"Volta dos Smiths? Nem em 1 milh�o de anos", Folha de S�o Paulo, Apr. 3, 2000

Volta dos Smiths? Nem em 1 milh�o de anos
("Smiths reunion? Not in a million years")

Interview by L�cio Ribeiro
Folha de S�o Paulo newspaper (Brazil), Apr. 3, 2000

Translation by Fabricio

Original article at Folha online (in Portuguese), link from Mar�a

Read the interview with Morrissey, which happened in a Curitiba hotel, the city where the English singer will perform on Saturday his second show of the Brazilian tour.

(L�cio Ribeiro)

Folha - How was your first show in Brazil, Friday, in Porto Alegre?
Morrissey - A very good show. An excellent audience. Very moving. I never create any expectation, because otherwise I'm always mistaken. To be honest, I never think about encountering something spectacular. So I always find it unbelievable.

Folha - We heard the gossip that Smiths were contracted to make some shows in Brazil in 1986, but they were cancelled. This really happened?
Morrissey - It's not true. People never offered The Smiths any chance to play in South America. Never. If it were offered, perhaps we would have accepted.

Folha - Don't you still have a record label?
Morrissey - I don't. I haven't released an album for three years and it's time. I am looking for one.

Folha - Did Maverick, Madonna's record label, ask to hear new material of yours?
Morrissey - I was talking to them, but I don't think they are interested.

Folha - Why not? Madonna didn't want you?
Morrissey - I don't think it's because of Madonna. I think Maverick is not the place for me. They wanted me to persuade them to like me. I won't persuade anybody to accept an album of mine.

Folha - But you have lots of new material, don't you?
Morrissey - I have. I've been waiting to record for a long time, but it hasn't been possible because of contract disputes with my ex-record label, which went out of business.

Folha - Will you play new songs to the Brazilian public?
Morrissey - No. I have never been here before and there are lots of songs from the past that I think people want to hear.

Folha - And Smiths songs ("Is It Really So Strange?", "Meat Is Murder" and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me") have been played during the tour?
Morrissey - There are some...

Folha - People say you have been singing "Ask" and "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" in soundchecks. Is there iome chance to hear you singing them here?
Morrissey - It's not true. "The Boy ... " I haven't sung in many years.

Folha - Even without a record label, or a new album, you have sold out shows in every place you've gone to: Europe, USA, Japan... What kind of fans do you think you attract nowadays? Only the old ones, who liked Smiths, or do you see the MTV Generation of young people going to your shows?
Morrissey - I think it's a really new audience that goes to my shows. In Santiago last week everybody was really young. It's a very different audience compared to those of the eighties.

Folha - You have been saying that you are still passionate about music and about the present pop movement. What do you listen to?
Morrissey - I still listen to things that touch me, enrich me, influence me and make me happy. Old or new. I'll listen to pop music until the end of my days.

Folha - About present bands, which ones do you like?
Morrissey - I don't have much enthusiasm for modern groups. I think for the most part they just recycle the past, which is ok, but there's no possibility of really being excited about things like that.

Folha - Are you organizing the two DVD compilations, one about your solo career and the other about the Smiths?
Morrissey - Reprise Records are the ones who are preparing them. I think the one from The Smiths will be released in the next few weeks in the USA. Mine I think will be released a month after.

Folha - And about the rumors about a Smiths comeback...
Morrissey - This won't happen, not even in one million years. There has to be a nuclear war, an earthquake, for The Smiths to come back.

Folha - In your list of requirements you asked to watch a soccer match. You once did a song with a boxing theme. Can we expect a song about soccer?
Morrissey - Yes, definitely. I like the sport and I have an idea relating it to music.