Your Arsenal - Morrissey

With all this waving of union flags in the Olympics I am inevitably reminded of Morrissey's appearance at Finsbury Park in 1992; draping himself in the union flag and covering himself with controversy. Whether he meant to spark a racism row or was reclaiming the union flag from the far right we'll never know. Whatever the reason, it was a misguided act. But if pop music can't be controversial then where does that leave us? After all it was only a few years later when Brit Pop exploded onto the scene that the use of the union flag was seen as a patriotic exclamation that our pop industry was once again king of the airwaves. It's a fickle business pop music.

In 'Your Arsenal' Morrissey finally had a sound to match his lyrics. The fey, whimsical approach was out and in its place was a rockabilly sensibility. Finally it no longer sounded like he wrote the humorous song title first and then fitted a lyric around that. These were proper songs with more than a nod to David Bowie and T-Rex. Perhaps in Alain Whyte he finally had a composer to fill the shoes of Mr Marr? Well partly fill them anyway.

It's hard to hear 'Certain People I Know' and not think about Marc Bolan just as it's hard not to listen to the lyrics of 'You're The One For Me, Fatty' and not raise a smile and sing along. Whether you like it or not.

And it was that song that very nearly landed me in big trouble. Around this time we were on one of our annual trips to the Lake District and I was in the Co-op in Coniston getting some breakfast provisions whilst DB waited in the car. It was early so I was day dreaming, minding my own business, queueing and singing this song to myself. Unfortunately the checkout operator was a rather portly chap and overhead me singing the chorus to myself. I got a Paddington Bear hard stare for my troubles and immediately shut up. I paid and left before I got into more trouble. Maybe he was just not a Morrissey fan?

Anyway it's a great album - more rock and glam than Morrissey had ever been either before or since and worthy of a listen. Listen to it twice and you'll be singing along to the upbeat music. Just be careful where you are when you do!