I went to see Billy Bragg last night, June 25, at the House of Blues in Hollywood. To my surprise I saw Morrissey with a gentleman who I did not recognize. In fact, no one went up to Morrissey the whole night. The reason I know this is because he stood in front of me most of the show. He looked good, dressed in black. He drank plenty of Coronas, and in fact he went to go buy them himself, not caring if people recognized. My date went over to say hello and he was quite cordial. Well it was nice to see him in Los Angeles. He stated that he lives out here.

More about the director of "The Doom Generation"

From Gibby:

"The Doom Generation" was the second in a twisted sort of "trilogy". The third, by the same director, is entitled "Nowhere", and also has a Smiths reference. (forgive me I’ve forgotten the characters' names and the director's name) This guy says to this girl: "I feel like half a person without you." Apparently the director is a huge Smiths fan...

From the Internet Movie Database, the director of of these films is Gregg Araki.

My Early Burglary Years - mentions

Reprise must have put out another press release. No new info. Thanks to Peter Zegzdryn and also to Amanda Jackson for news of the article:

* Morrissey Rarities On The Way at MTV Online

and thanks to Marvin Maldonado for news of the article:

* Morrissey Unearths Rarities at Daily Music.

...this is from the NME dated 6 June (I'll quote all the faintly relevant bits):

"... Morrissey won the Performing Rights Society's Outstanding Contribution to British Music award and said he was "astonished" to receive the accolade..."

Radiohead's Ed O'Brien paid tribute to award-winner Morrissey and said that The Smiths were the reason Radiohead formed. He told NME afterwards: "Two awards! It's pretty bizarre.... And I mean Morrissey, he was sat on the next table to us!"

Morrissey also ended his long-running refusal to talk to the NME.

"I feel really pleased because I'm never usually on anybody's shortlist for awards," he said. He also thanked former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr: "Why? Because he's a very important figure and he brought me where I am today. Which begs the question, where am I?" "

The NME then goes on to ask him whether The Smiths will reform, but I'll allow you to find your own brick wall to knock your head against.

Smiths in the "The Doom Generation"

Don't know if this reference from this 1995 movie has been mentioned before. From Slag:

In the movie "The Doom Generation" they talk about the best friend of one of the characters who was really into the Smiths. He evidently suffered from manic depression and his only cure was his obsession with the Smiths. Well in the middle of the song "Unloveable" He kills himself. Just thought I’d pass this tid bit along.

"Hooliganism" in Sports Illustrated

Thanks to Kate for the following:

Just dropping a line to let you know that there are some major Morrissey/Smiths fans on the staff of Sports Illustrated. During the Nagano games, they quoted "Last Of The Famous International Playboys". In the June 29th issue (page 23), they have the following (from a blurb on English Soccer hooligans):

So we wrap up a century of hooliganism, let’s have a verse of Happy Birthday - and follow it up with these lines from the dour English band the Smiths, who sang:

Don’t blame this sweet and tender hooligan
Hooligan
Because he’ll never do it again
No of course he won’t
At least not until next time.

The director for the "Alma Matters" video Matthew Rolston directed the Gap Khaki Swings video, and the blurb about him mentions his "award-winning music videos" for various artists including "Morrisey" Note the single "s" The following is from the Gap website:

Matthew Rolston

Matthew Rolston first gained fame as a still photographer, shooting beauty and fashion layouts for high-profile magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Interview, W, and Details. In addition to his magazine work, print and television ads, he now directs award-winning music videos for such artists as Jewel, Morrisey, Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue, and Marilyn Manson.

Morrissey screensaver

From Walter P. Brown:

At "http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/studio/7287/" you will find The Morrissey Screen Saver 2.0. This version features all of Morrissey’s album covers, and allows color, font and graphic changes to customize the saver to your liking. I wrote it for Windows 95, but it should work in Windows 98 also.

* Following up on the Wall Street Journal article from 5/28/98, I just got a note from Scott Shelley letting me know he got a green card last week and is back in the US. Also, he will be moving to Philadelphia soon where he'll be starting a new job. Best of luck to Scott and Alexandria.

Listening to the local university radio station the band Copyright were being interviewed live. I don’t remember how they got on the topic but a discussion of Morrissey began. Seems like they’re big Smiths fans... anyways, one of the band members mentioned that John Porter is/was producing their new (or previous) album and how he worked on the smiths early stuff. He then goes on to say that Mr. Porter told them the reason the Smiths broke up was that Morrissey is a "flaming bisexual" and he had it bad for Johnny Marr who had a girlfriend at the time. He then went on to say that this was told to him by John Porter while working on their album, but he didn’t put much faith in it because "John detests Morrissey". Just a strange moment on an otherwise rainy day...

As the old phrase goes, "I don't cook it, I just serve it".

Report: Pops 100 richest people in next month's Q

Thanks to Mark Deveney for the following:

In next month's Q Magazine there's a feature on Pops 100 richest people, Mozzer apparently has 8 million pounds (12 million bucks). Due to his property deals.

This was related on Channel Four (UK) pop programme "Joe Whiley", which also played video clip of "The Last of the Famous International Playboys". After the clip, James Brown, editor of UK’s GQ magazine said, "After telling people to go back to their bedsits, do you think he’s now renting them out to them!?!"

* E-mail is working now. Some may have been lost in the past few days, so if you think that's the case, please resend.

Peter Birro, the Swedish poet, will appear on Swedish radio tomorrow, Thursday the 18th. He will host a show called "Sommarpratarna" which means "The summerspeakers". It is one of the most popular Swedish radio programmes and attracts half a million people every day. Birro is a famous Swedish poet who recently won the prestigious Ingemar Bergman award for his script to the controversial TV-series "Hammarkullen". Birro is well known to the public for his great devotion to Morrissey. Peter has promised to play nothing but Morrissey and Smiths songs on the show. The show will be broadcast on Swedish radio channel P1 at 13.00 Central European time and will be on for an hour and a half.

* E-mail problems still persist - please save them until further notice. Thanks.

Braid correction / Smiths tribute compilation

From Gagan Palrecha:

Braid does cover "This Charming Man", however, it is not going to be out on an 80’s comp on Boxcar... that comp is no longer happening... the song will now appear on I KNOW IT’S OVER... a tribute to The Smiths put out by THE FIRST TIME RECORDS. The comp will feature 20 bands including... Braid, The Get Up Kids, Samiam, Only Airplanes Count, The Gloria Record (ex-mineral), Pop Unknown (ex-mineral), At The Drive In, Compound Red, and many more! The album will be released in late September, or October.

Morrissey comic

From Tasha:

I’ve done a Morrissey comic called "The Adventures of Morrissey (Episode 1)" if you care to read it, go to my home page http://www.geocities.com/~girlracer and click on "read my Morrissey comic".

Truman Capote on A&E's Biography, Thursday

From Aaron:

This is minor news, but this week A&E’s Biography is featuring "troubled geniuses." Thursday’s episode will be about Truman Capote, and in the commercial, they show the picture which later became the cover of "The Boy With the Thorn In His Side." In Seattle, the show is on at 9:00 pm.

Roger Mayne If you've been wondering what the significance of the background on the discussion board is... well, you can stop wondering now. Here's a profile of the photographer Roger Mayne. Thanks to GurgleJerk for suggesting I check out his work.

Uncut feature (on sale July 2)

Thanks to JJ McIntyre for the following:

The next issue of the movie and music magazine Uncut which goes on sale on July 2nd promises a main feature entitled, "These Charming Men, Morrissey, The Smiths and 15 years of bitterness and brilliance."

This isn’t the first time they’ve done articles on Moz - giving Maladjusted a good review and featuring Strangeways as a classic album.

Another Braid cover

Thanks to Kevin Harrison for the following:

I was at the website for Braid and I found out that they are going to be playing "This Charming Man" on a compilation called Totally Funking the 80s. It has no release date yet but it is on Boxcar Records. They were in town not long ago but they didn’t play any Smiths songs. I didn’t go but some of my friends went and they say that they are a really good band. here is the site for Braid: http://www.prairienet.org/braid/home.html. The news for the album is in the discography part of the site.

Oscar Wilde explosion

And thanks to Gibby for the following:

In the latest issue of People Magazine, there is a terrific interview with Oscar Wilde’s grandson, and about the recent explosion of interest following the film.

* Shoplifters Union, the Yahoo! of the Morrissey world, now has a new look and also a new mirror site in the US for faster access:

http://members.xoom.com/shoplifters/union.html

The original site is located in Sweden.

I saw the piece Darren McCloskey sent about Moz photographed with the group Wank and thought I’d mention that a photograph also appeared in the magazine Kerrang. Unfortunately I’m unable to scan it, but it’s about 2" by 4" and Moz appears to be wearing a brown football shirt with a black jacket over that. The caption is:

"Everyone, it seems, wants to be a Wank-er at the moment. When latest US hot-shots Wank played at a show at The House Of Blues in LA, Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath and Morrissey (who apparently was once with some minor British band called The Smiths) turned up to pay suitable homage. And Morrissey even agreed to have this snap taken with the Wank lads (he’s second from left in the pic). Wank’s debut album, ‘Get A Grip’, has just been released by Maverick in the US. Could this be the start of the (s)punk rock revolution?"

My friend, whose magazine it was, assures me that they were being sarcastic when they called The Smiths a ‘minor’ British band.

Better Than Ezra - ode to Moz

From Jonathan Goodspeed:

Better Than Ezra played a show in Athens, GA at the famous 40 Watt Club, they did a little snippet of "How Soon is Now?", as an intro to one of their songs, they also threw in snippet from a Prince song, it took a minute to figure out what Smiths song as my friends and I were not expecting it, anyway I thought this was cool, there really seems to be a whole generation of "rockers" who have made tributes (albiet it short ones) to the Smiths recently!

Braid cover "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"

From James Feagin:

..there is a new compilation CD of various artists entitled "There Is A Light" - one band covers "There Is A Light" and that band is known as Braid.

It is on Red Jagwire records and is available through Parasol Records: www.indies.com. I believe the cost is $7.25 before postage.

MEBY tentative release date change

Thanks to Adam for noticing the tentative release date for My Early Burglary Years has changed from Aug. 11 to Aug. 18 on the Reprise site. How many more release date changes do you think there will there be? I'd put the over/under at 3.

Pics from Niagara, Boston birthday celebrations

Norm Simpson has some photos of the Niagara Falls gathering up on his website, Wide To Receive.

And here are some crazy pictures of the gathering in Boston, MA, sent from an anonymous source.