Long-Lost Morrissey Videos Unearthed For DVD

Aug 11, 1999, 11:30 am PT

Morrissey has sent the folks at Reprise on a bit of a musical scavenger hunt to come up with some long- lost videos to include on his upcoming DVD release. With the mission of including all of his videos, Reprise execs have been hard at work tracking down some never- before- seen videos, including "Seasick, Yet Still Docked" and "Hold Onto Your Friends."

The "Seasick" master was found Tuesday (Aug. 10) through people involved in its production in the U.K., while a source says the label is thisclose to finding the "Hold Onto Your Friends" video. "Seasick" is from the live album, Beethoven Was Deaf and Your Arsenal, while "Hold Onto Your Friends" is from the album Vauxhall and I. When asked what the "Seasick" video entails, our source quipped, "Morrissey singing." Morrissey -- who gave Reprise a long list of clips to unearth -- especially wanted tracked down these two videos for the DVD, which now has the title of ¡Oye Esteban!.

¡Oye Esteban! will likely include 19 videos and, as previously reported here (allstar, July 29), will be released before Christmas at the same time Reprise released the Smiths DVD titled, The Smiths: The Complete Picture. The Moz is writing the booklet that will go inside ¡Oye Esteban!.

-- Carrie Borzillo

Related articles:

• Oct, 27, 1998: "Seasick, Yet Still Docked" - was there a video?
• Jul. 29, 1999: "Morrissey Is Back - Tour, DVDs Coming Soon"

• From Cindy, a link to the article at music365:
  
  Marr 'Will Not Join' Thinned-Down Oasis
  
  JOHNNY MARR will not be joining Oasis as a replacement for recently departed guitarist Bonehead, Music365 has been told.
  
  A Creation Records spokesperson says media speculation that the former Smiths guitarist and Electronic lynchpin is to join Oasis is "completely untrue. That's coming from us the record company, from us as the people who represent the band, and from the management who represent both of those artists." Marr, like Oasis, is handled by Marcus Russell of Ignition Management.
  
  Noel Gallagher and Marr are friends, with Marr having assisted Oasis in their early days. Gallagher has also nodded to the guitarist's style in The Smiths as a major influence on his own songwriting.
  
  The spokesperson also adds that the band have no plans to replace Bonehead, whose exit from the band was announced in the UK on Monday night (August 9). They will bring in a guitar player for live work, but that is "a long way off".
  
  There are also no plans for Bonehead to record a solo album for Creation, contrary to reports surfacing today in the British media. All members of Oasis, however, are signed to Creation both individually and as a collective, so the company would have the first option on any future material the guitarist recorded.
  
  Meanwhile, Johnny Marr is reported to be in the first stages of recording his debut solo album in Los Angeles, and is also said to be working with Beck on the latter's new album. There are also persistent rumours that Electronic, the intermittent 'supergroup' he has formed with New Order's Bernard Sumner, are to tour later this year to promote their last album 'Twisted Tenderness'.
  
  Thu Aug 12 1999 14:55 BST
  
  
• First with the link to another article at allstar is Lorenzo Pizza:
  
  Johnny Marr Will Not Join Oasis, Despite London Reports?
  
  Aug 11, 1999, 2:20 pm PT
  
  Despite London's Evening Standard reporting on Wednesday (Aug. 11) that ex- Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr is "set to join" Oasis as the replacement for Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, who announced his departure from the group on Monday (allstar, Aug. 9), a source close to Marr has denied the reports.
  
  "Johnny has not joined Oasis," says the source. "This information is not true. There is more chance of Beck joining Offspring! He was asked to play a couple of dates and that was it. From what I understand, he is not even going to do that."
  
  The source goes on to explain that such a pairing is not entirely farfetched, however, as the relationship between Marr and Oasis is very close. "[Johnny] is extremely tight with Oasis," says the source. "The relationship is really there. Oasis originally wanted Johnny to produce their current record."
  
  Initial reports from the Oasis camp were that Arthurs would not immediately be replaced. However, according to the BBC, an Oasis spokesperson in the U.K. stated that an official statement will be forthcoming soon.
  
  A spokesperson for Epic Records, Oasis' U.S. label, also concurred that the story was untrue.
  
  Marr is knee-deep in writing with his new band, the Healers, and is set to begin recording in Los Angeles later this year with Beck engineer Mickey P. at the helms. Pending a U.S. label deal, the Healers' album is expected to hit stores in February followed by an extensive U.S. tour -- his first in 10 years.
  
  Oasis' as-yet-untitled fourth album, which includes guitars by Arthurs, is expected to drop early next year.
  

  -- Kevin Raub
  

• Link to dotmusic article (which suggests Marr will join Oasis) from Maladjusted: Johnny Marr to join Oasis?
  
  
• According to Q Online, Aziz Ibrahim and Paul "Strangeboy" Stacey are also rumored to replace 'Bonehead'. Link from Maladjusted.

Here's a complete transcription of the 5 minute TV Show "Music of the Millennium", shown on Channel 4 [UK] at 1.50am, 12 August 1999{GMT}

This show featured Johnny Marr, talking about Phil Spector.

***** Opening credits *****
*music of the millennium*
*************************

JM-"Hi, I'm Johnny Marr. I'm gonna be talking about a musician who influenced me - it's Phil Spector"

#music: drum intro-'Be my baby'-The Ronettes#
(Marr mimics drum beats-Bump! Bum-Bump!-Kerch! Bump! Bum-Bump!-Kerch!)
#'The night we met I knew I,'#

JM-"The Ronettes' records were very, very hip."

#'..needed you so..'#

JM-"I heard something in those records that was very obviously missing from the records that was being made in the late 70s."

#'So won't you say you love me'#

JM-"The Mega Instrumentation and passion. And an obsessive inventiveness."

#'So won't you please...(be my, be my,) be my little baby...'#

JM-"The Ramones have got a story about how, when they wanted him to produce 'Rock and Roll High School' they went up to his house for a few days and erm, he had all these guards around with guns and he wouldn't let them out and all the rest of it. But eventually he got to make the record and the very first song (laughingly), 'Rock and Roll High School' -the opening chord: he got them to play it all day. Over and over and over again. Getting this chord right. Seventeen hours. And when you listen to it. It sounds like the best chord I've ever heard."

#music: Intro-(School bell. 'The best chord Johnny Marr has ever heard'. Drums)-'Rock and Roll High School' - The Ramones#

JM-"He famously made 'River deep Mountain high' with Ike and Tina Turner. And, quite rightly, regard it as one of the best records that had ever been made."

#music: Intro- 'River deep - Mountain high' - Ike & Tina Turner#
#'When I was a little girl I had a rag doll, only doll I've ever owned...'#

JM-"And the emotion level's kind of like that"[indicates chest level with hand]

#'Now I love you just the way I loved that rag doll...'#

JM-"It gets more emotive, and more emotive and more emotive..."[indicates levels rising in steps] "...until you actually think the record's gonna explode."

#'And it gets longer in everyway...And it gets deeper, let me say...#

JM-"It's the sound of one person, one fairly mad person, with a mad vision, and that's why the records sound the way they do."

#'Do I love you? My oh my. Yeah - River deep, mountain high! Yeah Yeah Yeah!'#

JM-"They're erm, almost Gothic really. And they're dripping in intensity."

#'Oh I love you baby,..'#

JM-"Why be subtle about an idea when you can just hammer someone over the head with it?"

*****Closing credits*****
*music of the millennium*
*************************

...a very small Smiths mention, but one nontheless. From CMJ Online:

LUNA SIGNS TO JERICHO RECORDS

New York hypno-rockers Luna have been picked up by the Sire imprint Jericho Records, a label helmed by Smiths producer John Porter and Silvertone Records head Andrew Lauder. Luna had been dropped by Elektra Records. The band's fifth record, The Days Of Our Nights, which was originally scheduled for a May 25 release, will now arrive in stores on October 26. Beggars Banquet issued the U.K. import version of title in April. "Dear Diary" will be the first single from the LP.