May 29 97

Moz and related in British radio, TV and print
submitted by Rachel Mckeon

A clip of Morrissey was shown on Songs of Praise (a religious programme on BBC1). According to my mother, the programme was being broadcast from Manchester and the presenter mentioned the wealth of musical talent which had come from the city and this was followed by a clip of the Smiths - with Moz in traditional flower-wielding mode.

Less surprisingly, the Smiths also featured on tonight’s Radio One programme on Manchester music, with Johnny Marr discussing the effect that Manchester had on him and Morrissey. He described travelling to school on the bus when he was eight or nine and seeing all the old, decaying Victorian buildings in the pouring rain. He said experiencing this ’gothic’ atmosphere at such a young age had a major effect and influenced the songs of the Smiths.

I’ve also just read a review of a new book called England Is Mine (Pop Life in Albion From Wilde to Goldie) , written by Michael Bracewell. "[It] shows how defining motifs in the work of bands such as the Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths echo themes and attitudes embedded in a specifically English literary tradition." If anyone on the list gets a chance to read this book, I would appreciate their opinion on it. The reviewer was fairly complimentary. BTW, isn’t Michael Bracewell Linder’s husband? I think he also interviewed Moz for one of the broadsheets a couple of years ago.

submitted by Naomi

British Moz fans might like to note that "Yield to the Night" is being shown on Channel Four this Friday Night / Saturday morning (12.40). The sleeve shot of Diana Dors on the "Singles" LP was taken from this film, and the TV ad for the album featured several shots from it. Diana Dors’ role is clearly inspired by the case of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain and in fact the film was used to support the case of the movement against capital punishment. It’s a better film than "Romper Stomper" anyway.

Diana Dors image from "Peepholism"

May 27 97

More Mike Joyce
submitted by Dave Prior

About a month ago I bumped into Mike Joyce in DoubleFour Records in Altrincham, South Manchester.

He was buying quite a few CDs, all at cut-down prices as the shop was closing down, and when I showed some interest he seemed slightly embarrassed about them. He said that he was broke, and when I laughed thinking that he must be a rich man after the court case, Mike said that he won’t be seeing any money for 10 years. He said that Morrissey has made it really difficult for him-the appeal will take ages to go through.

Mike also said that it was really weird seeing the other band members all together again. He said that the actual time in court was extremely intimidating, and that a lot worse things had been said than the oft-quoted "lawnmower" jibe. By Morrissey or whoever he did not say.

Finally he said that his wife had seen Morrissey only a couple of days earlier in Boots department store in Altrincham, and Mike said he wishes that he had been with her because he would have asked Morrissey, in Mike’s words, "what he was playing at".

Toronto - sketched in pencil
submitted by Sean Mandell

from the Toronto Star, May 22:

Our spies say a series of buzz acts are Toronto-bound, but the dates are so far sketched in pencil (no contracts signed yet). The top draw of them all is Morrissey, ex of ‘80’s U.K. post-punkers The Smiths, expected in late summer or early fall.

"Hando" source

Heard from a friend that Hando is the lead skinhead character in the 1992 Australian film "Romper Stomper". Most likely this is Morrissey's influence in choosing the pseudonym.

Morrissey's health

I've gotten several e-mails regarding rumors that Morrissey's health may be failing. As far as I know, he is fine. Don't worry too much, such rumors pop up every now and then.

May 23 97

Article in the Irish Times, "Property"

Kind thanks to Robert Holmes for the following article which appeared in the "Property" section of the Irish Times (May 22).

---

MORRISSEY WOULD RATHER NOT GO BACK TO HIS OLD HOUSE
by Orna Mulcahy

Singer-songwriter Morrissey is to sell his Dublin home, Wellfield, a Georgian house on the Malahide Road, Co.Dublin, which he purchased last July for around £800,000.

The five-bedroom house at Balgriffen has 12 acres of gardens and grounds including an outdoor heated swimming-pool and an all weather tennis court.

Morrissey bought the property from businessman Ulick McEvaddy. Mr. McEvaddy moved to Auburn House, Malahide, an 11-bedroom Georgian House on 22 acres, which cost £1.47million. The former Smiths lead singer, whose parents come from Dublin, is currently house-hunting in Killiney and Dalkey. Located 6 miles from the city centre and a 10-minute drive from Dublin airport, Wellfield is hidden behind electronically controlled gates and surrounded by three acres of gardens, including a half-acre walled garden. The remaining land is in fenced fields.

The two-storey house, with its distinctive bell-tower has four reception rooms and a large kitchen/dining room overlooking a flower-filled garden. Upstairs, the main bedroom suite includes a dressing room and a stunning marble-lined bathroom.

Wellfield will be auctioned on June 12^th by McNally Handy & Partners where Jim Thomas is handling the sale.

More on Cantona

Thanks to Nick Humorless for writing and adding another Cantona reference:

...he also appears in the "Introducing . . . " video. He is on the back of the mag being read at the beginning by the young skinhead . . . with his classic Hooligan look and turned-up collar.

May 22 97

Happy Birthday, Stoney Hando

Looks like people have begun leaving short birthday wishes in the guestbook. I don't know if he will see them, but... you never know!

*if anyone has a copy of the below mentioned press release, please e-mail me!

May 21 97

Morrissey as "Stoney Hando"

Thanks as always to Naomi (who now has a Moz site)
for the following from this week's NME (24 May) [and also NME.COM]:

MORRISSEY is set to return with his first album for his new label, Mercury. "Maladjusted" will be released in August and will be preceded by a single, "Alma Matters" in July.

A bizarre press release purporting to be written by someone calling himself Stoney Hando has accompanied advanced copies of the album sent to US journalists. A US representative confirmed that Stoney Hando was in fact Morrissey. Part of the press release reads: "Morrissey has no interest in world politics and prefers the company of animals to humans. His ambition is to play Freemantle in Western Australia, otherwise he has no interest whatsoever in modern life. He lives in Spain."

The album was recorded at Hook Farm with producer Steve Lillywhite. The full track listing is: "Maladjusted", "Alma Matters", "Ambitious Outsiders", "Trouble Loves Me", "Papa Jack", "Ammunition", "Wide to Receive", "Roy's Keen", "Sorrow Will Come in the End", "Satan Rejected My Soul"< "I Can Have Both" and "Heir Apparent".

Morrissey has been in Los Angeles for the past month rehearsing for live dates. UK shows look likely in the autumn.
-----------------------------

I assume the "new" song is the second B-side to "Alma Matters". The reference to US journos is quite sweet, isn't it? In NME speak it basically means "Why haven't we got a copy yet?". -- Naomi

Morrissey and band to attend benefit?

Thanks to Robert Holmes for the following report:

On Thursday 29^th of May there will be a benefit gig for Niamh Doran in Dublin in the Temple Bar Music Centre, off Curve Street. Among the bands playing are Those Handsome Devils and Revelino. I read today on Aertel, the RTE teletext sevice, that "rumours are abound" that the gig will be attended by Morrissey, Boz Boorer and John White. Admission is only £6.

I hope this is of some interest to somebody, somewhere, probably Dublin though.

Smiths on Canadian TV
From Japhy

nothing too important but a Canadian show called ‘E-Now’ acknowledged the Smiths as the most important band in the 80’s in a piece about Britpop.

Thats all I can remember. I think that the show was about the difficulties the Brits have had with breaking into american music markets or whatever. It was said that Canadians were more receptive to bands like Suede and Kula Shaker than the americans.

Smiths song used in Labour Party advert? (cont.)

Debi Saxena let me know that her friend in England can confirm the song "Please, Please, Please..." was indeed used by BBC in campaign ads for the Labour Party shown on BBC Tamworth, Staffordshire, England.

May 18 97

Eric Cantona Retires

May 16 97

Maladjusted Preview

A lot of people let me know that there have been some posts that originated on America Online's Bulletin Boards by a person who has heard the album. Included are a few lyric samples and short descriptions of the songs. Thanks to HesseFits for this preview. Be sure to read the warning and disclaimer first.

Maladjusted - Mentioned in Cleveland Paper
from the Panic list

In my email this morning I found a brief news item a friend sent me. Printed in The Cleveland Plain Dealer in a weekly column on alternative music written by the fine folks at Alternative Press magazine. I’ll plagiarize word for word:

"When he wasn’t being forced by British courts to pay vast sums of money to former bandmates, Morrissey completed his latest album, ‘Maladjusted,’ for his new label Mercury. The 11-song album features some noisy rockers (the title song), pop gems (‘Alma Matters,’ the first single), and brooding ballads (‘Sorrow Will Come In The End’). AP CEO Mike Shea says it sounds as close to a Smiths’ reunion as you can get without summoning a high court. Rumors that the melancholy Mancunian’s new song, ‘Satan Rejected My Soul,’ is a swipe at Marilyn Manson could not be confirmed at presstime. ‘Maladjusted’ hits the marketplace in August."

It makes me so happy to see news bits on Morrissey once again!! So I had to pass it along....

Love,

Sam Shuster

Maladjusted - Song Timings
from the AOL Message Boards

Subj: More Maladjusted
Date: 09 May 1997 18:13:22 EDT
From: TRKurt

Here are the track listings:

Maladjusted - 4:41
Alma Matters - 4:47
Ambitious Outsiders - 3:55
Trouble Loves Me - 4:39
Papa Jack - 4:32
Ammunition - 3:37
Wide to Receive - 3:52
Roy's Keen - 3:34
He Cried - 3:19
Sorrow Will Come in the End - 2:51
Satan Rejected My Soul - 2:56

I like the first and last tracks the most. "Sorrow Will Come in the End" is a very strange spoken word kind of thing.

On the whole, it's a very good album and should improve Morrissey's reputation somewhat...

TRKurt

Article - Morrissey and The Labour Party
I recently received a clarification that the recent report of the Smiths song "Please, Please, Please,... " being used in the Labour Party advertising campaign is possibly inaccurate. Thanks to Mark Williams for the clarification. Also check the article for additional info regarding the relationship between Morrissey and The Labour Party.

Smiths entry in "The Mary Whitehouse Experience Encyclopedia"
big thanks to Stuart Harvey for the following:

Well there was a programme on British television in the early nineties called ‘The Mary Whitehouse Experience’. It was a mixture of sketches and stand up observations. It led to a spin off book which was called ‘The Mary Whitehouse Experience encyclopedia’ which contained the following entry:

Smiths, the (Smiths): Seminal 1980’s band whose music was born out of the chemistry between it’s two central figures, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke. The union of Joyce - quiet, tidy - with Rourke - captain of his local pub team - produced a series of songs memorable for their drum and bass lines, than for their intrusive guitar parts and sometimes silly lyrics. Since the band split in 1987, fans have argued which of the two was more elemental: Joyce, with his habit of turning up to gigs in plenty of time with sandwiches, or Rourke with his ability to play the drums - or was it the base?

Rourke in particular inspired a cult of celibacy, due to his inability to get off with anyone. (Despite being in Smiths, the)

Morrissey/Smiths articles in the media

* thanks to Paul Fletcher and Naomi for reporting (in individual e-mails) that there is Smiths and Morrissey retrospective of NME articles in the June issue of Vox. And in the words of Naomi, there is also "a continuation of the fatuous Morrissey + Union Jack = Nazi debate."

*thanks to Holly Hinton and Jonathan Tronson for reporting (individually) that there is a one page article on The Smiths Convention in the June Spin Magazine.

*and thanks to Jennifer for the news that there was a Smiths salute on MTV's 120 Minutes (it was on during the last few minutes of the May 4th show). Please check her news page on for more info.

*added a new link "Practising Troublemaker"

May 12 97

Morrissey Working With Jo Slee Again?
Saw this on the newsgroup: alt.music.morrissey

---

Subject: Interesting Note
From: David Kaneva <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 08 May 1997 04:38:33 -0400

I was walking down beach street last Thursday in Portobello (Edinburgh Scotland) when who should I run into but Jo Slee. For all of you who do not know her, she is responsible for many of the Smith's/Morrissey record sleeve designs, and happens to be one of the Mozzers good friends.

Apparently started by the fact that I recognized her, we began to chat it up (much to my own malign we refrained from Morrissey chatter) at a local coffee house in Dalkeith. We seemed to talk all evening, for she was a very nice woman with many interesting things to say. I pretended to not know about her relationship with Morrissey as we began to talk about our respective jobs. She told me about hers, and some of the upcoming work she is currently looking forward to. One of these jobs happened to be Morrissey's new album "maladjusted". Look for the cover to be very strange indeed, apparently a cross between the Smiths original (Andy Warhol's Flesh), and the original Terence Stamp inset (the album i cannot remember....hand in glove i think). Anyhow, she said that Morrissey himself is quite pleased about this album, even though his failing health?!?!??! I did not follow up on this last point of interest sadly, and now it is bothering me quite alot. Living in Canada, I think I can expect not to run into Jo Slee nor Morrissey again, especially in the near future.

David

"A Chat With Alain Whyte" online

Several people let me know the Tristan McKay Marcum interview of Alain Whyte that appeared in the May 8 edition of the University of Washington student newspaper, The Daily News is now online. Get the interview here. Thanks to Paul Morgan, Sean Mandell, Matt Laflin, and Tristan himself for letting me know. Keep the news coming, I'd prefer to hear about it many times rather than not at all.

Looks like they scanned in the article without editing it so I'll try to put up a page with the proper punctuation soon.

May 08 97

Overheard rumors
From ?

When asked if he was available to play KROQ's Weenie Roast (an annual festival in Los Angeles), Morrissey said, "Weenie, isn't that what Americans call penises?" When told that weenie also meant 'hot dog', Morrissey replied, "that's even worse."

Smiths song used in Labour Party advertisement
From Debi Saxena:

"... my friends in England sent me interesting news last week concerning our Moz...seems the Labour Party decided to use the Smiths "Please, Please , Please Let Me Get What I Want" for their last television advert blitz...here is an interesting analogy for you....Moz and Please: Tony Blair as Fleetwood Mac:Clinton!"

More Smiths in magazines

Rolling Stone (iss. 760, May 15, 97 -- cover Jewel) lists the Smiths' eponymous debut album The Smiths as one of "The Rolling Stone 200 - the definitive library of the best albums ever made". Carson Bording also forwarded me a message from the Panic list which mentioned that Detour magazine (cover Mark Wahlberg) has a 3 page article on The Smiths Convention, if you're interested.

*added a new link "International Playboys" (based in Spain)

May 01 97

Ask No Longer

The Ask e-mail list ended yesterday. Best of luck to Scott Krajewski (who administered the list) in the 'real world'. A new list called Panic has already begun and I believe most people have migrated already. For info on subscribing, click here. So long, Ask!

Alain Whyte interview to appear in The University of Washington Daily

I just got word from Tristan McKay Marcum that he did an interview with Alain Whyte and it will be published in his university's newspaper today (May 1) or next thurs. (May 8). Hopefully it will be made available online too. Good going Tristan.

"Rozzer on Mozzer" in Melody Maker

Thanks to everyone who let me know where the Martin Rossiter review of the reissued Viva Hate appeared. About 4 people said Melody Maker, a couple said NME, and one person thought it may have been in Q magazine. Thanks Carson Bording, for confirming that it was indeed Melody Maker, the Apr. 12 1997 issue.

Apr. 28 97

Upcoming

Word on the street is that there is a "Best Of Morrissey" collection being put out by EMI sometime this fall. Also, the "Sunny" single/CD-ROM (which includes the video and some sort of written contribution from Morrissey) that was talked about by Reprise a while back should hopefully still be released.

The big release everyone is waiting for, Maladjusted, is said to be released in early August, with the single "Alma Matters" out in July. Tour details will come very soon...

L.A. Weekly comic
thanks to Jonathan Tronson for letting me know

An amusing comic appeared in the L.A. Weekly (Apr. 18-24). Click here to see a scan. I know... when will they ever learn to spell his name correctly?

Article - Martin Rossiter reviews the reissue of Viva Hate
Anyone know where this is from? Sorry, I don't read the music papers anymore.

*added a new link "Hold On To Your Friends" sometime last week. Check it out.