Forget the negativity, bad press reviews, rumours, vitriol, etc. Morrissey is the Best living artist we have. I am always blown away by his stage presence. After every show I feel the same. Of course there are cancellations and not all his records are great but Morrissey is a True Artist. He is unique, still original and he sticks to his guns. He should be celebrated.

By making fun of a dead legend While I am not a Michael Jackson fan - I think what he said was embarrassing

"From late May to early July [now] the nights are bright in St Petersburg, with the brightest period, the White Nights, normally lasting from June 11th to July 2nd. The White Nights (Beliye Nochi) are a curious phenomenon caused by St. Petersburg's very northerly geographical location - at 59 degrees 57' North (roughly on the same latitude as Oslo, Norway, the southern tip of Greenland and Seward, Alaska). St. Petersburg is the world's most northern city with a population over 1 million, and its stands at such a high latitude that the sun does not descend below the horizon enough for the sky to grow dark. In fact night becomes curiously indistinguishable from day, so much so that the authorities never need to turn the city's streetlights on!..."

That's from the introduction to a decent virtual tour - http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/index.asp [saint-petersburg.com] .

Another topic I liked was about 'the iron bridge': "Directly between St Isaac's Cathedral and the City Hall building there is a bridge, as wide as the adjacent Isaakievskaya Square, that is rather tricky to see. At 319 feet 2 inches (97.3 meters) the so-called Blue Bridge (Siniy Most ) is the widest bridge in the world. However, to the dismay of the people of St. Petersburg the Blue Bridge was not accepted as the Widest Bridge in the World by the Guinness Book of Records. The reason for this is, unfortunately, unknown but if you find a wider bridge elsewhere in the world please let us know!

The Blue Bridge was designed by the architect V.I. Geste and built of cast iron in 1818. Between 1842 and 1844 it was reconstructed and widened to span a distance of 319 feet 2 inches. The name "Blue Bridge" originated from the tradition of color-coding downtown bridges. Hence the lower part of the Blue Bridge is still painted blue."

Wishing everybody there a great time, during and after the show!

Nikolai Volkoff was gonna come out and introduce the man himself..only to be given the Russian cycle by Nikita Koloff and his uncle Ivan..Can anyone confirm if this actually happened?

How much is it? What time would 10 p.m. there be in Berlin? Just found it: two hours, it is midnight there right now.

Instead of taking a bow before the encore, the band all did a shot of Vodka.

Fantastic show. The venue was just off the banks of the river, opposite the cathedral and the Winter Palace. I would say there were about 500 people there at a guess. I managed to grab a spot at the barrier and got a couple of handshakes.
Moz Seemed pleased and surprised at the great reaction from the crowd. Everyone seemed to know all the words and Morrissey was very talkative.
He asked if there were many ex-pats in the crowd, I shouted that I was fron Caversham and he responded.
For the encore, as the band took a bow they all seemed to bundle each other and ended up in a heap on the floor, it was as if they had all been drinking, like most of Russia seems to do, Moz's opening line was "are you all as drunk as a skunk"?
Really good show, this ends a trip of 6 days for me taking in Sweden, Finalnd and Russia, tonight was the best show so far....

Set List - any changes?

The thee-balled wonder.

was julia there?

was posted in the forum
(http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?p=1190758#post1190758 [morrissey-solo.com])

This Charming Man
Billy Budd
Black Cloud
How Soon Is Now?
Irish Blood, English Heart
Ask
I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
Girlfriend In A Coma
Let Me Kiss You
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Life Is A Pigsty
One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
Sorry Doesn't Help
When Last I Spoke To Carol
The Loop
I'm OK By Myself
---
First Of The Gang To Die

Moz handed the mic to a guy in the crowd, him and his pals sang a version of "Glory, glory, Man United" (English football chant). mos looked amuzed and said, "I'm touched". the guys were reluctant to give the mic back and it ended up several rows back, security had to fish it out!

As people reported in the forums about the show I am quoting them: punk in the supermarket and dzhemini reviews in here who have quips in there etc..for those interested rather in Morrissey than MJ;-)I hope its okay for them to be quoted over here?If not I can delete it.

"Punk in the supermarket":(Quote)

got there 6pm - not many people in queue - doors open 6.30 - i'm the 3rd person in (what?)

no signs outside venue to say there is a concert .... only spotted one poster advertising gig in town...security very tight and spotted my small camera early on..

moz starts off by shouting dobryy vecher (good evening) - crowd goes nuts - charming man - 2nd song billy budd i get handshake - nice! - morrissey tries to remember how to say thank you in russian (spasibo) "sposobly? sposby?" they just love him for trying though..

later comment - i know you might not understand the words but i think you understand the sentiment.. sediment.... he gave mike to julia who said something like "i think i can speak for the russian people here .... welcome to russia" then mike was given to a girl you just screamed "we laaaave you" (very sweet) ... one guy had made a russian flag with morrissey face and some words written on it (couldn't make it out).. moz took it during last song and tried to drape it round him then put it in back pocket, he handed mike to guy who started man u chant - moz looked bewildered/bemused but clapped along with him

when they came out before encore - took bow at front - moz then pulled everyone to the right and they did some kind of circle dance in the middle in sort of group hug - boz, solomon and matt then fell to floor.. moz quips "very childish behaviour" all smiles... boz was given out handshakes at end but couldn't reach people so jumped in the moat only to find at other end he couldn't get back up...waved frantically at arturo who pulled him up in one go? blimey!!

"Dzhemini"

my very first Morrissey gig, I was looking for it for so long and now it is finally over. What a strange feeling...

Morrissey's voice was great, no trace of any problem. He was in a very good mood and very energetic. He learned some words in Russian like "privet' and 'spasibo' . - (introducing the band) '...and I am... from hell!' - Even if you don't understand the words, you can understand the feelings... - (before GF in a Coma) "if you don't know the words it's ok cause neither do I' (?) or smt similar... Some things he said between songs I couldn't understand because of sound quality...

Intro music was different\new (??)

Setlist was posted already... I hoped to hear Seasick but he didn't play it... I wish there would be a few slower songs but I won't complain

the keybordist wore a red tshirt with 'CCCP' on it

Some flowers were thrown on stage...

no stage invaders but it would be impossible I think, the barrier and the stage were too high and the security were everpresent... No photos sadly. I had a good spot at the barrier, right side of the stage (girl with dark curly hair, small, red tshirt ) but the security were very strict about "no photo" ... The few brave souls who tried to take photos ended with their cameras being removed... But I still hope some pics surface with time...

Two shirts were thrown to the crowd, a violet\purple one and a white one. I wonder who got them. ...and now I finally know what legendary Julia looks like There was an after-party I think but I didn't go... my back and my legs were killing me... God I suddenly feel old (and I'm not!)

that's all for now... maybe more memories surface, it's all still too fresh in my mind. Sorry for my English, I'm in a hurry at Internet-cafe . now I'm off to see the Hermitage!

pics http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=morrissey&s=rec/ [http]">http:http://www.flickr.com/s [flickr.com]

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Are there any vids of the show?

I didn't hear bout this what exactlydid he say

Any of you who will also be in Moscow? I hope this time "You Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby" will be on.

I really need to see pictures from this show, please!

http://www.fontanka.ru/2009/06/30/064/picture.3.html [fontanka.ru]

video

http://spb.kp.ru/online/news/507131/