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Tony Wilson on Morrissey and The Smiths (interview at howdoesitfeel.co.uk)

posted by davidt on Thursday April 10 2003, @09:00AM
Dan B. Perl writes:

How Does It Feel To Be Loved?, the website devoted (largely) to British indie-ish music of the '80s and '90s(-ish), has some great interviews, most recently one with Tony Wilson about signing - or not signing - The Smiths. It's what you'd expect. Excerpt:

Is it true that Morrissey pulled music from the '24 Hour Party People'?

"I don't know. I've no idea. It wouldn't surprise me one little bit because he's a miserable git. Also, he would have broken my heart. He's a very talented boy, but he's actually one of the most miserable. . . he's actually, let's be really honest about it, he's actually a nasty person, as a human being. As was John Lennon. Because he treats good human beings who help him - this isn't me, I've never helped him, I'm fond of him because I'm fond of his talent and his creativity - he treats excellent good human beings who try to help him like pieces of dog dirt. He tramples on them. It's not his fault, he's just a terribly unpleasant human being, in terms of pure human values, he is not a nice person."
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  • Those in glass houses...
    brother_im_a_poet -- Thursday April 10 2003, @09:09AM (#57870)
    (User #7561 Info)
    Love's young dream, I'm the one who shopped you.
  • Tony Wilson has always seemed obsessed with Morrissey!

    This is the first interview I've seen where he's admitted that they were very close at one point. The idea of Tony Wilson sitting on his bed is ODD, somehow!!
    Gabriella -- Thursday April 10 2003, @09:17AM (#57873)
    (User #7960 Info)
    And me and my heart, we knew...we just knew...forevermore...
  • "That was my version of why I didn't sign the Smiths. I know the Smiths have their version. Everyone has."

    Including God. ;)
    Havfine -- Thursday April 10 2003, @09:26AM (#57874)
    (User #284 Info)
    "Have you forgotten how to love yourself?" Red House Painters
    • Re:roofs by Anonymous (Score:0) Tuesday April 15 2003, @03:04PM
      • Re:roofs by Havfine (Score:1) Wednesday April 16 2003, @02:21AM
  • He just seems like such a liar when he talks about anything. "That was my version of why I didn't sign the Smiths." Come on!

    He was obviously infuriated that Morrissey was getting anywhere and didn't want to be part of his success. Seems like a pretty personal, spiteful decision NOT to sign the Smiths, actually. But I'm just rambling...
    Gabriella -- Thursday April 10 2003, @09:37AM (#57876)
    (User #7960 Info)
    And me and my heart, we knew...we just knew...forevermore...
  • Usually, help, isn't as simple and pure, as the word 'help', would suggest, with few exceptions.
    redpathetic -- Thursday April 10 2003, @09:37AM (#57877)
    (User #6184 Info)
    Happy in this final acceptance of his own absurdity...Albert Camus

  • So what? (Score:3, Funny)

    I once had a couple of drinks with one of Mozzer's roadies afther a show in Cologne. He also said that Mozzer isn't a very nice fella.

    It doesn't surprise me. People who suffer from depressions or other anti-social mental disorders are often very unpleasant. Being caught up in your own misery tends to do that to people.

    So what if he treats people like doodie? I couldn't care less if you paid me.
    Eric Hartman -- Thursday April 10 2003, @10:56AM (#57896)
    (User #5103 Info | http://www.patcondell.net/)
    It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead.
  • pretty strong words...
    Mud <[email protected]> -- Thursday April 10 2003, @11:00AM (#57897)
    (User #454 Info | http://jaytando.tripod.com/meeting-morrissey/)
    I'm really just Some Totally Random Moz Fan
  • and then reinstated by Granada due to complaints about his sacking from yes, you and me Joe Public.
    I don't know what he did but it was something to do with swearing on air really badly when he didnt realise he was on air.
    That's true that is.
    paulybob <[email protected]> -- Thursday April 10 2003, @01:17PM (#57921)
    (User #2426 Info)
  • So nothing new then. Didn't Moz once call him "a pig in a man's body"?
    This man is so pathetic, he's funny.
    Spineless Swine <[email protected]> -- Thursday April 10 2003, @01:52PM (#57926)
    (User #4968 Info)
    Leave your future behind you.
    • Re:Tony the Phoney by Gabriella (Score:1) Thursday April 10 2003, @01:58PM
      • i thought by mr. superinvisible (Score:1) Friday April 11 2003, @01:04PM
  • I met Moz before and he was super duper nice.
    Anonymous -- Thursday April 10 2003, @02:59PM (#57933)
  • I don't think it's so much that Morrissey is "unpleasant", I think it's that most people don't know where he's coming from or how to take him. I think it takes a certain type of person to understand Morrissey and his ways about doing things.

    Most people are attracted to those who seem happy and greet everyone and everything with a smile and a tip of the hat, but if they meet someone who's even slightly complicated and an introvert, automatically there's something wrong with them and they are deemed "unpleasant".

    I think it's interesting that I'm always attracted to these "unpleasant" people. I find them much more interesting than the average Joe, er, or Tony...

    I don't know very much about Tony Wilson, but what I do know is that he just doesn't get it, nor did he ever really try.
    hand in glove -- Thursday April 10 2003, @04:40PM (#57945)
    (User #827 Info)
    "Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together" - Marilyn Monroe
  • Old and jealous big brother... you had your time and you spent it crying!
    Anonymous -- Friday April 11 2003, @02:15AM (#57957)

  • Let's face it... (Score:0, Flamebait)

    The guy is a wierdo... when he came out on that once late night show a couple of months ago (when he sang "the first of the gang") simply by the way he talked you could tell Morrissey is wierd as hell. Nothing about him can surprise me anymore. A good deal of the music is good... Morrissey's voice, the musicians... lyric-wise... 40% i like... the other 60% maybe to much of a downer for me. (his "nasty" side reflecting on his lyrics??")
    Anonymous -- Friday April 11 2003, @02:19AM (#57958)
  • there's an excellent site in the internet with amazing pictures of JD, Ian, Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton, Martin Hannet and the rest of the gang.

    http://www.incubation.ch/images.htm

    And yes, I cannot help loving the one in which Tony Wilson is holding a picture of Ian... but then I'm silly, maybe. Sorry, I guess I'm getting a bit emotional over it! :#
    Havfine -- Friday April 11 2003, @02:36AM (#57960)
    (User #284 Info)
    "Have you forgotten how to love yourself?" Red House Painters

  • Oh dear... (Score:1, Insightful)

    Oh dear, the sad fact is that Mr Wilson is entirely correct in his summation of Morrissey as a human bean. I cannot think of anyone who has worked with him who doesn't feel exactly the same way...Steven Street, Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce, David Bowie, Craig Gannon, Johnny Bridgewood and possibly members of the current set-up, I mean, why should they be any different?

    For me it is the ideal of Morrissey, his work and his persona that is attractive...the reality would, I think, bite...as our American cousins are fond of saying.
    Anonymous -- Friday April 11 2003, @03:18AM (#57961)

    • sad but true? (Score:2, Insightful)

      if you read Boz's tour diary, he always writes about "me and Deano went to the pub" or "Gaz and i picked up some hookers"

      never mentions Morrissey outside of actual gig playing or rehearsals. maybe Moz isn't all that friendly? who knows, and really who cares.

      i know from personal experience, when you're quiet or shy-or just not talkative and obnoxious-people take that as being rude or think you're an asshole...could be his problem too ?
      mr. superinvisible -- Friday April 11 2003, @01:13PM (#58003)
      (User #6367 Info)
  • Steven Morrissey is demon-possessed, and that's why he's such a horrible person - and so famous. As Seymour Stein of Sire once said that "How Soon Is Now?" was the "Stairway to Heaven of the 80s," we know that Steven, like Jimmy, Robert, and John (Bonham - not Paul Jones) is thoroughly indebted to the Dark Lord, Leviathan, Beelzebub, for his success. The sad part is that, he does not know it. A child of his age, he is blinded by the scientific materialism of late modernity, and does not really realize much about the supernatural. Anyway, the fact that Morrissey is both successful and so uncanny and nasty, is attributable to "the prince of this world" and one of his minion's who possesses him.
    Anonymous -- Friday April 11 2003, @09:12AM (#57982)
  • It's ridiculous the way people are slagging off Tony Wilson for being a liar... The simple fact is that none of us know Morrissey, we have no idea what sort of a person he is, just because he is pleasant when you ask him for an autograph, doesn't mean a thing.

    Tony Wilson has met/dealt with Morrissey many times, he IS in a position to comment on his personality. i Don't know why it is OK for Moz to slag off everyone he has ever known, and we call him 'witty', but when someone slags off Moz, he is a filthy liar. Hmmm....
    JiltedJim -- Friday April 11 2003, @09:50AM (#57985)
    (User #7728 Info)
  • I don't care what anyone thinks - Tony Wilson is a god. Okay, supposedly he is a big twat and I can't argue cos I have never met him, but he put his whole life and money and everything on the line for his love of great music. Factory Records produced utterly brilliant music and left the power with the artists - something which most record labels baulk at. He is a brave and determined man and I think he should command all of our respect.
    Anonymous -- Friday April 11 2003, @10:08AM (#57987)
  • I've been thinking about this for some weeks now since the release of THAT film.

    I believe it is basically Tony's problem - to be frank and open here. It has ALWAYS been a problem for Tony from the early days and it always will be a problem for Tony because that's what he's like - a market trader.
    Anonymous -- Friday April 11 2003, @10:52AM (#57991)
  • this comment on morrissey comes from a man once said,and i quote"the smiths were an good band, but i dont think they were in any way influential"

    enougfh said i think, mr wilson is a moron.
    sicklove <[email protected]> -- Friday April 11 2003, @03:20PM (#58016)
    (User #7497 Info)
    southpaw"join the entourage"
  • where your songs in television?
    Anonymous -- Friday April 11 2003, @10:58PM (#58031)
  • I'm pretty damn sure moz is the best possible guy you can think of. Maybe he has been rude to some of the people within the industry because there people just aint very nice to each other. But he's the best when it comes to his fans and his friends.
    Ponyracer -- Saturday April 12 2003, @03:38AM (#58042)
    (User #7645 Info)
    Morrissey to Sweden!!!
  • 1 - "He wrote a fantastic short play about eating toast and I think he gave it to me and I lost it. "

    - what a complete idiot Tony Wilson is.

    2 - "If The Smiths had not been on Rough Trade, Rough Trade would not have survived. If Rough Trade would have gone down in 82 when Pinnacle went down, it would have all been over. So in some strange historical way, The Smiths being on Rough Trade was the economic safety net for the British independent record movement. "

    - How true. The Smiths really did save Rough Trade and we were all saved in the UK.

    FACx
    Anonymous -- Saturday April 12 2003, @05:08AM (#58052)
  • Tony Wilson and Factory records have done more for the city of Manchester than anyone in recent history. No-one but Factory would have been crazy enough to sign The Happy Mondays, A Certain Ratio etc., And Tony spent his life savings (£60,000) to pay for the first Joy Division Album (for this alone he should be knighted).
    Much as though I love Morrissey's music, he clearly inhabits a different planet to the rest of us, and anyone who only looks to the past is a bit sad in my opinion.
    If I ever bump into Tony (a former neighbor of mine, incidentally, but I was too young to know who he was), I'm gonna buy him a pint. Moz? I'd buy him a half.
    JiltedJim -- Saturday April 12 2003, @06:18AM (#58053)
    (User #7728 Info)
    • Jilted Jim by Anonymous (Score:0) Saturday April 12 2003, @01:15PM
      • Re:Jilted Jim by JiltedJim (Score:1) Sunday April 13 2003, @03:36AM
        • Re:Jilted Jim by Anonymous (Score:0) Sunday April 13 2003, @01:36PM
  • A good description of Morrissey. To get anywhere with his career, which was his lifeline really, he would have to be ambitious, arrogant, in your face, and perhaps unpleasant to people in the record industry. But obviously as his lyrics show, he's also a very sensitive guy...to forward that sensitiveness into public you'd probably need to coat it with a shell of obssessiveness, possessivenss, and aggressiveness. So yes he probably is an unpleasant person to most people, but I'm sure there are a few out there who can connect with him.
    Maudlin Moz -- Saturday April 12 2003, @02:32PM (#58075)
    (User #6451 Info)
  • I still say that there are worse people in the world than Morrissey, for God's sake! His caring so much about animals has to make him somewhat of a decent person at least, doesn't it?

    I mean, I'm anti-social and depressed too, but that doesn't mean I'm a terrible human being...

    Or does it?

    (I'd love him anyway, even if it did turn out that he was an arrogant asshole... We all know that there's some truth to the arrogant part...)
    Anonymous-shnonymous <[email protected]> -- Sunday April 13 2003, @01:27PM (#58111)
    (User #6230 Info | http://opendiary.com/entrylist.asp?authorcode=A128747)
    Anything is hard to find when you will not open your eyes.

    • Re:Ack! (Score:3, Insightful)

      sorry to differ, but where is it stated that Tony Wilson thinks that anti-social and depressed people are terrible human beings? I can't find it anywhere in the article.

      He's no child and I do believe that he has *some* experience with people of different characters. He's the man behind great and worthwhile music in post-modernity, if you consider what Joy Division was, and in a certain way it still is and will be. There are things which just don't die.

      To those who think that he rejects people who are depressed, are you going to tell me that he didn't like Ian Curtis or something? Oh please. As much as we don't know a lot about Tony Wilson as well, it just doesn't look like this at all.

      All people who are depressed aren't the same inside, you know. I'm not saying that Morrisey is such and such, for I don't know him, so I'd better not to say anything about it. Still, what I do know, is that some people have problems which are dificult to deal with and they end up hurting others, sometimes exactly those who chose to be near them, and that maybe that's not their fault, but it does happen - to be depressive, imho, is just a very generalised expression of different problems, ranging from deep narcissism (and I do believe that narcissism is wrong per se) to sincere devotion and humbleness.

      Somebody here said something that I think it's right - that people like Morrissey not because of his character (which naturally we, fans, don't know much about) but rather because of what he says in his songs. I think it's the right approach to Morrissey - and we should not forget that sometimes people give their best through art anyway. That will be as much as we will get to know him, so perhaps for us that's just enough.
      If his songs are saving lives, let it be so - then certainly he's giving his best in some way.
      Havfine -- Monday April 14 2003, @03:15AM (#58129)
      (User #284 Info)
      "Have you forgotten how to love yourself?" Red House Painters
      • Just had to say... by Gabriella (Score:1) Monday April 14 2003, @04:05PM
      • Re:Ack! by Anonymous-shnonymous (Score:1) Monday April 14 2003, @07:15PM
      • Re:Ack! by Havfine (Score:1) Tuesday April 15 2003, @02:19AM
  • I think Morrissey's whole deal is that he doesn't want to be around people who don't view him or his music with the same importance that he does. When opinions differ - he bears grudges.
    flowers -- Sunday April 13 2003, @10:12PM (#58123)
    (User #6922 Info)
    I want to start from before the beginning...
  • Well of course hes a serial killer,I read the story of Dorian gray, they keep saying hes sooo beautiful as a sOul...I figured that out long ago so "just go away". lol
    javelin <www.whateverulike.com> -- Monday April 14 2003, @06:04AM (#58133)
    (User #1848 Info)
    "I never wanted to kill,Iam not naturally evil"
  • You must be from El Monte to recognize a big bad gang like Monte Flores..
    Anonymous -- Thursday April 10 2003, @03:19PM (#57937)
  • Chale !!!
    Anonymous -- Thursday April 10 2003, @04:00PM (#57941)
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