Moz in Todays Metro

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Johnny

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A Christmas single from Morrissey with such lyrics as :"Jesus,do you hate me,why do you stick me in self-deprecating skin and bones ?"

"I Have Forgiven Jesus" taken from his 'You Are The Quarry' album,is unlikely to be taken up by children's choirs around the country.Yet it's just like Morrissey,a contrary Mary if ever there was one,to chose to be the vegetarian at the festive feast.

He may have come to us proffering flowers and poetry,but now appears brandishing a machine gun like Al Pacino in Scarface on the cover of his latest album.So who is the real Steven Patrick Morrissey ?.

Despite 5 years without a record deal,Morrissey is a consistent star.Working with Johnny Marr and The Smiths,Morrissey crafted a scrupulously honest confessional style,harnessed to energetic,sometimes maudlin arrangements.

"Burn down the disco,hang the blessed DJ,because the music that they constantly play,says nothing to me about my life" he aptly opined on Panic,although his ability to replace the atrophied roots of a commercialised and bland popular culture with anything more interesting appeared under threat when self-publicised spats brought The Smiths to a bitter end.

Yet Morrissey's honest graft prevailed,with "Your Arsenal" reviving his fortunes and "Vauxhall And I" argubably his best,from the plaintive The More You Ignore Me,The Closer I Get to the tortured gothic of Spring-Heeled Jim.

Playing live,however,the shadow of The Smiths still hung over him.His solo concert at Motherwell Town Hall had to be abandoned halfway through his encore of,"Shoplifters Of The World Unite",after fevered fans leapt on stage for garment-rending mania more appropriate to an Ayatollah's funeral.

During a recent gig at Edinburgh's Corn Exchange Morrissey asked his over-adoring fans wether he should play the SECC next time around."No!" came the unanimous reply,presumably filling him with the paradoxical desire to annoy and delight them simultaneously by staging a gig in exactly that venue.

Now ensconced in Greta Garbo's Los Angeles house,Morrissey may not want to be alone right now,but please,please,please,Morrissey fans stay off the stage this time.

This tour may,it has been hinted,be his last before retiral.
 
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