One day in the spring of 1983 a brief was sent round Rough trade saying he should only be referred to as Morrissey. Do you know the actual date when the first two names were dropped and can you support your claim, or lead me to somebody who can?
No, sorry - but I found this looking on the net....
David Humphries:
From a Smiths interview with Nick Kent, The Face, May 1985 (nicked from
http://www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~moz/)
Geoff Travis is clearly besotted with The Smiths. And for every frustration there is a bonus potentially as vast as that very first time when, having witnessed an early Rock Garden performance unmoved, Travis was cornered in the kitchen of Rough Trade's old West London offices by Johnny Marr and bassist Rourke and forced to listen to a demo of Hand In Glove, financed by Joe Moss.
"I remember Johnny glowing with pride saying 'This is it! Just listen to this.' I was helplessly won over." Since that time Rough Trade have lost their three most formidable pre-Smiths acts - Aztec Camera ("Roddy Frame's ambitions were simply too grand for us"), Scritti Politti (ditto Green's recording bills) and The Fall. Here was a conflict of interest, whether Travis, the eternal music-loving idealist, saw it or not. Certainly he perceives Fall leader Mark E. Smith as a figure "who will always consider himself the spokesman of the Northern roots culture, a culture centered in Manchester". He recalls the tenacious Mark Smith voicing extensive grievance over RT's desires to seek "pop perfection," an obvious jab at that other Mancunian group who had after all started out supporting The Fall.
"I remember," adds Travis, "one incident when Mark was present in the office and quite by chance Morrissey appeared to talk business. Mark just fixed him with this very sardonic look and said quite clearly - 'Ah, hello Steven!' Morrissey was visibly shaken by it." Quizzed about the severing of Steven from his monicker, Morrissey simply states: "I just found that when people addressed me by my surname I felt differently about myself and that difference moved me to decide that I wanted to be called Morrissey permanently. I just felt this absolutely massive relief at not being called Steven anymore."
And I found the following on
this website:
KEVIN CUMMINS: "No one called him Morrissey when he was playing with Slaughter & The Dogs and hanging around with them. But he was definitely Morrissey when The Smiths started. The band referred to him as Morrissey."
MIKE JOYCE: "It's funny actually, because I used to call him Steven all the time. First I used to call him Steve. To him it was just a totally abhorrent idea, 'cos, y'know, Steve, Tony, Dave - all that 'a'right, Steve, a'right mate!' Then it went to Steven. Steven was just too gay. Then he said, 'I'd rather be called Morrissey'. So it was like, all right, cool. It took me a little while to get used to it. When we played in Birmingham at the Fighting Cocks, I asked Morrissey something - I said, 'Morrissey, er, what time is it?' And he said, 'Ten past twelve, Joyce.'"
That should help...
