The Smiths

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Johnny Marr: ‘When I play Smiths songs I experience this huge wave of elation’

Particularly liked Bernard Butler's question...

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Excerpt:
Did the Smiths ever fall out over football or politics?
Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester

We never discussed football so that’s that. And we never fell out over politics, but we probably would now.

Morrissey’s recent political views have cast a shadow over the Smiths for me – reaching back into the past and tainting something that was very important to me. I’m so disappointed in him. Has it impacted how you feel about the Smiths or are you able to separate the past from the present, the band from the man? I find it very difficult to do so.
Johnny Spence, Northern Ireland

It hasn’t impacted how I feel about the Smiths. That’s all I can say about...

Dear @officialmoz. An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now. Even Donald J Trump had that one down. Also, this fake news business…a bit 2021 yeah ? #makingindiegreatagain

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Related item:

• "OPEN LETTER TO JOHNNY MARR." (January 25, 2022)

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Media item:

• Radio X: Johnny Marr hits back after Morrissey asks him to stop mentioning him in interviews - January 26, 2022

This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast. It is a polite and calmly measured request: Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?

Would you please, instead, discuss your own career, your own unstoppable solo achievements and your own music?

If you can, would you please just leave me out of it?

The fact is: you don’t know me. You know nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings. Yet you talk as if you were my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts. We haven’t known each other for 35 years - which is many lifetimes ago. When we met you and I were not successful. We both helped each other become whatever it is we are today. Can you not just leave it at that? Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin ?

You found me inspirational enough to make music with me for 6 years. If I was, as you...

By George Simpson.

"JOHNNY MARR has been brutally honest about his painful memories from The Smiths break-up and shared how he talks to everyone from his incredible career except for Morrissey."


Excerpt:

Speaking in a new interview with Uncut, the 58-year-old said: “[The Smiths are] one of the things I’m proudest of. One of the things that I must be proud about – not only myself but the whole group, because that was our MO. Whatever s*** was going on, nothing got in the way of what was coming out of speakers – and there’s a lot to get in the way.

“It’s a simplistic way of putting it, but one of the reasons I’ve been in so many bands was because I wanted to be loyal to them. It won’t come as any surprise when I say that I’m really close with everyone I’ve worked with – except for the obvious one. And that isn’t that much of a surprise because we’re so...

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Link posted in Strange/unexpected Moz references? originally mentioned by Maradona:

IF THERE'S SOMETHING YOU'D LIKE TO TRY
ASTLEY, ASTLEY, ASTLEY

"My sincere thanks to Rick and the Blossoms for their recent recentness.
Anything that generates interest in
that tired old Smiths warhorse is testimony to the wallop it packed.
THANK YOU!"

-Morrissey, October 2021.


Regards,
FWD.

(Article first noticed by @Gregor Samsa & @Surface - their posts remain in original thread as being discussed there too).

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Subsequent to the above (October 11, 2021):

RICK BLOSSOM AND THE ASTLEYS

Setlist was the same as previous night:

What Difference Does It Make? / Bigmouth Strikes Again / Still I'll / Reel Around The Fountain / Cemetry Gates / Ask / Hand In Glove / Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others / The Boy With The Thorn In His Side / Girlfriend In A Coma / Well I Wonder / Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now / Panic / William, It Was Really Nothing / Barbarism Begins at Home / Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want // How Soon Is Now? / This Charming Man / There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Regards,
FWD.