Milestones, Setlist, Video — December 12, 2011 at 12:33 pm

Milestones: The Smiths played last concert 25 years ago today — watch the whole show

Twenty-five years ago today, The Smiths performed what would prove to be the band’s final concert, a 15-song set at London’s Brixton Academy as part of a rescheduled benefit for Artists Against Apartheid. It wouldn’t quite be the last time the band played together — there were a few TV appearances before Johnny Marr quit in July 1987, a few months before the release of Strangeways, Here We Come.

The performance is notable not only because it was The Smiths’ last full concert, but it also marked the first and only time the band performed The Queen is Dead closer “Some Girls are Bigger Than Others,” about-to-be-released single “Shoplifters of the World Unite” and a medley of “London” and “Miserable Lie” live onstage (plus a rare airing of “The Night Has Opened My Eyes”).

Below, you can watch the full concert in the embedded player, although you’ll have to advance to about the 14:08 mark to see the beginning (the video opens with the tail end of the band’s July 20, 1986, concert in Manchester; you can watch the first part of that here). We’ve also posted a few of the individual tracks separately following the full setlist.

Video: The Smiths’ final concert, 12/12/86 (full performance; starts around 14:08)

Setlist: The Smiths, Brixton Academy, London, 12/12/86

1. “Ask”
2. “Bigmouth Strikes Again”
3. “London”/”Miserable Lie”
4. “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”
5. “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”
6. “Shoplifters Of The World Unite”
7. “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
8. “Is It Really So Strange?”
9. “Cemetry Gates”
10. “This Night Has Opened My Eyes”
11. “Still Ill”
12. “Panic”
13. “The Queen Is Dead”
14. “William, It Was Really Nothing”
15. “Hand In Glove”

Video: The Smiths, ‘Asl,’ Brixton Academy, London, 12/12/86