I think this is really cool -- honestly, it's about time. There is so much depth and brilliance in the music of The Smiths; of all musical entities deserving academic attention, The Smiths certainly rank with The Beatles and Bowie. I only wish the symposium was in Southern California. One day will the world fully wake up to the beauty of The Smiths?

Please, please, please let this be a joke. The only solace I can take from this is that it is being held in an institution I've never heard of and not at a university.

This is born of the same lazy pseudo-inellectualism that spawns dissertations on David Beckham. The point is that if you're going to submit a paper at something like this, what value is your contribution if you're a fan? How can you judge their impact on modern culture and make a worthy contribution to its evaluation if you've spent your life listening to them non-stop and posting on boards like this?

If you write a thesis on Titian, you don't have to be a fan of his for it to be worth reading. Honestly, who thinks anyone is going to be at this symposium that doesn't like the Smiths? No-one. Which renders it meaningless as a serious academic event.

how The Smiths were championed from very early on by people who would have very little in common on a day-to-day basis with. I'm talking about the student population here. The Smiths were without a single doubt a very working class origin band, they came from Irish immigrant families who were not educated and did manual work (I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but it's true). I never understood how middle class students could even attempt to identify with what Moz was singing about because the humdrum and misery of having nothing and the desperation of no hope seems to be deeply ingrained into a massive proportion of the lyrics, it's the seed that creates Mozzer's anger and the emotion in the words and very much in the sad music of Marr and also extends very far into the imagery on the record sleeves and the places where the Smiths had photo shoots. For me, that's is where The Smiths were coming from. Most of these people would not have given Moz the time of day if he had not become what he did, you may say that this is crap but have a go at trying to integrate or make friends with students when you work in a warehouse and live on a council estate (just like Mozzer's dad did when he came here). My point is that University bigwigs are not qualified to pass comment on the subject. Simple.

This particular post is so lengthy and convoluted I simply cannot bring myself to read it in its entirety. It's just two steps away from one of those Courtney Love rants against the record industry (remember those?).

I believe Michael Bracewell (the old hog) had a go at an academic treatise on Morrissey, which, frankly, left us all somewhat bewildered and bemused.

Like Dietrich once said, "You cannot intellectualise passion...it's just not sexy."

There's always someone, somewhere, with a Big Nose, who knows....