Judging from the influence they still wield decades later, one would have thought The Smiths were together for eons. However, on December 12, 1986, the group performed their last real concert after just four years from their inception.
Morrissey kicked off the show by asking the sold out crowd at the Brixton Academy, “If there’s something you’d like to try / Ask me, I won’t say no, how could I?”
Unfortunately the thing both he and guitarist Johnny Marr wanted to try were solo careers.
The show was a benefit for Artists Against Apartheid, an activist group founded by Bruce Springsteen’s best friend and sidekick, “Miami” Steve Van Zandt. In 1985 they recorded the song “Sun City” which shed light onto the fact artists would perform at the South African resort to sidestep a cultural ban against apartheid.
read more at: Setlist.fm