Nick Kent talks Morrissey and The Smiths in DN interview - Fredrik Strage / Morrissey 61 Facebook group

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Excerpt:

Post by Fredrik Strage:

Jag intervjuade just rockjournalisten Nick Kent för DN. Han är aktuell med sin första roman "The Unstable Boys". Jag frågade också om hans relation till Morrissey och han gav mig väldigt utförliga svar. Eftersom jag bara fick med ett par korta citat i den färdiga texten tänkte jag bjussa er Moz-fans på resten. (Det här är inte korrat eller redigerat, bara utskriven intervju.)

Another big "what if" in rock history is what would have happened if you had agreed to publish the stuff that Morrissey sent you when you were a section editor at the NME? Maybe he would have become a rock journalist instead?
I never turned him down. I just didn't get back to him. He wasn't very good. But the main thing is that Morrissey was 14 years old. He was obsessed with the New York Dolls and I had spent enough time around the New York Dolls to know first hand that people who hang around the New York Dolls don't live very long. There's only one guy in the band still alive. Five are dead. Probably more than any other rock group of their era. So I just thought he'd better grow out of it. Also he was 14, what was I going to say? Leave school? Go to New York? I think he always resented me for that. Haha. We had a strange relationship. I remember interviewing him as a member of The Smiths, I couldn't remember him as Steven Morrissey, this kid that used to write to me. He wrote to a lot of people. But very quickly he wanted to know about the New York Dolls. And I knew about them. Johnny Thunders was the same age as me. We dressed the same and we had connections shall we say. So I knew the real story which he didn't. He just knew the story that he had read in the music papers. So I told him the real story of the New York Dolls and I remember him looking at me as if I was Saint Peter talking about Jesus Christ. This kind of worshipful look on his face. He wanted to touch the hem of my garment or something. I said to him "listen, man, the New York Dolls were a fine group, far be it from me to knock them but The Smiths are way better, you Morrissey are way more talented than anyone in the New York Dolls, that's just my opinion". And that impressed him. Haha.

I love The Smiths. I've been listening to them again. It's strange because their music came along at a really bad time in my life. Getting towards the end of my bad drug period. I was suffering from a really bad chemical depression. I was jaded and lacking stamina and everything was shit. Too many synthesizers. The whole music scene was all synthesizers at that point and I didn't like it. Then The Smiths came along and it was just wonderful. It was like hearing The Byrds again for the first time. I fell in love with music again. And meeting them was very nice. Johnny Marr gave me an amplifier, I was still a musician at that time, very nice of him. And a huge talent. I've played guitar with Keith Richards, I know how good a musician he is, like one-to-one, I know how good he is on stage but I also know how good he is when playing in a room and he's very good. He's much better in a room than he is on stage. And also Jimmy Page. Another guitar great. I've been in the same room and watched him play. He's great. But Johnny Marr was the best. When he was in The Smiths it was like... God, the beauty.... I'd purposedly go to soundchecks, before a gig, and Morrissey wouldn't sing it was just Joyce, Rourke and Marr getting the sound right. And they were rehearsing the songs for "The Queen Is Dead" which they were yet to record. They had just written them. And the music coming off that stage... everything that Marr played was just beautiful. It was like something out of a Greek myth. This golden music was coming out of his amplifier. Everything that he played was just... and they worked every day. The Smiths worked hard. The Smiths were the opposite of The Sex Pistols and The New York Dolls. They developed. They rehearsed. They wanted to be great. Every f***ing day, man. Morrissey and Marr would get together and say: "OK, today we're gonna write our version of '8 Miles High'. We're not gonna copy it but we're gonna do something as monumental as that." And they wrote "How Soon Is Now". Then Marr said: "OK, today we're gonna do our 'Gimme Shelter'." And they wrote "Bigmouth Strikes Again". They'd pick a song that was a classic. "OK, we're gonna do our 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling'." And they wrote "I Know It's Over". You understand? That's the level they were working on. Everyone else were thinking like: "OK, we want to sound a bit like Leonard Cohen, a bit like U2, and a bit like Depeche Mode, and the singer wants to sound a bit like Jeff Buckley. We'll put these ingredients together and we'll write our own songs." And that's pretty much what Coldplay does. And hundreds of thousands of people like that approach. That's a mainstream approach to rock music and has been for the last 30 years. But I don't like that because when I hear groups like that I just hear their influences. There's no personality. It's like the difference between Prince, who takes loads of influences but brought his own personality, versus Lenny Kravitz who takes Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, a little bit of John Lennon, and a lot of other influences but doesn't really add anything of his own to it.

The Smiths were like The Velvet Underground. They had their own sound. And those are the rare groups. Those are the important groups that are going to last.

Is it true that Morrissey wrote the song "Reader Meet Author" about you?
I haven't heard the song so I don't really want to comment. There was a time when things were nasty between us. Now we just ignore eachother. I prefer it that way. I don't like his politics. I don't know too much about him. I haven't even listened to his last album. But I listened to "California Son" and I really enjoyed that. I thought he made some really good choices. Joni Mitchell. Laura Nyro. But as for the stuff that he writes now... no. I don't want to say anything negative about the guy but I'm not gonna say anything positive either. Loved him in The Smiths.



The original DN article:


full
 
No. There’s no delusion to the fact that Melvis is a jilted lover. He courted this fellow from the age of 14 and then spit venom, when rejected. Morrissey isn’t shy, by any stretch. Like veganism, it’s just the image he’d like to portray but we all know it’s far from the truth. Morrissey isn’t shy, he simply uses that as an excuse for his deplorable behaviour toward his fellow human beings.

...and THAT’s an asshole. ;)

He'd have to be the world's greatest method actor to have that many accounts of his shyness & aversion to meat on record.

Which would be impressive.
 
No. It’s full-on rubbish, from start to finish. Sadly, I wasted my time reading it in it’s entirety. I learned that Morrissey is a bitter man-child with a grandiose self-image and a complete and utter inability to grasp the basic workings of his own native tongue. Penguin Classic, my arse. 😂
The basic workings including...how to use an apostrophe?
 
So much bitterness and bile in this thread, when all there is to say is:
VIVA MOZ. Where would most of us be without his words and music?

Looking forward to the next installment in the A-Z!
 
It's actually littered with his mental health problems.

People get hired & fired every day. Rejection is a normal part of the business.

Edit: He has survived on talent & timing (the 80s had more variety) - otherwise he'd have been written off as too dysfunctional to work with. As many are.
Here you go, "Mozplaining" again, casually dismissing accounts from people who have met him & dealt with him, replacing them with your own tunnel-visioned daydreaming. I am embarrassed beyond words that his modern-era audience is reduced to making these limp, piteous excuses on his behalf. Your posts make me embarrassed to be a fan at all.
 
Clearly, this one has no clue who Tony Wilson was. ...and he’s strangely obsessed with emojis and his own, deeply rooted connection to “cuck” culture.

:rolleyes:
Nobody normal knows who he is FFS
Melvin, nobody cares about the dumb cuck troll except for trolls. he is infamous for being partly responsible for some of the suckiest music ever made, that of that suco group New Order.:blushing:
please quit posting you are making Gorge Salsa hysterical🧐
 
Here you go, "Mozplaining" again, casually dismissing accounts from people who have met him & dealt with him, replacing them with your own tunnel-visioned daydreaming. I am embarrassed beyond words that his modern-era audience is reduced to making these limp, piteous excuses on his behalf. Your posts make me embarrassed to be a fan at all.


:rolleyes:

Melvin triggers, who in turn triggered hysterical Gorge Salsa, who triggered the
Le :frogface: troll .:mad:

all trolls seem accounted for.:blushing:
 
Here you go, "Mozplaining" again, casually dismissing accounts from people who have met him & dealt with him, replacing them with your own tunnel-visioned daydreaming. I am embarrassed beyond words that his modern-era audience is reduced to making these limp, piteous excuses on his behalf. Your posts make me embarrassed to be a fan at all.

I do post the quotes to back it up - including on this thread.

If you want to take it up with the many people in his life who have described his shyness & mental health issues - then that might be a better use of your time.
 
I do post the quotes to back it up - including on this thread.

If you want to take it up with the many people in his life who have described his shyness & mental health issues - then that might be a better use of your time.
What you can't seem to grasp is that being shy, anxious or introverted does NOT give anyone a free pass to treat people as poorly as he consistently does. And it's not just the accounts of others you're ignoring when you trot out these excuses - you're denying what you've seen, because his bitterness, anger and sense of entitlement was on every page of Autobio. Hanging it on 'he's ill and he can't help it' is not only pathetic and dishonest, it's patronising as f*** to every other mere mortal who struggles with their mental health and doesn't carelessly discard people. Are you going to 'explain' depression to me, now?

If a 'normal' Joe - a bin man or a lorry driver - behaved like Morrissey, you wouldn't waste a moment in tearing him down to size. But because it's a pop star and you like a few songs, you can't do it. Delusional.
 
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What you can't seem to grasp is that being shy, anxious or introverted does NOT give you a free pass to treat people as poorly as he consistently does. And it's not just the accounts of others you're ignoring when you trot out these excuses - you're denying what you've seen, because his bitterness, anger and sense of entitlement was on every page of Autobio. Hanging it on 'he's ill and he can't help it' is not only pathetic but dishonest too. And well as patronising as f***, to every other mere mortal who struggles with their mental health.

Bollocks.

People mostly say he's gentle & quiet.

Not being able to do promotion when he's anxious, being difficult about contracts & having a waspish sense of humour does not make someone a terrible person.
 
🧐

even Le:frogface: is getting into the party concerning this Tony Wilson nutter troll:handpointdown:

“So much has been made of Factory apparently turning The Smiths down, but that’s a crock of shit,” Johnny Marr told NME in 2014. “The Smiths would have signed to Factory over my dead body… I didn’t want to be assimilated into the Factory aesthetic.

“If you were a musician in Manchester at that time, it was almost the law that you went on your hands and knees and begged Tony Wilson for his papal blessing to stick you in the studio, and I wasn’t about to do that.”


troll trolling troll:thumbsdown:

this is the type of element Moz had to deal with.🧐
 
Bollocks.

People mostly say he's gentle & quiet.

Not being able to do promotion when he's anxious, being difficult about contracts & having a waspish sense of humour does not make someone a terrible person.
Oh, give up, trying to revise history. He could commit a murder and you'd still be here, trotting out the same intellectually dishonest pap. You're like a brainwashed 14-year old who refuses to grow up.
 
Oh, give up, trying to revise history. He could commit a murder and you'd still be here, trotting out the same intellectually dishonest pap. You're like a brainwashed 14-year old who refuses to grow up.

I'm posting the evidence - you're the one dribbling at me that you're a fan of a bitter old cow & you like it that way.

You're obviously happy shipping Morrissey & Marr like you did in the olden days, so go ship & be happy.
 
I'm posting the evidence - you're the one dribbling at me that you're a fan of a bitter old cow & you like it that way.

You're obviously happy shipping Morrissey & Marr like you did in the olden days, so go ship & be happy.
In what way have I said anything resembling this? I pointed out that you're endlessly apologising for him and dismissing any opposing views, regardless of where they come from.

And you're not posting evidence! You're posting excuses after excuses, regardless of what is presented to you. Blind hero worship.

As for him being a bitter old cow - well, he is. I'm a fan of the music and the words, I didn't sign up because I ever thought Morrissey was the son of God. But yeah, you're quite right, it's grim as hell to me that Morrissey and Marr are estranged and that Moz seems to have surrounded himself with hopeless cases like Sam. It's grim that people perceive him (now) to have shat all over the Smiths legacy, something he helped to build. It seems like he has gradually 'cut out' any critical voices - bad news for Johnny, bad news for his friends, for his art and for most fans in general, but great for you as there might now be a vacancy in the PR team. :rolleyes: You could even take over Moz Central!
 
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You're not posting evidence! You're posting excuses after excuses, regardless of what is presented to you. Blind hero worship.

As for him being a bitter old cow - well, he is. I'm a fan of the music and the words, I didn't sign up because I ever thought Morrissey was the son of God. But yeah, you're quite right, it's grim as hell to me that Morrissey and Marr are estranged and that Moz seems to have surrounded himself with hopeless cases like Sam. It's grim that people perceive him (now) to have shat all over the Smiths legacy. It seems like he has gradually 'cut out' any critical voices - bad news for Johnny, bad news for his friends and most fans in general, but great for you as there might now be a vacancy in the PR team. :rolleyes:


:rolleyes:
its a troll fest FFS:blushing:
another nutter troll who knows how everyone perceives:crazy:
and doesnt perceive.:crazy:
one of the shoes must be on too tight.:mad:
 
You're not posting evidence! You're posting excuses after excuses, regardless of what is presented to you. Blind hero worship.

As for him being a bitter old cow - well, he is. I'm a fan of the music and the words, I didn't sign up because I ever thought Morrissey was the son of God. But yeah, you're quite right, it's grim as hell to me that Morrissey and Marr are estranged and that Moz seems to have surrounded himself with hopeless cases like Sam. It's grim that people perceive him (now) to have shat all over the Smiths legacy. It seems like he has gradually 'cut out' any critical voices - bad news for Johnny, bad news for his friends and most fans in general, but great for you as there might now be a vacancy in the PR team. :rolleyes:

No - I really do post the evidence.

What I get from you is your crush on Johnny Marr. Which I don't attack you for even though you make up bollocks about Morrissey's current band being sexually harassed & unable to get other work because of pictures you don't like the look of & because they're not Johnny.

Sam is his nephew. Spawns are a natural hazard.
 
No - I really do post the evidence.

What I get from you is your crush on Johnny Marr. Which I don't attack you for even though you make up bollocks about Morrissey's current band being sexually harassed & unable to get other work because of pictures you don't like the look of & because they're not Johnny.

Sam is his nephew. Spawns are a natural hazard.
My God, have you turned into Vegan now? Have we sunk to this?

Let's see:
  • what I said is that Morrissey parading his band in bikinis, sequin dresses, loincloths etc and posing nude, makes him look seedy (t0 me) and makes it look as though he is having a laugh at their expense. You then started ranting about 'sexual abuse', which I never mentioned, and the whole thing went on forever. It has nothing to do with Johnny. Next.

  • The band. I don't hate them but I acknowledge their musical limitations. I realise they are not going to set the world on fire or leave Morrissey for glittering solo careers - as anybody should who has a working pair of ears, or who has contributed to the recent A-Z threads. Again, this has nothing to do with Johnny.

I don't know why you've brought up Johnny but I imagine you've done it in the same way that Ketamine and other 'Mozbots' do when they have run out of steam. You can't handle criticism directed at Morrissey and you don't have any real lines of response (because the evidence is against you) - so you flail around, trying to take Johnny down a peg or two instead. Mostly because he has remained a decent person who has not committed career suicide, as far as I can see. Your problem, not mine. Like you said - I can have both. :guitar:
 
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My God, have you turned into Vegan now? Have we sunk to this?

Let's see:
  • what I said is that Morrissey parading his band in bikinis, sequin dresses, loincloths etc and posing nude, makes him look seedy (t0 me) and makes it look as though he is having a laugh at their expense. You then started ranting about 'sexual abuse', which I never mentioned, and the whole thing went on forever. It has nothing to do with Johnny. Next.

  • The band. I don't hate them but I acknowledge their musical limitations. I realise they are not going to set the world on fire or leave Morrissey for glittering solo careers - as anybody should who has a working pair of ears, or who has contributed to the recent A-Z threads. Again, this has nothing to do with Johnny.

I don't know why you've brought up Johnny but I imagine you've done it in the same way that Ketamine and other 'Mozbots' do when they have run out of steam. You can't handle criticism directed at Morrissey and you don't have any real lines of response (because the evidence is against you) - so you flail around, trying to take Johnny down a peg or two instead. Mostly because he has remained a decent person who has not committed career suicide, as far as I can see. Your problem, not mine.

No, I mentioned it because you mostly attack me when Marr or Morrissey's band have come up in a thread.

I try to avoid mentioning Marr & have never insulted you the way you insult me.

I take it this latest onslaught has been prompted by Tony Wilson saying he was filled with revulsion when he saw an engineer bringing Morrissey a towel & the engineer being quoted in The Severed Alliance confirming that he brought the entire band towels.

So Tony should have also been filled with revulsion at the entitlement of Johnny Marr.
 
No, I mentioned it because you mostly attack me when Marr or Morrissey's band have come up in a thread.
I try to avoid mentioning Marr & have never insulted you the way you insult me.

I take it this latest onslaught has been prompted by Tony Wilson saying he was filled with revulsion when he saw an engineer bringing Morrissey a towel & the engineer being quoted in The Severed Alliance confirming that he brought the entire band towels.

So Tony should have also been filled with revulsion at the entitlement of Johnny Marr.
Ok. Karen, I am going to put my cards on the table.

I attack you because you dismiss any comment or account from anyone which doesn't align with your idea of who Morrissey is. I attack you because you patronise fans here; present opinions as facts, try to 'explain' away his actions or behaviour in depth when you can't possibly know those things. I attack you because I think you wrongly lean on certain things - M's Irish heritage or LGBTQ identity or mental health - to explain away poor behaviour in a way that I find distasteful.

Those are my personal reasons for why I have been harsh towards you. I accept that I have been too harsh at times and my temper got the better of me, and I do apologise for insulting you or for making something seem like an 'onslaught'.

As for Tony Wilson ... in fact, I don't put a great deal of faith in his account because he has hated 'Steven' from day one and bears a grudge against him. But there have been many other accounts like his, and I don't think they are all lying.
 
🧐

Its LePew who didn't want to be assimilated into that knob Tony Wilson who thought he was THE POPE~~~ EVERYONE HAD TO COWTOW AND BOW DOWN ON THEIR KNEES FOR THE CUCK!!!:blushing:

someone carrying a couple of towels is some type of crime for this finagler but he sees nothing wrong with having ALL OF MANCHESTER ACCORDING TO LE:frogface: HIMSELF BEG HIM FOR DUMB STUDIO TIME:thumbsdown:

Moz who was not involved in the events, becomes the victim of all the troll fake news.:mad:
 
Do you think there's any truth in the story about Nick wanting to 'audition' for Johnny's place in the Smiths? It sounds insane.
There are a few anecdotes that defy belief in Autobiography. The idea that Joe Moss wanted to replace Morrissey in 1984 also seems hard to believe. With regards to that Nick Kent story in the book the extracts of the letter Nick Kent supposedly sent do sound real.
 

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