Morrissey Central "STEVE WRIGHT, RIP" (February 13, 2024)

"Steve Wright, Annie Nightingale, Janice Long, John Peel … a generation gone. I once bumped into Steve outside Woolworths in Henley-on-Thames. He said "what the hell are YOU doing here?" and I replied "precisely." During an interview he edited out diarist when I mis-pronounced it as diary-ist … he resisted the perfect opportunity to make fun of me. He played 'I Have Forgiven Jesus' and 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' when no other radio DJ would. Great minds play the music, small minds block the music. But it's too late for compliments now. Appreciating the living is still a ludicrous concept for most people, alas. "

MORRISSEY 13 February 2024.

STEVE WRIGHT, RIP - MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY - MORRISSEY CENTRAL - STEVE WRIGHT, RIP

MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

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Related item:

• Morrissey-solo: BBC: "Steve Wright: Radio 2 presenter dies aged 69" - February 13, 2024

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

Probably.

Although it doesn't really matter since he sounds as if he's given up on his career in his lifetime. Central has made things as bad as they possibly can be without physically harming him.

 

[Malarkey]

John Peel being the glorious exception.

That's interesting. There's an old interview from 1984 where he talked about how difficult it was to get the BBC to play some records - even at night - so he helped a lot of artists who would be unbelievably obscure without him.

 

[Loup]

Radio DJs aren't normally famous outside of the countries they work in.

Well, not necessarily, I suppose.
I guess I was speaking more so for myself since I’m very interested by anglophone media of all kinds…

 

[Malarkey]

Can't help but wonder if there are 2 pointed comments - one about small minds blocking music and the other about appreciating the living?
It is shameful that England's greatest living artist can't get a record deal.

You've done your best to poison his reputation - so you should take some credit for decent people not wanting near him.

 

[Mike Rourke]

Sad when anyone passes of course.

BUT…

I lived the 80’s in Britain and Steve Wright show was the antithesis of John Peel and Janice Long - it was 98% banal Muzak of that era with talkovers and poor humour from him and his hangers on in the studio. It was a show you heard in garages or on engineering shop floors, aimed at Sun newspaper readers and those who were poorly educated.

Sorry but that’s how it was.

No offence to him, probably a nice chap etc but his output was banal and anti most of the things that were progressive in that era.

Moz changes with the wind, he wore a T-shirt with Wright on it with his hands in his ears at the time, seemed to actively dislike him in 80’s.

He did indeed but in the 90s and the 00s/10s, Steve was more than happy to play Morrissey's stuff although it was probably more of a Radio 2 playlist thing than his own decision, but he was a pretty decent person. Morrissey is generally much more generous spirited to fellow 1980s survivors these days than he was back in the day - he's even apologised to Robert Smith.
I wouldn't say Wright's shows were aimed at the poorly educated - that's just snobbery. But he was targeting a mass audience and there's nothing wrong with that.
It's sad that he's died like this i.e. still in his 60s and seemingly out of the blue. My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

That's interesting. There's an old interview from 1984 where he talked about how difficult it was to get the BBC to play some records - even at night - so he helped a lot of artists who would be unbelievably obscure without him.

???
You have just stated the very thing everyone knows about John Peel. Hardly insightful news.

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

You've done your best to poison his reputation - so you should take some credit for decent people not wanting near him.

Well done, @gashonthenail.

 

[🐈🐈🐈]

Morrissey is like the Agony Aunt of Obituaries. Hope he’s doing well.

 

[theprivilegeismine]

RIP Steve.

 

[gashonthenail]

Didn't BBC2 get rid of him in an attempt to be more 'diverse', i.e. have less white men, and then their listening figures dropped off a cliff? Good old BBC.
For anyone who grew up in the British Isles of a certain age, listening to radio in the afternoon is synonymous with this man. Part of the furniture of British culture. RIP mate. Hope the afterlife doesn't have a similar 'diversity' policy and lets you in.

 

[Mike Rourke]

Morrissey also posted this when Steve Wright's Radio 2 show came to an end in 2022:

"Steve Wright … thank you for playing everything from 'Panic' to 'Wedding Bell Blues' … and, in between, Patti Smith, and also Grumpy And The Banshees. We heard. We listened. You did your best. Thank you!" - Morrissey.

BBC AXE STEVE WRIGHT - MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY - MORRISSEY CENTRAL - BBC AXE STEVE WRIGHT

MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

 

[William Fisher]

Says nothing to me about my life…

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

Says nothing to me about my life…

The hit record Michael Barrymore wishes he had had.

 

[Johnnie Ray]

Central has just become an online book of condolences

This place is dead!

 

[Anonymous]

thats when radio was worth listening to,it used to be a dj on his own playing records,now there is three or four people who are there to laugh at the presenters crap jokes,never understood that.

Eh? His execrable Steve Wright in the Afternoon show on Radio 1 in the 80s was the very pioneer of that wacky, Timmy Mallet-style rubbish. He pretty much invented the "three or four people to laugh at his jokes" format with his "Afternoon Posse" (remember them? I bloody do. A bunch of irritating teenagers cackling sycophantically in the background at everything he said).

There's a lot of post-death glossing going on in this thread. His passing is sad and he was a very popular figure in the UK but let's not pretend he was some kind of broadcasting genius. The Radio 1 show on which he built his name was utter dreck.

 

[goinghome]

I lived the 80’s in Britain and Steve Wright show was the antithesis of John Peel and Janice Long - it was 98% banal Muzak of that era with talkovers and poor humour from him and his hangers on in the studio. It was a show you heard in garages or on engineering shop floors, aimed at Sun newspaper readers and those who were poorly educated.

Kindhearted view me and say
Thank God, that's not me

Snobs, but still kindhearted.

Probably.

Although it doesn't really matter since he sounds as if he's given up on his career in his lifetime. Central has made things as bad as they possibly can be without physically harming him.

Do you realise you're insulting his perfectly appropriate message posted on Central today?

Central has just become an online book of condolences

No-one's days last forever. You say diarist; I say diary-ist! Still the gang say?

This wee note is a relief. It may be true that "appreciating the living is still a ludicrous concept for most people, " but most of us and the many onlookers really appreciate the prodigious artistic giant that is Morrissey, Mor-ris-sey, Morr-is-sey!!

 

[Malarkey]

Do you realise you're insulting his perfectly appropriate message posted on Central today?

I'm not insulting his message - I'm relating the 'it's too late' & 'appreciating the living' to the state that his career is in - which was absolutely made worse by Central's posts & copy.

I'm hoping it's been unwitting & Central will see the light, delete itself & start again under a new name.

 

[gordyboy9]

Eh? His execrable Steve Wright in the Afternoon show on Radio 1 in the 80s was the very pioneer of that wacky, Timmy Mallet-style rubbish. He pretty much invented the "three or four people to laugh at his jokes" format with his "Afternoon Posse" (remember them? I bloody do. A bunch of irritating teenagers cackling sycophantically in the background at everything he said).

There's a lot of post-death glossing going on in this thread. His passing is sad and he was a very popular figure in the UK but let's not pretend he was some kind of broadcasting genius. The Radio 1 show on which he built his name was utter dreck.

i think you read my post wrong,in the 80s steve wright would have been in the studio himself,for me it was the chris evans era who brought other people in the studio,later steve wright had as you say a posse but not when he started.

 

[Anonymous]

i think you read my post wrong,in the 80s steve wright would have been in the studio himself,for me it was the chris evans era who brought other people in the studio,later steve wright had as you say a posse but not when he started.

Steve Wright had his Afternoon Posse in the mid-80s as I recall. Certainly by the late 80s ie way before Chris Evans came along. Wright was not alone in the studio, he had the 'Posse' in there with him every day. And bloody annoying they were too.

Are you sure you're not confusing him with Simon Bates again?

 

[gordyboy9]

Steve Wright had his Afternoon Posse in the mid-80s as I recall. Certainly by the late 80s ie way before Chris Evans came along. Wright was not alone in the studio, he had the 'Posse' in there with him every day. And bloody annoying they were too.

Are you sure you're not confusing him with Simon Bates again?

no the hairy cornflake.