Music Monday: Smashing Pumpkins

I'm surprised it's taken me so long to get round to posting a Smashing Pumpkins video.  I may listen to other bands more, and the Pumpkins line-up may have changed more often than the Sugababes, but they are the band I have loved most and longest.  From lying in a darkened teenage bedroom listening to their Siamese Dream album for the first time and thinking "sod you Bradford chavs, this is who I choose to be now"; to 'making out' (great phrase, so much nicer than 'snogging', which seems tinged with alcohol and boredom) while Lily, My One & Only played in the background; to watching them on the main stage at Glastonbury while under the influence of a raft of chemicals; to playing Rocket triumphantly on my car stereo after I passed my driving test at the grand old age of 29, the Smashing Pumpkins have been there at every stage of my post-adolescent life.

As soon as I hear the bombastic chords that herald Cherub Rock's  arrival, I feel like I'm 16 again.  My then-boyfriend Ollie and I used to play this down the phone to each other.  Both struggling through the last weeks of our GCSEs at different schools where we were bullied for being different, we decided that the lyrics were nothing short of genius.  Now I look at them and cringe, but I still adore the song.