The Smiths

TV Editor Catrin Osborne discusses the legacy of The Smiths as a quintessential university band.

Excerpt:

"Within the ephemeral online culture of Gen Z (those of us born after 1996) has risen the phenomenon of posting explicitly depressive statements which draws parallels with many of Morrisey’s lyrics. No song by The Smiths exemplifies this better than ‘How Soon is Now?’. A song that pairs Johnny Marr’s jangly guitar with Morrisey’s lamentations on the experience of a failed night out where he concludes ‘And you go home and you cry / And you want to die’. This juxtaposition between joyous instrumental and sorrowful lyrics seems as popular now as it was when it was released. Dubbed ‘sadfishing,’ young people are oversharing their emotions online in the modern age and this is reflected in a lot of popular music. However, there is...

Image added by Famous when dead:

A follow-up to a story by The Lancashire Post in January - where they were looking for anyone who attended any Smiths' gigs in Lancashire as a book was being written.
Information about a signed, limited run hardback surfaced in July.
It is now complete and available shortly (due on or around September 29).
The article features a few fan recollections from the book as a taster.

The Smiths – The Day I Was There is by Richard Houghton & published via This Day In Music Books:

www.thisdayinmusicbooks.com

'A new book about indie music legends The Smiths recalls memories of the band’s famous live concerts. Here, in an exclusive excerpt, we look back to some of the Manchester band’s Lancashire dates'

"The Smiths – The Day I Was There, compiled by music historian Richard Houghton, is a ‘people’s history’ containing more than 400 fan recollections of the group’s live shows, including memories of the band’s gigs in Lancaster and...

(originally posted in the Strange/unexpected Moz references? thread)

---

Saw the UK film, 'Blinded By The Light' and the main character tells his girlfriend he is going to Manchester Uni. 'Why because of The Smiths' she asks. 'No because it is 4 hours from Luton'

I imagine that joke only works if you are from the UK?

The girlfriend later on tells the same boy that she had a previous boyfriend who thought he was Morrissey.

It is actually quite a good film and worth a watch just for the 80's haircuts.

Remembering ‘Bands Reunited’, the show that tried and failed to reunite The Smiths - Tyler Jenke / Tonedeaf / thebrag.com

Excerpt:

"With the iconic vocalist performing a five-date residency at New York City’s Apollo Theatre in May of 2004, the show’s producers hit upon the idea of simply staking out the venue in hopes of catching Morrissey before he turns up to soundcheck.

While this is a relatively solid idea on paper, its realisation soon heads south, with a six hour stake-out resulting in little more than Morrissey jumping out of his limo, heading into the venue, avoiding the crew, and leaving them without any hopes of a future reunion.

For many fans, the image of Aamer Haleem sobbing against a van is ingrained within their memory, as others wonder why they maybe didn’t try another approach."
...

Remembering the brilliance of Derek Jarman’s Smiths film ‘The Queen is Dead’ - Far Out Magazine (July 19, 2019)
By Kelly Rankin

Excerpt:

"Jarman worked with several music artists over the years, collaborating with the likes of the Sex Pistols, Marianne Faithful, Patti Smith and Pet Shop Boys, to name a few. But the Smiths were one of his first and most regular collaborators. ‘The Queen is Dead’ is a “Super 8 film triptych” made up of the Smiths hits; ‘The Queen is Dead,’ ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ and ‘Panic.’ It’s an amalgamation of recycled images and clips expressing Morrissey’s deep-cutting lyrics and Marr’s hit melodies. Jarman’s film is disorientating and so eighties that today, it could be mistaken as parody (and I mean this in the most positive way possible)...

Special limited edition hardback numbered from 1-500 and signed by the author.

"The Smiths – The Day I Was There tells the story of The Smiths in the words of over 400 fans from Britain and the US. With memories from the earliest Smiths shows at UK clubs through to the last ever gig at London’s Brixton Academy, you’ll see a portrait of The Smiths from the perspective of fans, promoters and support acts with personal photographs, memorabilia, fascinating anecdotes and stories that have never been published before."

Publication date: 29th September 2019.
Price: UK £24.99 US $32.00

Cover photo by Stephen Wright.

https://thisdayinmusicbooks.com/books/the-smiths-the-day-i-was-there/

The book was announced in January and featured...

BLUE RONDO A LA TURK - Morrissey Central
July 8, 2019

"I liked them because they seemed two jumps ahead of everyone else. The mere sight of them suggested big league, but they didn't quite get that far. They were one of the very few groups that the Smiths supported, but there was a scepticism about them being just 'club models' … who asked and got. This was said also about very early Roxy Music … who appeared to be quite affluent before they'd even had a hit. With Blue Rondo, again, you suspected that they were given all of their fantastic suits for free whilst the rest of us had to dream of being able to buy SOMETHING that didn't look TOO abysmal. The main electric spark was their dancing which was very virile and athletic … and even though they came from the Blitz/Billy's scene they seemed like supermale prizefighters or nightclub heavies … deep-chested vocals, narrow-hipped, and very much a...