Morrissey might be playing anew to sellout crowds worldwide, but for a man whose parents are from just up the road, who lived here for a time a few years ago, and who is currently revisiting the pop charts after a considerable absence with a single called ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’, tonight it’s clearly personal. And there he is: silver tuxedo jacket glittering, daisy dangling louchely from beneath his belt buckle, greying quiff still defiantly aloft. “Baile atha Cliath,” grins Morrissey endearingly.
Any cynics betting on an evening of flabby nostalgia and/or paycheque-induced dead-but-won’t-lie-downism can pay up now. That’s not to say it’s anything less than heartstoppingly moving to hear the old stuff in the flesh (the swooning drone of ‘Rubber Ring’; the pained melancholy of ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’), but it’s more thrilling still to witness a sterling set drawn mostly from brill new LP You Are The Quarry and to see and hear proof in spades that Moz in 2004 isn’t just trading on past glories. From his now-traditional, and utterly ace, pre-show ‘mix tape’, to his gig-wide caustic remarks (political and otherwise) and newly re-found sense of humour, to his bravura blaze through the new tunes (the funny valentine of ‘Let Me Kiss You’; the vindicating autobiography of brand newie ‘Don’t Make Fun Of Daddy’s Voice’) – it all adds up to a man still totally immersed in the world of music, still wholly engaged with the world and with his own creative process, and arguably on his best form since breaking up The Smiths.