The sun was shining and Johnny Marr was resplendently standing astride the Green Stage, looking out over a very happy festival audience. He began his set with an original composition “The Tracers” but it was the Smiths tune “Bigmouth Strikes Again” which really drew the crowd from other stages and food areas.

The Smiths had a short 5-year history as a band which precluded them from touring extensively, or for that matter becoming passe and doing music that was wasn’t stellar. Moreover, the strength of their catalog has led to able to live on in near constant touring by former frontman Morrissey, and collaborator, Johnny Marr.

Naturally, such outsized musical talent would also want to gain acclaim for newish material and did that with the majority of his set, playing “Jeopardy”, and “Day In Day Out” and “New Dominions” “Hi Hello” and “Getting Away With It” and “BugWalk Into the Sea” and “Easy Money”.

Thankfully he save some room at the end of his set for Smiths classics. He teased the crowd by asking for requests, later backing away from the offer but quipping that there weren’t any beards on stage which may be a jab at Morrissey.

And soon enough it was “How Soon Is Now?” and then the audience was treated to the singalong classic, “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”.