an utter disgrace
ok, i come from a fairly unique angle here, having grown up in stretford most of my life, at age 44 was the right age to see the smiths from their earliest days at the hacienda and of course realise this new star was one literally of my own and many gigs followed and the smiths will remain an integral part of my life, i will admit to never having been much of a fan of anything morrissey did post-smiths. i stand by this as nothing in his catalogue hasn had anything like the reception the smiths work got, it's a matter of taste, sure, but realistically both morrissey and marr's stars went into decline post their partnership. I always got what morrissey was on about having come from the exact same suburb of manchester as him, went to the same schools, even my cousin anne marie mcveigh (mentioned in johnny rogan's book) was apparantly an object of his affection in teenage years. Here's the the rub, I have lived in Norway, for one reason or another, for the last 8 years.Now I can say that Morrissey's solo work has been artistically irrelevant, period, my belief, but many will disagree, that's okay. It is my view, so it's said, I believe Marr's solo work as an artist has been better, but still in comparison distinctly underwhelming given what you know together they were capable of. What I am angered about and am posting about having never been here before is my total disgust at Morrissey's distasteful remarks nabout the senseless murder of 80+ young people at gunpoint whilst trying to make theirn world a better place, regardless of your ideology they were making an effort, they weren't hanging around spray painting cicvic buildings, they weren't vandalising cars they were on a summer retreat learning about how to make an egalitarian society work, and they were murdered for it. Morrissey a staunch anti-thatcherite should applaud them for this given his experiences as a teenager. however, what he has chosen to do is use the horror of this incident as a platform for his vegetarian views, I am not a vegetarian, but am fully respectful and understanding of that viewpoint. Now to vocalise your views on any particular subject is absolutely right and correct, but, to use it as an appendix on such a heinous crime as he has done has not only made me truly know he is irrelevant, it has tainted any love I still had for his otherwise peerless early work. If you are disgusted by the use of animals as foodstuff for humankind, make your objection, but whilst parents, friends, family are grieving over a truly unspeakable crime it smaks of sensionalism for his own sake. The reason I say this, isn't this the same man who wrote suffer little children? if that was such a compelling subject over and above the rights of animals not to be slaughtered what changed now? There was never any need to compare the issues, they are completely unrelated, and the honest truth, and everyone knows it, it was about publicity. This is an absoloute crime, that any individual artist or otherwise thinks they are more important than another human being. In my opinion Morrissey has shown his true colours here, he considers himself, his needs, his importance over and above that of 80+ murdered schoolkids, his record sales, his popularity is paramount about above the respect of their deaths, what an awful thing. I was without doubt amongst the most fervent Smiths fans ever, not only did their music mean everything to me, they changed my life, they were local boys, I knew what they were on about. To me it was about music, and still is, and I moved on, fondness in my heart forever, but knowing other things lay ahead. I am aware today that the love of Morrissey borders on infatuation and fanatacism, thats okay, no problem, this is music. But what worries me is when people become so infatuated with an individual thateven when they say, or do the most heinous of things we still believe, we do not question and we laud them, as our saviour. You may love his music, you may always love his music, I neeed not tell you the precedent for such adoration of a false demi-god, make your own decisions, But what's wrong is wrong, and when it's this wrong it's your duty to question your heroes motives and say 'enoughs enough'