Hero worship

I was a very late-comer to The Smiths. In the 1980s when they were huge and everyone around me was tucking flowers into their waistbands, I was blissfully unaware of their power and lyricism. I was amongst those, poorly educated, dismissing The Smiths as dingy, depressing, dismal.

Fast forwards 15 years and I finally got it. I was as struck with love-worship for the music (and especially for Morrissey) as any maligned teenager I had so hastily disregarded in former times.

Seeing him at Glasto (on TV of course, I'm not mad) fills me with exactly the same mixture of sadness, curiosity and adoration as ever. And true to form, he still sparks as much controversy as ever and just as much love/hate debate.