prjorgensen.com/?p=2526