You'll never fail like common people, You'll never watch your life slide out of view...

Michael Jackson's dead, apparently.

I'll never forget the moment I heard (nb. Imagine that said in a non-upset way, more with a reminiscent, wistful smile); it was Thursday night, we were leaving the Queen's head after suffering Kap Bambino and enjoying the new Metronomy line-up, and kept hearing people say 'Michael Jackson' and 'Michael Jackson's dead?' and 'Michael Jackson's dead!'. The natural reaction in times like these is, of course, to assume that it is a prank, a hoax, and that is precisely what we did.

Everyone was saying it, still, so we asked a trader of wax flares, who informed us with a stony expression that Michael Jackson was in fact dead.

At that moment it didn't really mean anything. At Glastonbury festival, as I suppose it must be at most festivals, you don't really have any connection with the outside world, physically (obviously) but also mentally and emotionally. This news didn't affect me in any way, other than perhaps a few 'I don't believe it's which were entirely genuine. I still don't, really, but that might have something to do with the constant stream of photos of a living Jacko.

At the time I found out, I don't think any of us had a clue that it would turn into such a big thing. It's the biggest death since Princess Diana, for sure, and people have really gone mental for it, mostly to the extent of acheiving a collective amnesia in public.

That is to say, that many have stopped condemning him for being extremely strange and suspected of abusing children.

However, in private, we've all heard and even made jokes. Why do we feel this need to go back on ourselves?

Look at this:

When I visited Bristol Museum's Banksy exhibition (Banksy vs. Bristol Museum) this had been put up in the hallway which leads into the main exhibition. Next to it, as we waited to enter, was a man with a video camera asking passers by what they thought.

When it got to me, I sort of rambled about the jokes and things and how nobody said it in public, and then he asked this question:

"Do you think it's appropriate?"

I replied, after a short pause, that I felt that it was, and that it was good, and I liked it. It was painted 3 years ago, and before Jackson's death, nobody would have said it was inappropriate. What changes when he dies? If anything it becomes more relevant.

I loved the tongue-in-cheek candles and flowers below it, creating the shrine to the dead legend who's depicted luring children into his home. It was a great way to start a great look at one of our most revolutionary modern artists.

Go and see the exhibition, and stay true to your ideas, no matter who dies.

Sq.