Bruce B. writes:

Last night (Apr. 4) I attended a lecture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill titled "Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty: The Smiths and the Last Days of England" given by visiting Professor Colin Coutler of the University of Ireland, Maynooth. After seeing a flyer around town about the talk I was quite interested in an academic perspective on the Smiths. Professor Coutler was intelligent and insightful and his unmasked enthusiam for the band was endearing. He discussed mainly The Smiths as an historical document of a specific time: i.e. their mourning on a mythical England now lost, as a reaction to Thatcherism (he pointed out that their career spanned the exact time period of Thatcher's second term), etc. He played a few of the Derek Jarmen videos and two songs. He also went on at length about The Smiths rejection of 80's glamour and their own glamourization of poverty and ordinariness. He noted at the beginning of the talk: "If you get me trapped late in a bar I'll go on for hours without end about this band!" Morrissey's solo career was nearly off-handedly dismissed as "poor" except to note that Vauxhall and I was "one of the best albums of the decade.

Christina sends word that Pete Yorn did an acoustic version of "Panic" on the March 27 KCRW (Santa Monica, CA) show "Morning Becomes Eclectic" (broadcast archive, Real Audio required for broadcast). The cover begins at around 22:30 into the broadcast and includes the lyric change "Panic on the streets of Los Angeles, Dublin, Dundee, Echo Park..."

In the interview (around 17:00 into the broadcast), he mentions singing in a fake English accent when he first started out and being known as "the Morrissey rip-off guy" and that The Smiths had a heavy influence on him, "melodically especially."

RoyJ writes:

"How Soon Is Now" by The Smiths was played at the end of the April 1st episode of "Queer As Folk" on Showtime. It was used for the last few scenes when Brian was looking at a photograph of himself as a child sitting with his father (with whom he now has a very strained relationship). The soundtrack for "Queer As Folk" leans more towards dance music, so it was nice to hear The Smiths version being used rather than a more dance driven cover version (the Love Spit Love cover is used for "Charmed" and I heard a cover by Snake River Conspiracy playing at a club last month).

Dave Collins writes:

The U.S. based top Smiths / Morrissey band, The Sweet & Tender Hooligans embark on their first U.K. tour in September.

They kick off in London on Sat 8th September at the legendary Underworld, Camden Town, London NW1 (promoter: Flag Promotions) before moving to the East Midlands area of the U.K, playing another top venue, The Charlotte, Oxford Road, Leicester on Sun 9th September.

A couple of rest days then they travel to the north of the country, playing The New Roscoe, Leeds, Yorkshire on Thurs 13th September, before travelling to the spiritual home of every Smiths fan, Manchester on 14th Sept.!

Their final gig of the tour is at The Star & Garter, Manchester (close to Manchester Piccadilly station), a venue that hosts a regular Smiths night...