But it was definitely not the Morrissey most veteran fans were used to seeing. On this night he chatted aimiably to, and with, members of his audience, his well paced set lasted for almost an hour and a half, and he even introduced his band, which is something of a rarity to those who have been following this man through the last 15 odd years of his solo career since the break-up of The Smiths.

Hot Montreal band The Dears opened the show, as they were apparently hand-picked by Morrissey to be his opening act for this Canadian gig, and in his seemingly endless capacity for goodwill last night he thanked them for "being dears". But the back drop behind the headlining band left no one wondering who was the undisputed star of the evening. Behind the musicians, on a raised platform, the word MORRISSEY was spelled out in fifteen foot high bold capital letters that were illuminated by an outline of Vegas-style light bulbs. It was strangely reminiscent of Elvis's come-back tour, or a Tom Jones album cover, but somehow it worked perfectly with the tone of the evening. The audience was there for him, and he was there for us, and together we were going to make something special. "This is an evening of loud music and poetry," he stated early on in the show, and indeed it was.

Musically the evening was an eclectic sampling of new and old, with several heart-stopping renditions of classic Smith's songs thrown into the mix. Morrissey kicked off the affair with a blistering version of "Bigmouth Strikes Again" from The Smiths's infamous 1986 The Queen Is Dead album, and he even updated the lyrics to include: "as the flames rose, to her Roman nose, and her iPod stared to melt...". In total there were five much loved Smiths songs that were doled out, but it was the surprise inclusion of the seminal 80s club hit "How Soon Is Now" that probably capped the evening for more than a few members of the crowd old enough to have lived through that particular decade.

For his ever growing legion of new and younger fans, Morrissey provided an excellent sampling of his best solo work to date including no less than eight tunes from his latest album "You Are The Quarry". His 5-piece touring band provided excellent musical support for that albums' bombastic show-stoppers "I Have Forgiven You Jesus" and "You Know I Couldn't Last", but the team also provided some more sophisticated musical moments as well. In fact a clarinet solo, added into the song "November Spawned A Monster", mimicked perfectly the operatic warblings of Toronto native Mary Margaret O'Hara who sang back-up on the original recording back in 1990.

Mozz finished things off with a single encore number, and gave the audience another time honoured Smiths favourite in the form of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". And by this time the number of frenzied fans who were clambering up onto the stage to touch their idol (a Morrissey concert tradition) was increasing moment by moment. I counted 51 stage stormers over the course of the entire evening, but even they were treated with kid gloves by security and were gently removed from the stage after accomplishing their star struck task. Then, in a final farewell gesture of generosity, Morrissey stripped the shirt off his back - revealing a surprisingly well-toned physique - and threw it into the audience. And while it's true that not everyone would regard a sweaty piece of clothing as something they'd want thrown at them, I'm sure the stitching on that particular garment didn't last a minute in the hands of the jubilant fans who had been treated to a very special evening by a very special performer.