How Soon Is Now (Hate Full of Hollow): this track spoke to and mirrored my heart. Watching the starlings’ murmurations over Manchester’s skyline, they cast shadows over the sky, blocking the fading sunlight at sunset. I thought you understood the desolations of the heart, but you, it appears, were wrapped in ideas of superiority; after all, the white working and lower middle classes need someone to look down upon. I wrote these words in the 1980s, even before I had substantial knowledge of your beliefs.
Something felt uncomfortable in my soul about your demeanour. Your mannerism, the staring into deep space, the aloofness conveyed exclusion rather than inclusion. I felt an ego in ascendance. In response, I wrote these words: