McCULLOCH AND MARR WRITE ENGLAND'S WORLD CUP THEME

IAN McCULLOCH, (centre in picture) singer with Echo & The Bunnymen , has beaten rival entries from Blur, Pulp and The Lightning Seeds to record the official England World Cup Football Squad song.

'(How Does It Feel To Be) On Top Of The World?' was written by McCulloch and ex-Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr five years ago and will be released as a single by London Records on May 25. The song's chorus includes the terrace-friendly chant: "England we love you."

Current plans are for the track to be re-recorded next month in a 'Perfect Day'-style collaboration with vocals from a number of different artists which The Sun newspaper today claims will include All Saints, Cast, Jarvis Cocker, Finley Quaye, Louise, Robbie Williams plus members of the England squad.

Echo & The Bunnymen were asked to submit a version of the track after Football Association chiefs heard a demo. The Bunnymen had originally submitted an early version of the song with different lyrics as the theme music for The Golden Boot, a six-week series of programmes to be hosted by ex-England footballer Gary Lineker in the run up to the World Cup in June. The song was written around the same time as the other material on the Bunnymen's 'Evergreen' album.

Ian Broudie's Lightning Seeds were in the running for the prestigious official England World Cup song with 'Three Lions '98', an updated version of their mega-successful Euro '96 theme which hit Number One in the UK.

If the title and quoted lyric are any indication of the rest of the song, I think I'll pass...

Douglas Coupland's book signing tour

Here is the Douglas Coupland book signing schedule, courtesy Michelle.

Thanks to Jessica McMillan for her account of the Seattle signing:

The signing of "Girlfriend in a Coma" in Seattle, was actually last night, the 11th. I was there. I got my book signed. He lead into the reading by saying; "Shoplifters of the world unite and take over". Which got a minimal laugh from the crowd. I only heard one other person ask him about the Smiths. He didn’t mention anything about them during the reading. He just chuckled a bit, when I asked him, and said "they are great aren’t they?". Thats about it. I’ll be doing a review about the book and the signing in my new Morrissey zine, "Everybody’s Staring". The first issue will be out NEAR the beginning of April. Have a lovely day.

This morning it was announced that the England football team's official World Cup single is to be written by Ian McCulloch and Johnny Marr. The vocalist (s) have yet to be announced but I gather it's a mass singalong-Band-Aid type of affair. Needless to say, Morrissey probably won't be involved.

Football singles are generally as dreadful as you'd imagine them to be, but they're practically guaranteed to top the singles chart for a week or two. So expect some hideously embarrassing Top Of The Pops performances -

Johnny Marr consults Bernard Butler

Thanks to Natalie for the following:

In an interview in April's "Select" magazine, Bernard Butler talks about the Mike Joyce trial. He says:

"Everyday after court Johnny would come round or ring me from outside the Royal Courts of Justice. He’d just go 'What am I going to do? Morrissey is my key witness, I’m going to lose half a million quid'. Then we’d go out for a meal and come back and play some guitar."

I don't really know what that's about but it's interesting anyway!

Belle and Sebastian

Also from Natalie:

Also, just thought I would tell you that the Glasgow band Belle and Sebastian are Smiths influenced and covered "Reel Around The Fountain" at a London gig last year. Its only really of interest because they are such a brilliant band which brilliant lyrics.

Chino Moreno's (Deftones) mix tape

From Jonathan Bowie:

On pg. 68 of the new Rolling Stone with Buffy on the cover (April 2), Chino Moreno of the Deftones stated on his road trip favorite mix tape, that Morrissey’s "Little Man, What Now?" was his seventh favorite song to listen to.

"We Hate It..." covered

From Bambini:

The Spanish label AUSTRO with the help of ACUARELA has released "LUJO Y MISERIA" (luxury and misery): a brilliant compilation of melancholy, heartbreaking, intelligent, cynical and romantic pop music. 20 songs from eight bands.

It features a cover of "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" by Morrissey translated to Catalán with the title "És Odiós Quan Els Amics Triomfen" with all the power of the original mutated to tecnopop.

Seattle - get your "Girlfriend In  A Coma" signed (today)

From Todd Stephenson:

...Douglas Coupland will be signing "Girlfriend in a Coma" Thursday March 12 at Elliot Bay Books in downtown Seattle. I can’t be sure of the time but I think it is at 7pm.

The Smiths - not party music

I had VH-1 on while doing this update and they were doing the "Top 10 Party Songs of all time." Before announcing the #1 song they asked sarcastically who would be number one. One of the suggestions: "The Smiths?... no." Part of the "Girlfriend In A Coma" video was played as the lead out to a commercial break. The number one song turned out to be "Love Shack" by the B-52's. I don't get the sarcasm... just what world does VH-1 live in?

There's a series on the B.B.C. called Goodnight Sweetheart, featuring Nicholas Lyndhurst (Rodney in 'Only Fools And Horses'), which revolves around a man, Gary (Lyndhurst), who, thanks to a (very) special time gate in a backstreet near his house, spends his life between 1998 and... 1943! He is married with a kid and is a spy during World War Two, and has a girlfriend and runs a shop in 1998. Cue endless gaffes, since both ladies don't know about his 'double life'. Like, mentioning The Beatles, the internet or wheelie bins in 1943 - I'm sure you can imagine. In last week's episode, he was at home, in 1943, with his wife, Phoebe, and his next-door neighbour, ...Noël Coward (!), when Phoebe asked him to play 'one of his lovely songs' to Mr. Coward. Gary then sat down at the piano, and started singing 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now', doing a (lame but funny) Moz impression, even waving the flowers which were in the vase on the piano! Needless to say, Noël Coward was far from impressed. Grab a copy if you can.

E-mailbag

Looks like things have slowed down a bit so I have had a chance to go through my mailbox, something I've been neglecting for a while. I'll try to be better at answering mail, but I'm not making any promises.

As a lot of e-mail I receive may be of some interest to others, I have decided to start posting some in the new e-mailbag section every so often.

Sorry if this issue has been overblown, it is best to just move on, as the people involved with putting on this hoax are, as the e-mailer would agree, just not worth it.

"Girlfriend In A Coma" by Douglas Coupland

The book mentioned long ago is finally out. Thanks to Ryan for the info:

I just purchased Douglas Coupland’s (Author: Generation-X, Microserfs, Life after God) new book entitled "Girlfriend in a Coma." To say the least I was pleased that my favourite contemporary author wrote a book with a Smiths title, but I was much more pleasantly surprised when after reading 50 pages of the book I’ve come across numerous Smiths lyrics fit into his writing. Including "Bigmouth strikes again." and "We can go for a walk where it’s quiet and dry, and talk about precious things."

(p.s. Coupland didn’t only write Generation-X, it’s from his novel that the term was coined)

According to splene, Coupland has said he borrowed the title from the Smiths song and that the book is supposed to be a "modern day Rip Van Winkle story." Also, Coupland is currently on a book tour.

Sandie Shaw / Twinkle releases

From Darrin Neuer:

...in the Feb. issue of Record Collector magazine...

"RPM (Records) have begun the year with two fine collections culled from the BBC archives. Sandie Shaw’s -Live in the 80’s-The BBC Sessions, includes material taped during her Rough Trade era, some featuring members of the Smiths."

It also goes on to mention a limited edition vinyl release of Twinkle’s "Golden Lights".

Thought this may be of interest to some.

Andy Rourke book rumor

From Torr:

Rumor has it Andy Rourke is in the middle of working on a book about his time spent in The Smiths and afterwards. Looks to be released in Dec. in the UK.

Marilyn Manson - the book signing in Los Angeles

From Dolll:

...I went to the book signing yesterday (Saturday) and wore the Robert Wagner shirt. When it was finally my turn to go into Tower, I walked in to hear "This Charming Man", and then "How Soon Is Now?" When I met Manson, I know he looked at the shirt, because he did a slight double take, and gave me either a glare or smirk. I couldn’t tell. Quite interesting and fun. There’a little more details on the mozziness of the day at the site I put up about the experience...

"The Morrissey Convention", Apr. 26 in Hollywood

Just so people stop e-mailing about it, here is a link to the info on the convention being held in April. The usual stuff... tickets are $20.

...The reasons for the delay are two-fold — the first reason being because of the CDROM enhancement — the video for Sunny will be on the CD and the new technology they wanted to use took a little while to acquire. Second, it took Reprise a couple of weeks to pry the video out of the UK-which is another story altogether. Anyway, June 23 looks like a pretty firm date.

Marilyn Manson follow-up

Marilyn Manson was interviewed on the radio station KROQ (Los Angeles) last Friday regarding his book. From Melinda Hsu:

...Then one of the hosts started quoting from Manson’s book... when he got to the one where "You’re gay if you listen to the Smiths, make out with a girl who likes the Smiths...etc" he said to Marilyn Manson, "You don’t like the Smiths, do you?"

Marilyn Manson protested quickly, "No, I LIKE the Smiths. I own several of their albums."

Moz in Sports Illustrated

From Kate:

In the March 2nd issue of SI, writer Steve Rushin has this to say about (Italian skier) Alberto Tomba in his article about the close of the Winter Olympics, entitled "Joy Ride":

"And what of Alberto Tomba, who is better described by another musical composition, a pop song, ‘The Last of the Famous International Playboys’..."

Noel Gallagher on Latin MTV

From Adrian Oswald Zuniga:

...I saw Noel Gallagher of Oasis been interviewed by this Latin VJ. And she mentioned to him that Morrissey had said that the music movement in Manchester was dead. He didn't agree, but didn't deny it either.

Than she asked him about a couple of Manchester bands, New Order: he said he liked a song of theirs and that they were good, but he didn't know if they were still together.

Than she said The SMITHS: and he said, "My heroes, my idols, I grew up listening to them. Because of Johnny Marr, I play guitar right now. I keep in touch with him, he's really cool, my biggest dream is to play with him..."

These Charming Men - another gig in London, Mar. 6

From Daniel Sikar (of These Charming Men, " the UK’s only Smiths and Morrissey tribute band as far as we know"):

We’ve got another gig coming up in London at the Royal Standard in Walthamstow, on Friday the 6th of March, nearest tube Blackhorse Road on the Victoria line. Doors open around 8:00 pm.

We’ve got a bigger gig lined up at the New Cross Venue on the first of May. We’ll have more songs rehearsed by then. We played "Alma Matters" at the Standard and it went down well. We’ll be working on other Morrissey numbers such as "Satan Rejected My Soul" and "Everyday Is Like Sunday". We’re also bringing back by public demand "How Soon Is Now?" which we had dropped from our set list.

"True To You", accepting contributions

From Julia Riley:

The forthcoming issues of the Morrissey zine True To You will cover Morrissey’s 1997 tour dates in North America and Europe.

Your experiences and impressions from any concerts you attended will be more than welcome!

If you’d like to contribute, please write to the e-mail or postal address given below. If you respond by e-mail, please include your town or city, state or county, and country of residence.

Any information about, or recordings of, any of the songs included on the intermission tapes played during this tour, will also be greatly appreciated.

Photographs, press clippings, audio and video tapes of the shows, etc., are always most welcome, as well, and can be returned to you if required.

Please send any questions, comments, or contributions, to [email protected] or:

True To You
831 Beacon Street #9100-266
Newton Centre, MA 02159
U.S.A.

Thank you!

Feb. 27 was also...

... the 5th anniversary of Tim Broad's passing. Thanks to Tara Anderson for the reminder, which she got from issue 3 of the fanzine "A Chance To Shine".