Mimi writes: "An evening with Boz Boorer & friends" is on at Whelans in Dublin on Thursday May 3rd. Doors open at 8.00 pm, show starts at 8.30 pm and the tickets are on sale on www.ticketmaster.ie from now on!

Piaras Walsh writes: Boz is playing at the CARLSBERG KILKENNY RHYTHM 'N ROOTS WEEKEND, Friday 4th May - Monday 7th May in Ireland. No idea what the actual venue is yet. The festival will take place in various bars and theatres in the city.

ladyspecter writes:

Apart from the reference in this article to SpecteR, culled from Spin.com, playing in New York on the 26th & 27th of May. They will be playing at The Black Cat, D.C. on th 29th of May. The Milky Way, Boston on the 30th of May and The Tune Inn, C.T. On the 31st of May.

SpecteR will be playing at The Castle, Union Street, Oldham on Friday the 27th of April. (Note from Ezra: Sadie (featuring members of the Salford Lads) will be opening these shows on each US date. Also, the Don Hills show is being booked by Homegrown Productions and will be a Morrissey/Smiths night. The URL for that night, plus flyers, directions, etc. can be found here.)

Ex-Smith Mike Joyce Talks New Band - Spin.com, Apr. 19, 2001

Eric Wang writes:

On Amazon's UK site, there's a book entitled "Morrissey" by Pat Reid coming out in June of this year. I wasn't too sure if it was a biography or a novel of some sort, so I went to the website for the publisher, Absolute Press, click on "new titles"). And BINGO - it is about him, but seems to deal more with his sexuality than anything else.

One of pop music's most enigmatic and compelling figures. Morrissey's only claim about his sexuality is that he is celibate. But he is both reviled and revered by various sections of the gay community. Pat Reid delves into the hushed territory of it all.

Scheduled for Summer 2001.

---
Related items:

• Gary Day Exclusive Interview at Intermusic.com - June 26, 2000
• Exclusive Spike T. Smith interview in April Rhythm magazine (UK) - Feb. 25, 2000

Curtis Mayfield writes:

On the Q website, Sparks chose their recommended albums, and when commenting on Beastie Boys 'Licensed to Ill' Ron said:

"A lot of people derided Elvis as being watered down, but he brought something amazing to his music. The Beastie Boys were the rap equivalent. I liked the attitude and the brashness, just as I enjoyed Public Enemy for being so over the top. We met Morrissey in LA and made the mistake of mentioning how much we liked rap. That was the end of that conversation."

L'Estrange writes:

Today i recieved ON7 - the monthly magazine that supplements Ondigital (the UK's inferior digital TV network)
Usually i bin it but boredom got the better of me and i read it. To my surprise on page 8 the is a half page picture of Morrissey & Marr - and Depeche Mode.

The article - very lightweight gives details of a new 8 part series coming to Play(BBC music & comedy channel).

Called "State of Independents" - this may have been on mainstream telly before (but I've not seen it).

The full article reads:

From PLAY comes a brand new 8 part series that's a must for fans of indie music everywhere. Charting the rise and fall of the independent music scene, State of Independents focuses on the bands championed by "old school" indie labels like Rough Trade (The Smiths,right) and mute (Depeche Mode, below) as well as some of today's niche music labels like Jeepster (Belle & Sabastian).

Thoughout the series there will also be interviews with indie music gurus such as Tony Wilson whose Factory label eventually closed down, and Creation boss Alan McGee, who discovered Oasis before selling out to Sony.

State of independents, PLAY, Sundays from 13 May, 6.30pm

Morrissey covered Bradford's "Skin Storm" for the b-side of the 1991 single "Pregant For The Last Time." TrblLuvsMe sends:

Here is the pertinent part of the article:

UK Newsquest Regional Press - This is Lancashire April 24, 2001
Porn shame of former pop star
David Higgerson (author email [email protected])

A COLLEGE lecturer who downloaded more than 1,200 pornographic images of children from the internet was in one of East Lancashire's most successful pop bands.

Mark Andrew McVitie had the images stored on floppy discs at his home when police raided on September 8 last year while he worked part-time at Blackburn College.

He was sent to Crown Court for sentence by Blackburn magistrates after admitting 20 specimen internet child pornography charges.

Today it was revealed that McVitie, 30, of Clarendon Road East, Blackburn, was drummer in the Blackburn-based band Bradford, which had a national tour and released four singles and an album, Shouting Quietly, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Bradford were hailed as the next big thing and were the first band to release their debut single on CD.

The five-piece outfit recorded demos at the famed Strawberry Studios in Stockport.

Their demo tape prompted Mick Middles, author of the Smiths biography, to announce that "there is life after Morrissey after all" following the demise of the 80s band.

In 1988 the band supported Morrissey when he made his comeback at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, playing to 1,500 fans.

Their debut single Skin Storm released in 1988 was released on the Bolton-based label Village Records. The B-side Gattling Gun was about shooting Sun journalists.

Their only album was produced by Stephen Street, who worked with the Smiths and went on to work with Blur.
[end snip]

Here's the rest of it:

(more)

Russell C writes: Trivial in the extreme, but "There is a Light..." was played twice before the Shed Seven gig in Wolverhampton yesterday (Apr. 23), prompting the biggest singalong of the night on the second occasion. As it finished on this second time, the lights wryly went out...

Hairdresser on Fire writes: The last song played over the PA before the Manic Street Preachers gig at Brixton last Saturday (31st March) was 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before'. Unfortunately, it got cut off about half way through as the band came on stage.