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g it in d e r t a ju e s e, you’r in z g a a m ’s y e It’s Morriss
|Controversy| Reviews| Gigs| History|Music| Fans|
Il รก Morrissey
Morrissey collapses on stage P.3
Contemplating suicide P.5
Swords of refusal - Review P.6
The daily commons debate P.9
Earliest ever smiths review? P.12
Swords Tour Dates P.13
The Autobiography P.15
The Mozipedia colletion P.15
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ormer Smiths singer Morrissey has been taken to hospital after collapsing on stage with breathing difficulties. Eyewitnesses said the 50-year-old fell to the floor during a performance of his former band’s song This Charming Man at Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon. Two of his current band’s members took him off stage and an ambulance took him to Great Western Hospital, where his condition was described as “stable”. The singer has cancelled several dates this year because of illness.
‘Reclusive character’
Morrissey collapses on stage in Swindon
was not feeling well at all. “They made an initial assessment and took him to the Great
Western Hospital for further assessment.” A spokesman for Swindon’s Great Western Hospital said: “Morrissey was brought in to the Accident and Emergency department this evening. “He has been seen by the medical team. At this stage his condition is stable.” His tour is due to move onto its European leg next month, including gigs in the Netherlands, France, Belguim, Germany and Ireland before moving on to nine dates in the United States. Singer Morrissey has been discharged from hospital after collapsing on stage with breathing difficulties. The 50-year-old former Smiths frontman became unwell just one song into his concert in Swindon on Saturday night. The Oasis Leisure Centre gig was cut short after a rendition of This Charming Man. A spokeswoman for the hospital said: “Morrissey became unwell, and he was admitted overnight as a precautionary measure. “He’s been seen by the medical team, much improved and now discharged home.” Onlookers described seeing Morrissey “straining” to perform and slumping to his knees on stage. Two band members then
rushed to his side and dragged him offstage. One concert-goer told Sky News Online: “Morrissey came on the stage and said ‘Good Evening... probably’ before starting his Charming Man song. “You could tell that he was straining with the vocals and then he just started to look really ill. “He stumbled and appeared to collapse on the stage. The other band members rushed to his side and helped him off stage. “The crowd didn’t really know what was going on until someone came on and said Morrissey has left the building. “We were then told that Morrissey was seriously ill and wouldn’t be coming back.” Another eyewitness said the crowd started booing when they were given the news because the singer had already cancelled a series of UK dates this year due to illness. The 50-year-old had just finished his opening song ‘This Charming Man’ at the Oasis Leisure Centre when he was taken ill and rushed to hospital. Close friend Jonathan Ross has been in touch with the Smiths legend’s PA who has confirmed that Morrissey “seems OK” and is “resting”. Writing on Twitter, Ross later said: “Latest Moz update. He is resting and hoping to finish these dates, inc. Albert hall on Tuesday. Will keep you posted as and when. X”
Liverpool, it’s raining, it’s perfect”, before launching into the Smiths’ hit This Charming Man. But when he moved to shake the hands of fans at the front, the container was hurled from the crowd. When he walked off stage fans burst into chants of “Morrissey, Morrissey, Morrissey” in an effort to get the performance back on track. But about five minutes later an announcement was made to a chorus of boos that he had been hit on the head and would not be resuming the concert. Jay Silker, 27, from Mossley Hill, Liverpool, said: “If there’s ever a singer who would not take kindly to a bottle being thrown at him, it’s Morrissey.” Complaints
Merseyside Police have been informed about the incident, Echo Arena general manager Tim Banfield said. “We are exceptionally disappointed that one individual should choose to recklessly cause the concert to be abandoned, ruining what should have been a brilliant night out for thousands of Morrissey fans. “The Echo Arena team take great care to ensure the safety of visitors and artists at the venue.” Concert-goers have been advised to contact their ticket retailer to find out if they will get their money back. Iain Kavanagh, 33, from Liverpool, said: “Some people were complaining afterwards because he’s been in the game for years and he should be used
to it by now. “But he’s a 50-year-old man who has just been ill and he deserves better than that.” This was the second time I would have seen Morrissey in Liverpool this year and the man certainly has an affection for the city, the first being his appearance at the Empire. We had left that venue feeling as though he was going through the motions a little. I think he felt it himself as he struggled to reconcile that the crowd were not at the stages edge. I only mention this as even after Morrissey’s recent illness - collapsing on stage and being rushed to hospital - he came on at the Arena in a great mood. His first words were “It’s Saturday night, its raining in Lpool.
up to his mouth as if he felt sick or... perhaps he was trying to hide something, but he didn’t look particularly comfortable.” A Great Western Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “Just after 9pm we got a call to a 50-year-old who was reported to be suffering from respiratory problems and was unconscious. “We sent a paramedic in a double-crewed ambulance. “When they arrived they found a conscious patient who
Jillian Moody, who was at the concert, said initially the crowd was not aware of how serious the singer’s condition was. “It was interesting because a lot of people around us had bought tickets for Morrissey concerts earlier in the year,” she said. “He has cancelled numerous concerts so they just thought that, you know, he had gone off but would be returning. “I didn’t think he looked particularly well but then again, he’s sort of well known as a reclusive character so I sort of thought that was just the way he was when he was on stage.
‘Conscious patient’ “He kept putting his hand
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Morrissey walks off stage as ‘fan’ throws beer cup at star Morrissey stopped a concert halfway through the second song after he was hit by a missile thrown from a member of the crowd in Liverpool. The former frontman of Manchester band The Smiths was hit in the eye by a plastic drinks container during Black Cloud at the Liverpool Echo Arena. The 50-year-old singer then said “goodnight” to the 8,000-strong crowd on Saturday and walked off. The Arena manager said one fan had “ruined” the night for everyone else. Morrissey had recently resumed his tour after collapsing three weeks ago. He opened the concert with the words: “It’s Saturday, it’s
Did you know? Morrissey has won awards from PETA for his work against animal cruelty!!
Out now...
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Morrissey: I have contemplated suicide
Credit to Vulgarpicture.com
By Ian Wylie
M
ORRISSEY has revealed his thoughts about life, death, suicide and being alone, in a frank interview.
The former Smiths frontman described himself as “waiting to explode” and said he was happiest when on his own: “Life is a series of fences, I find.” In the interview for Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, presenter Kirsty Young asked him: “Have you thought about being in control of your death?” He replied: “Yes, I have. And I think this self-destruction is honourable. I always thought it was. It’s an act of great control and I understand people who do it.” Later asked which luxury he would take to make his life more bearable on the mythical island, Morrissey, 50, laughed: “Well, I would either take a bed, because I like to go to bed. Or I would take a bag of sleeping pills because I might want to make a quick exit. “I would really take the bed,
mess. I think human beings are I think, because going to bed is the highlight of everybody’s day. mesmerizing messes, and there we are. I like to be hidden and I like to “I’m fascinated by the brevity sink – it’s the brother of death. It of life and how people use their means we can switch our brains off when we go to bed and forget time, because we all know the axe will fall. It’s inevitable as about ourselves.” you and I are sitting here now With hits including Heaven that the Tuesday will arrive Knows I’m Miserable Now, he when you, Kirsty, are not here. explained: “I see the poetry in “Nobody can reach you by everything and I see the sadness telephone, nobody can write to in everything and I take that and you and nobody can email you. I carry it with me. And that’s You just won’t be here. quite difficult. “So we all know this fact and “I feel profoundly touched with that at the forefront of our by people’s sadness – that’s the thing I most see in other people.” mind in everything that we do, I find it fascinating how people He told of leading a different life. “Naturally, I am quite “I think if you reach 50 and separate. I’m you’re not at one with yourself, not a celebrity, I’m not a part whatever that may be, then of anything you’re in serious trouble” and the music industry has never grabbed me, in the way that the sea might spend their time.” grab a sailor. Morrissey talked about growing up in Stretford. “I was “I think the world is quite just considered to be unbaldark and I think it is quite mad anced, which helped me greatly, and I think to be a human being because it simply confirmed eveis quite a task. Everybody dies screaming. They don’t die laugh- rything I knew – I didn’t want ing their heads off, as far as I to grow up to be anything that I knew. I wanted a completely know.” different life and whatever that The enigmatic singer added: entailed. “Nothing comforts me at all. I “I think my parents were very think the world is a mesmerizing
worried for a very long time. But then when you become successful it seems to authenticate any kind of insanity or madness, however people view it.” He said university was not an option for him. “I was working class, we had no money. We lived in central Manchester in the late sixties, early seventies, when I went to school and it was a very barren time. “Things didn’t begin for me until I left school. Then I began to become educated, which is a bitterly sad story.” The lyricist said his father thought “I was a bit of a lunatic” when he was a teenager. “So that was the great separating point.” While his mother had taken “a very balanced view” of his career and success. But Morrissey indicated he was happy with how he had lived his life. “I think so. I think I was in a very awkward situation and I managed somehow to wiggle out and not much more can be asked of me. “I think if you reach 50 and you’re not at one with yourself, whatever that may be, then you’re in serious trouble because you’ve had time to work things out. And there isn’t much time left.” Not that he has any plans to settle down. “Settling down? I’m waiting to explode – no, I
don’t want to settle down until I’m carried out feet first. I don’t want to be any kind of happy couple with a photograph on the television set. I find it quite embarrassing. I’m happier with horses. “You have to get involved with relatives and other people’s great aunt Bessies and things like that. And I’d rather not. I’m 50 years old now and a pattern emerges and I accept that and I don’t mind at all, really.” During the recording, Kirsty told him that she was a fan of his while she was still at school and wondered if he ever felt uncomfortable having obsessive followers dedicated to the cult of Morrissey? ”No, not really. I understand the reasons why. I think they feel I’ve been slighted generally and I’m disregarded and I’m overlooked and so forth. And I think they’re quite right. Nothing’s ever easy. I release a new single and it’s very hit and miss whether anybody will play it. And most people don’t play it. “I want people to hear the music. I don’t want to be an island, except emotionally.” Morrissey could not answer a question about who he was now or who he felt himself to be as a performer. “I have absolutely no idea. I really do not. Life leads
me, I follow it and I have no idea where I will be in two hours’ time, which is interesting. I do like to keep moving.” He recalled his first performance, as a child on a table top at home in Manchester, singing Marianne Faithfull’s 1965 hit Come And Stay With Me. “It’s embarrassing and I would never really say this, apart from the fact that we’re on national radio and I don’t have much choice. But I would stand on the table and sing – and I was off even at that stage.” The BBC programme invites castaways to choose eight records to take to the island. Morrissey’s selection included tracks by the New York Dolls, The Ramones and Mott The Hoople, while his choice of book was The Complete Oscar Wilde. Known as Moz to his fans, he stormed off stage earlier this month after being hit on the head with a drink thrown from the crowd at the Liverpool Echo Arena. That incident came two weeks after the singer collapsed during a concert in Swindon and was taken to hospital. Morrissey’s choice of songs: 1) New York Dolls: (There’s Gonna To Be A) Showdown 2) Marianne Faithfull: Come And Stay With Me
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Morrissey: Swords of Refusal The latest offerings from the Mozfather to his loyal army
S D R O SW
L A S U F E R YEARS OF
T
or doesn’t exist; depression and he last suicide get a song each; the legal time we profession cops it in the neck yet encounagain. Among the album’s cast of villains - all of whom, it goes tered without saying, are ranged in a Morrissey on record terrible and sadistic conspiracy at least he was inagainst Morrissey - there lurks “a QC full of fake humility”. dulging in the most The deftness and subtlety unMorrissey like of of its predecessor’s sound has activities: getting his been stamped out. Morrissey’s backing band, hardly renowned leg over in Rome. for their lightness of touch at the Song after song on best of times, seem more stodgy 2006’s Ringleader and leaden than ever: the bass is distorted, the drums thud grimly of the Tormentors along at mid-tempo, and Ringdetailed his supposedly newfound “There’s so much dediscovery of the struction all over the pleasures of the world and all you can do flesh: “I entered is complain about me.” nothing and nothing entered leader of the Tormentors’ beautime, ‘til you came.” ful orchestrations have been If it wasn’t exactly Eazy-E’s Nutz On Ya Chin, it was still remarkably ribald stuff from rock’s most celebrated celibate. You didn’t have to be interested in the state of Morrissey’s sex life to feel relieved. Here was progress something new in an outlook that has remained unchanged over the years, unless you count the mid-90s addition of the entire legal profession to Morrissey’s chart of People Who Are Ranged in a Terrible and Sadistic Conspiracy Against Me. It certainly appeared to breathe fresh life into Morrissey’s music: his solo career has come up with few moments as transcendentally lovely as the gentle, post-coital coda of Dear God Please Help Me. But events settled into a well-worn groove following Ringleader of the Tormentors’ release: another pointless compilation album, another round of controversy about his views on immigration, another visit to the law courts. And now, there’s Years of Refusal, on which normal service is resumed. Love never comes
elbowed out. As with a lot of Morrissey’s latter-day solo material, its target market appears to be people who heard the Smiths and thought: if only this stuff was less beautifully nuanced and original, a bit more ungainly and predictable, then we’d really be getting somewhere. Occasionally, you get the impression they are doing it deliberately. There’s an aggressive defiance about the flamenco-ish intro to When I Last Spoke to Carol, which sounds exactly like the intro to Bigmouth Strikes Again played by Manuel from Fawlty Towers. And you surely don’t arrive at something as ugly as Sorry Doesn’t Help - its lumbering gait embellished with a needling, staccato electric piano line - by mistake. At least the sound fits the lyrics, which are so horribly sour you could make cottage cheese by leaving a pint of milk next to the speakers while it’s playing. Morrissey has been petulant and nasty before, but there was usually a mitigating hint of arched eyebrow, or a flash of wit. Here, there’s nothing but vituperative clumsiness: “You lied about the lies you told, which is the full extent of what being you is all
Credit to Vulgarpicture.com
about.” Indeed, great lines are surprisingly thin on the ground. It’s not so much that you’ve heard what he has to say on Black Cloud or That’s How People Grow Up before; it’s more that you’ve heard him say it better. There’s a compelling argument that Morrissey keeps attracting new, young fans because his apparently immutable worldview, in which it’s always someone else’s fault and everything is so unfair, chimes with their own adolescent experience. But it’s difficult to hear him singing, “There’s so much destruction all over the world and all you can do is complain about me,” without thinking: is this any way for a man who’s nearly 50 to be carrying on? Clearly, this thought has crossed Morrissey’s mind as well. “I know by now you think I should have straightened myself out,” he sings elsewhere. “Thank you. Drop dead.”
C
ollections of B-sides often allow musicians to expand a little on their palette. However, as any-
one familiar with Morrissey’s backing band would concede – that’s not always a good thing. From his first solo outing 20 years ago, Viva Hate, on which Stephen Street’s production castrated the intricate possibilities of Vini Reilly’s guitar, Morrissey’s backing post-Marr et al has fallen not far short of muzak. On this release of second sides from his extremely prolific 2004 to 2009, the noughties-comeback sounds prevail: that inhibited and convictionless pop-metal, vapid strings, woeful sub-Elton hotel-lobby piano. The wobbleboard-in-quicksand guitar made famous on ‘How Soon Is Now’, turned into motif by Morrissey solo, reappears on ‘Ganglord’
and ‘Shame’ with its new and only there because “when you’re cheap digitally-distorted edge. young you crave affection” and Goodness knows what Morin a characteristic switcheroo of rissey hears when listening queerness he has it “come from back at the studio; perhaps he the strangest direction”. Wrongdoesn’t listen to the music, just ful parenthood is also touched nods with gratified assent at his upon in ‘Children in Pieces’ own vocal performances while where he decries the evils of nonchalantly whipping the ‘nuns called mothers’, Morrisbassist on the arse with a bunch sey stands outside the text as of flowers. But as we know implicit protector. the karaoke backing has never His fading sexual allure is been the point, it’s all about the frankly dealt with on ‘If You expressive function of the man Don’t Like Me Then Don’t Look they call Saint Moz. at Me’, in which he articulates a Post-comeback, Morrissey’s practical response to unrequited advancing years are always desire, but unlike the sex-obgoing to be a question. The sessed Jarvis Cocker, the celicollection is littered with quaint bate pope of mope leaves it at archaisms. We get a Jensen that. With Morrissey social class Interceptor, video-films, Twiggy, and sexuality are inextricably the sound of a film camera wind- bound. The Morrissey ascendant ing. His aristocratic conception over women on high rise estates, of Queer is whose master-slave certainly “A related misconcep- eroticisation of class of-its-time tion of Morrissey is to distinction and educaif not tion gaps leads him prior, ow- cast him as an effete to places dark like a aristocrat..” ing more De Sade reworking to Quenof Pygmalion appears tin Crisp here on ‘Christian than it does to Aiden Gillen, Dior’, a wryly comic offering in bound up in a disappeared culwhich he suggests the designer’s ture of Picadilly Palare, cottaglife could have been better spent ing, repressed suburbanites and “kissing mad street boys from longing commutes. On the dull Napoli who couldn’t even spell ‘Munich Air Disaster 1958’ he their own name”. Here he also pays sentimental tribute to the take the opportunity to denigrate football deaths that precipitated fashion as a lifestyle, and in docollective grief half a century ing so distances himself not just ago, and on ‘Drive-In Saturday’ from style based on consumphe directs a black and white soap tion, on “aroma and clothes”, opera of a gender-rigid courtship but from aestheticism for of generations past. But rather aestheticism’s sake, something than make him appear dated, he and his beloved Oscar Wilde Morrissey’s nostalgic impulses both are repeatedly and unfairly posit him as something of a accused of. In lieu of a life of repository of social history, still empty style he reasserts the taking his incurably romantic beauty of a life lived “running job of kitchen sink documentarwild on the backstreets of Lyon ian seriously. While he claims or Marseilles, reckless and legon ‘My Dearest Love’ that he less and stoned”. has been “waiting a hundred A related misconception of years for something to shape Morrissey is to cast him as an me” it often seems that at least a effete aristocrat. He has always century has done just that. identified as working class; Befitting the years of the man, the son of a porter and librarthere is also a subtle shift from ian from a Mancunian terrace co-conspirator to father figure. that sang “they live where you On ‘Don’t Make Fun of Daddy’s wouldn’t drive / but you write Voice’ Morrissey contrives of as if you all live side by side” is himself as the performing, allurnot a man of the establishment. ing alternative patriarch to the Class solidarity has led Morrisgrey man called father, who is sey into politically treacherous.
Il รก Morrissey
Credit to Vulgarpicture.com
Il รก Morrissey
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Il á Morrissey
The daily commons debate: The Smiths Y
ou’ve probably never wondered which Smiths song best reflects Sir George Young, the shadow leader of the House of Commons. That is a sign of your brave, enduring sanity in the face of tedium. Said shadow leader was upset with Harriet Harman this morning for holding the last business questions so early no-one had even sent any Christmas cards yet. Always game for a laugh, Harman promptly revealed her merry spirit by stressing that despite expenses and the recession “we shouldn’t ignore the festive season altogether”. Yes, thank you Harriet. She then suggested a karaoke session to celebrate and then tried to match up her enemies with a song. “The shadow leader of the House is not one of the cheeriest members of
Credit: Rex Features
the House,” she reminded MPs. In fact, while, less than euphoric, Sir George does have a distinctly sensible side. He toyed with his Blackberry throughout the session, for instance, and paid about as much attention as the army of schoolchildren who were ushered into the public gallery half way through. He appears distinctly unflappable, although I might advise him to wear his trousers slightly higher up. At the moment, they hang around his waist like a gangster rapper. And so it was that Harriet Harman designated Sir George’s karaoke song as the Smiths’ ‘Heavens Knows I’m Miserable Now’. Her own, it’s worth noting, was ‘Uptown Girl’, by Billy Joel, which failed the parliamentary humour rules on three separate counts. Firstly, it wasn’t eviscerating; secondly, it wasn’t selfdeprecating; and thirdly, it wasn’t funny. Once they were done with the jocularities, David Heath stood up with: “Ho, ho, ho, Mr Speaker,” which, while not necessarily satisfying any of the above, did prompt an unwilling
laugh. But we weren’t done yet. Damian ‘get out my office’ Green insisted on defending his colleague, and stood up to tell the House that if any Smiths song would do for the eminent Sir George, it was ‘This Charming Man’. Harman was impressed. “I’m going to look at the honourable member in a different light now that I know he’s a true Smiths fan,” she blushed. So am I, as it happens. But the only line I had running through my head came from Morrissey’s later work: “I’ve been waiting for a time when the English are sick to death of Labour and Tories.” About this time, the school children were ushered out again by their exasperated teacher. Her work here is done. With any luck, they’ll have been put off politics for life.
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Il รก Morrissey
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Is this really the earliest review of the Smiths? This is a review from City Fun March/April 1983. There is no review credit but at the front of the magazine it says that City Fun is miles and snailor jnr. The address is c/o New Hormones, 50 Newton Street, Manchester. I think Manhattan Sound was on Spring Gardens. The go-go dancer referred to was possibly James Maker who was later in Raymonde.
MORRISSEY TOUR OF REFUSAL London Mile End Troxy Ballroom (RESCHEDULED FROM 26/05/09) 19/07/09 London Brixton O2 Academy (RESCHEDULED FROM 28/05/09) 21/07/09 London Brixton O2 Academy (RESCHEDULED FROM 29/05/09) 22/07/09 London Brixton O2 Academy (RESCHEDULED FROM 30/05/09) 23/10/09 Birmingham Symphony Hall (RESCHEDULED FROM 13/05/09) 24/10/09 Swindon Oasis 26/10/09 Bournemouth Opera House 27/10/09 London Royal Albert Hall (RESCHEDULED FROM 11/05/09) 29/10/09 Leeds Academy 30/10/09 Sheffield City Hall 02/11/09 Salisbury Salisbury City Hall (RESCHEDULED FROM 25/05/09) 03/11/09 Brentwood Leisure Centre 05/11/09 London Alexandra Palace 07/11/09 Liverpool Echo Arena 09/11/09
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Morrissey: The Autobiography
Credit: Rex Features
M
orrissey has revealed that he is set to write his auto biography.
The former Smiths singer told Janice Long on BBC Radio 2 that the book would span his career in the music industry, although he did not reveal how far through writing it he was or when he hoped to release it. “So much crap is written about me, it’s hard to live with sometimes,” he said. “It all gets burned down in history and becomes a part of your legacy.” Morrissey went on to claim that his forthcoming new album, ‘Year Of Refusal’, was his best album yet. “It’s fantastically strong,” he said. “It’s very, very strong and it’s interesting for me after all these years, but it’s the strongest.” The album is set to be released in February. Morrissey has published a section from his forthcoming autobiography. An essay by the former Smiths singer entitled ‘The Bleak Moor Lies’ appears in new book ‘The Dark Monarch: Magic & Modernity in British Art’, published by Tate St Ives. The apparently fictional story, which Morrissey has said is taken from his autobiography, concerns a group of friends who travel to Saddleworth Moor in the South Pennines and encounter a ghost. Saddleworth Moor became
infamous in the ‘60s when serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley used the site as a burial ground. As a result, Brady and Hindley were labelled the Moors Murderers, who Morrissey later wrote about the murders in The Smiths’ song ‘Suffer Little Children’. In his essay, the singer asks: “How many unfortunates have Saddleworth Moor as their resting place?” Edited by Michael Bracewell, Martin Clark and Alun Rowlands, the book also includes contributions from Jon Savage and Damien Hirst.
“Morrissey encapulates the Moor Murders” “What becomes a legend most? In the case of Morrissey, it may be his self-penned memoirs, which — according to a recent interview he did for BBC 2 radio — may be currently in the works. The singer, who has been the subject of considerable rumor and conjecture since his days as the coyly “celibate” frontman of the Smiths, thinks it’s time for him to set the record, er, straight about his life and career. “So much crap is written about me, it’s hard to live with sometimes,” our Moz told the BBC interviewer. “It all gets burned down in history and becomes part of your legacy.” Morrissey wouldn’t say how far along he is with the
autobiography, or when it might be published. He did say, however, that his new Year of Refusal album, which is currently slated for February release, is the “strongest” of his career.
“Deeply Misquoted” With every printed interview, there’s lots of misquotes,” Mozza complained to the BBC’s Janice Long this week. “Lots of them are really silly and really extreme, which you have to live with the rest of your life. So it’s setting the record straight.” Misquotes? Like when Morrissey allegedly announced that he wished George W Bush dead? Or when he allegedly wrote that he “[understood] why fur-farmers and so-called laboratory scientists are repaid with violence”? Or when he allegedly told NME that “the higher the influx [of immigrants] into England the more the British identity disappears”? “So much crap is written about me and it’s quite hard to live with sometimes because it all gets burned down in history and becomes part of whatever it is you are, the legacy, and it becomes very annoying,” Morrissey said. Certainly, Morrissey’s reputation precedes him. More than 25% of his Wikipedia page is taken up by the sections on “Music Industry Feuds”, “[Arguments with] Political Leaders”, “Accusa-
tions of Racism” and “Animal Rights”. Morrissey is a deeply Northern personality. With his dour exterior seemingly drenched in Manchester rain, the singer’s lyrics speak of growing up in decaying postindustrial towns amid working class grit. Profoundly enigmatic, the singer has recently hinted at the possibility of writing an autobiography. Having previously released books on The New York Dolls and 50s B-movie stars, Morrissey is no stranger to prose. However this could represent an unusual step for the famously secretive singer. Morrissey recently claimed he was yet to finish the proposed tome, but has now confirmed the release of the first excerpt from the book. An essay written by Morrissey titled ‘The Bleak Moor Lies’ appeared in the new book ‘The Dark Monarch: Magic & Modernity in British Art’, published by Tate St Ives. A work of fiction, the story finds a groups of friends travelling to Saddleworth Moor. Located in the South Pennines the windswept moor became infamous as the location of a series of burials linked to the so-called Moors Murderers.
The Mozipedia reviewed A true twentieth century icon and man of inestimable cultural value, Morrissey’s influence and appeal have long since been the source of ill-conceived cash-ins promising insight and authority but only to offer theory and speculation as to what transpires inside that cynical, celebrated mind. Outside of a self-penned biography, there will be no definitive answer. Until that time (which apparently is steadily approaching) the only thing required is what Simon Goddard has provided. Having plumbed the depths of Smiths-dom in Songs That Saved Your Life and its later “re-issue, re-package, reevaluate the songs” (snicker) revised edition comes the final piece in the apparent trilogy, this…. Mozipedia. With over 500 pages and 600 plus entries, Goddard’s dedication to the cause is well without question, rounding up references from the oblique to the obvious, appealing not only to those with a passion for tracing Morrissey’s literary and lyrical borrowings, but also those keen for insider knowledge to a songs origin — The Smith‘s not-so-subtle lifting of T-Rex’s “Metal Guru” rhythm section on “Panic” for instance. It also lifts the veil on unreleased recordings, informa-
tion about collaborators, influences, places of importance, his preference for mashed food and his habit of crediting his hairdresser on record sleeves. With the addition of new interviews with Johnny Marr, Chrissie Hynde, Siouxsie Sioux and Nancy Sinatra, and a thorough dissection of all Morrissey recordings postThe Smiths, including Years of Refusal, it’s much more than an updated edition of Songs That Saved Your Life. The indepth multi-page entries to the crucial poets, artists, actors of cinema and television, and the point in which their trajectory meets with Morrissey’s define its encyclopedia status. On the bookshelf it’s an intimidating and well designed beast. It goes against the grain of most Morrissey tomes but not using a picture of his lordship in favour of a 60’s style pop-art illustration. Mozipedia – The Encyclopedia of Morrissey and The Smiths (to give its full title) does what the title implies. For the Morrissey apostle its as indispensable as it is engaging, perhaps one of the few encyclopedias that you feel obliged to start at A and go right through to the end. For a man now in his fiftieth year, you can’t but help think Morrissey would find some amusement in being deemed ‘encyclopedia-worthy’.
Morrissey Released Now