Here are the Morrissey and Smiths album sales in the Soundscan era (i.e from 1992 onwards), which I received from a friend who works there.
Interestingly enough both in 2007 and in total sales since 1992 The Smiths outsell Morrissey, if only just.
In 2007 The Smiths sold 66,063 albums in the US and Morrissey sold 58,992 albums
Cumulatively The Smiths have sold 2,598,266 albums in the SoundScan era and Morrissey has sold 2,350,983.

The best selling Smiths albums from 1992 onwards are:

Best...1 : 432,907
Louder Than Bombs: 412,444
Singles: 396,150
The Queen Is Dead: 287,180
Meat Is Murder: 245,385
Strangeways, Here We Come: 230,794
Best...2: 208,357
Harful of Hollow: 133,809
The Smiths: 130,076

The best selling Morrissey album from 1992 onwards are:

Your Arsenal: 366,047
Bona Drag: 360,977
Vauxhall & I: 293,017
Viva Hate: 234,804
You Are The Quarry: 230,169
Kill Uncle: 221,293
Best of Morrissey: 179,746
Ringleader of The Tormentors: 97,502
Maladjusted: 88,554
World Of Morrissey: 69,357
Southpaw Grammar: 67,451

Ultimate Mix Tape: Morrissey
[The essential jams.]
by Scott Collura

February 29, 2008 - Welcome to IGN Music's Ultimate Mix Tape, a new semi-regular column that revisits some of our favorite bands and musical artists and creates what we see as the definitive playlists for those acts. What's the difference between a mix tape and a playlist, you ask? Well, for one thing you can't hit random on a mix tape. And for another, no one actually listens to tapes anymore -- except for your grandma.

Still, there's something about a mix tape that the more modern playlist can't quite capture… A mix tape always held a finite amount of space, which meant you had to pick your 15 or so songs carefully. And for the mix masters out there, the order the songs were included in on the tape could be important as well, with each tracking playing off the previous one, leading to an overall cumulative sonic experience.

For our first installment of IGN's Ultimate Mix Tape, we're going with none other than the former Smiths frontman himself, Morrissey. It was recently announced that [Morrissey] will be releasing a Greatest Hits on March 25th that will span his 20-year solo career, and hard as it is to believe that it's already been 20 years since The Smiths broke up, this news also got us thinking about what Morrissey has truly accomplished in those two decades… and whether or not said musical deeds could make up a great mix tape. Read on for the answer to that question and find out if we were truly disappointed or if our Morrissey mix turned out to be an interesting drug…

Go to the website link to see the song list.

Monday, 03 March 2008
James McAvoy of the empowering message of 'Penelope'
by Betsu Pickle - SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE, Daily Herald

Excerpt:

And the film, set in the 1980s, had a "phenomenal soundtrack" featuring the Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears, the Smiths and more.

"The story behind the soundtrack for that was that we couldn't afford such a great soundtrack because those tunes cost a lot of money," says McAvoy. "Morrissey doesn't really let his songs out for less than a ... lot of money, and neither do the Cure.

"But the lead singer for the Cure came along, saw the film, liked it so much and he was originally going to try and score some of the music, but it didn't work out due to other commitments, and he said, 'Yeah, you can have lots of our songs.'

"As soon as he did that, everybody from the '80s, including Morrissey, was like, 'Yeah, you can have our music. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Have it cheap.' So it was great."

I was distressed to hear recently that Tory Boy David Cameron recently cited The Smiths as one of his favourite bands. I posted a question to him on Guardian Unlimited to ask him whether he was familiar with Margaret on the Guillotine! See his response below (4th entry down the list)

Live web chat with David Cameron today

The "Morris" character on the 3/3 episode said that he had "Hatful of Hollow" on his MP3 player and the John Connor character replied that he "loves the Smiths".

Here's the link to the video clip which is 2 segments merged together... One of the writers must be a Smiths/Morrissey fan!

Found some old footage thats turned up on Youtube of Morrissey with 'Spend Spend Spend' Author Viv Nicholson. Star of the " Heaven knows i'm Miserable Now" sleeve.

She also has a website http://www.vivnicholson.co.uk

San Francisco's own Smiths tribute band will be playing two shows in Southern California this weekend at the Juke Joint (with The Clash City Rockers) and then the House Of Blues (with Super Diamond)! Details are on the flyers and the website!

Our website: ThisCharmingBand.net
Our MySpace: myspace.com/thischarmingband

FRIDAY, MARCH 7:
The Juke Joint
735 N. Anaheim Blvd.
Anaheim, CA

SATURDAY, MARCH 8:
The House Of Blues
8430 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA