Morrissey makes his live return at London’s Royal Albert Hall

Singer even finds time to joke about his recent onstage collapse

Morrissey made his live return at London‘s Royal Albert Hall tonight (October 27) after collapsing on stage last week.

The former Smiths‘ frontman was rushed to hospital with breathing difficulties on Saturday (October 24) after falling to the floor during the first song of his set at Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon.

Walking on stage to rapturous applause, he launched into opener ‘This Charming Man’The Smiths classic he failed to finish in Swindon by saying: “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”

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The singer, who had cancelled his date in Bournemouth yesterday, returned to the stage for the second night of the Swords tour in charismatic and healthy looking form.

Later on in the set, upon the climax of ‘How Soon Is Now?’, Morrissey poked fun at his recent collapse by lying on the ground for a few minutes before getting to his feet with the quip: “Thank you, Swindon.”

Ever keen to joke about his onstage collapse, the Manchester singer also told the crowd: “The doctor said I shouldn’t smile. I told him I don’t,” before he began his 2004 solo hit ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’.

The setlist differed from previous tours, with an emphasis on tracks from the B-Side compilation album ‘Swords’, and included the rarely played Smiths songs ‘Nowhere Fast’, ‘Is It Really So Strange?’, and the famously misspelled ‘Cemetry Gates’ from the 1986 album ‘The Queen Is Dead’.

Morrissey dedicated the latter to close friend Linder Sterling, whom he used to walk with through Manchester‘s Southern Cemetery in his teenage years, long thought to be the inspiration for the song.

Smiling and joking with the crowd, Morrissey seemed happy throughout the gig, noting that “not one celebrity chef is vegetarian” before leading into ‘The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores’.

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Closing his set with ‘First Of The Gang To Die’‘, Moz spent most of the song greeting fervent fans in the front row.

Morrissey played:

‘This Charming Man’
‘Black Cloud’
‘When I Last Spoke To Carol’
‘How Soon Is Now?’
‘Ganglord’
‘Cemetry Gates’
‘I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris’
‘Teenage Dad On His Estate’
‘Nowhere Fast’
‘Irish Blood, English Heart’
‘Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself?’
‘One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell’
‘Death At One’s Elbow’
‘The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores’
‘Is It Really So Strange?’
‘The Loop’
‘Because Of My Poor Education’
‘I’m OK By Myself’
‘First Of The Gang To Die’

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