Well I didn't believe it would happen but it did... as he said himself "The North will rise again". Morrissey made it through his Royal Albert Hall show with only the occasional wobble.

He actually sounded a lot better than he did the last time I saw him during his curtailed residency at the Roundhouse.

Sadly, owing to the fact that we had truly abominable seats in the upper circle literally looking down onto the middle of the stage, I didn't engage that much with the show as I should have done. I will never sit in such crap seats again... especially for someone I like.

He appeared on stage in a blazer and jeans, announced "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night" (sadly no Bette Davis impression) and launched into a frantic "This Charming Man" which sounded like it was being sung to Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life". Then he raced through "Black Cloud" and the Hispanic-flavoured "When I Last Spoke To Carol" which sounded a lot better than on YEARS OF REFUSAL.

The classic intro for "How Soon Is Now?" buzzed out across the auditorium and was rapturously received - though it was a bit scary that he chose the end of the song to have a lie-down on the stage. Luckily he bounced up and sang a great version of "Ganglord".

We then had similarly fierce versions of "Cemetry Gates", "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris", "Teenage Dad On His Estate" - happy that's on the new b-sides album SWORDS - and "Nowhere Fast".
He then gave us a blistering "Irish Blood, English Heart" - one of his greatest songs Ever - and quickly changed the mood with a lilting "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself".

After a couple of ho-hums with "One Day GoodBye" and "Death At One's Elbow", he reminded us that no Celebrity Chef is a vegetarian which made Moz conclude that indeed "The World Is Full of Crashing Bores". He then bounced into "Is It Really So Strange?" and a cracking rockabilly "The Loop".

He slowed it down with "Because Of My Poor Education" - he retorted to the applause with "That bad, eh?" Yep Moz.. it was a bit drear. He finished off with REFUSAL's "I'm OK By Myself" and he was gone! I guess it was understandable that it would be a short set although he did come back for a rousing "First Of The Gang To Die".

He was mordant as always - he said he understood that we couldn't afford to come to the upcoming Alexandra Palace gig as well as tonight "I can't afford it either". So I expect that will be cancelled!

He also announced that SWORDS had been released on Monday but that was probably another album that no one would buy - but his moan was punctured by a punter yelling out that he had bought it - "Well that spoils it!" Despite the atrocious sound where we were sat - along with the pigeons of Kensington - the band sounded raucous and propulsive.

By the way Owen has been on at me to blog about the Maximo Park gig we saw at the Albert Hall a few weeks ago. What can I say... I liked a couple of the songs as they actually had a melody as opposed to the rest of the setlist which sounded like they were playing the same song over and over again only with different song titles. I liked "Acrobat", "The Coast Is Always Changing" ('cos Owen likes that one), "Going Missing" and "Girls Who Play Guitars" got their over-excitable fanbase almost self-combusting.

Oh and look how close we were to the stage...*kicks coffee-table*