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Great for Smiths fans.
If you're a fan of the band, I'd say you need this to complete your collection. If you have only casual interest in The Smiths, you might not bother. True, it was released by the record company to try to satiate devastated fans after The Smiths announced they had broken up, but it's not a bad little recording.

I think the setlist is a bit spotty, but there are several songs here that I didn't like the studio versions of that much, but which shine on this live recording. Examples would be Vicar In A Tutu, Still Ill, or even The Boy With The Thorn In His Side. A particularly annoying thing about this album is that it's not the full concert and great songs like Frankly Mr. Shankly, Never Had No One Ever, and I Want The One I Can't Have (among others) were performed but not included on the CD.

The band and Morrissey sound good here and all in all it's not a bad investment. It's just that the motives behind releasing it make it a bit of a dubious record.

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Way above average live-album
First: The only reason this album did not get a five-star rating, is that this is a Smiths album, and as such, must live up to some pretty high standards. Now, the Smiths were without doubt the greatest band of the eighties (and one of my all time favourites), and had a reputation for being a huge live-attraction. Now, unfortunately, I never had a chance to catch their live acts (primarily because they split up when I was ten years old), but I do imagine that some piece of their worth as a live band were due to Morrisseys enigmatic stage performance, which isn't easily transformed to a sound recording. That said, all the band members were (are) excellant musicians, as this album is a proof of. Now, to summarize my thoughts about this album:

For:

-It's the Smiths, it must be good. (and it is)

-Good sound quality. Far superior to the bootlegs I have heard.

-Some of the songs are featured in great live versions. This recording of The Queen is dead really opened my eyes, I mean ears, to this song. The studio version of the song had never really appealed to me. Until this one.

-The Draze Train. Amazing intrumental tune. Awesome performance by Marr (as always).

Against:

-Less than great song selections. Vicar in a tutu, Ask, Rushholme ruffians and London have never been among my favourite Smiths-songs, though this version of Vicar is in my opinion far superior to the studio one.

-Less than great live versions of some of the songs. I much prefer the regular album versions of What she said, I know it's over and Bigmouth.

-Though backed by secondary guitarist Carig Gannon, Marr doesn't achieve the amazing guitar-tracks as he does when layering guitars on the studio-album. Still, Marr allways performs well, and this is no exception.

So, if you are a Smiths fan, you already own this album. If not, you are going to buy it tomorrow. If you like the Smiths, but aren't a diehard-fan, then I'd still recommend this album. You won't be disapointed. If you are new to the Smiths, get The Queen is Dead or Louder than Bombs instead (and then get all the others). If you hate the Smiths, then go get the new remixes of Modern Talkings greatest instead.

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I know it's Over
And you will too when you listen the this CD. Not that it's that bad, it's just a let down, a big let down. The band is sloppy, too fast, and Morrissey vocals are openly over the top playing off on some derivative of his former self. Almost as if he could care less of what is now just all a big joke. Maybe I'm being too rough but that is what it seems like! Clearly the band final days were felt. All songs are inferior to the studio versions. This opposed to Hatful of Hollow which blew the studio versions away in many cases.