I don't think I've ever despised the NME more than I do now (except for perhaps the time when I read my friend's copy of the NME's Radiohead special edition which called the band members "ugly" on each and every page... Disgraceful writing.).

I wish Morrissey hadn't granted them the interview. (Though wasn't it members from Franz Ferdinand who interviewed Moz on behalf of the NME??)

Sutherland seems to be surmising that Morrissey's recent success is down to the nme ("only one winner"). This is clearly not the case; there would be the exact same level of interest in Morrissey even if he hadn't granted them the interview. Also, hence the word 'granted', it was down to him, not the nme, that he gave this interview. They have simply finally realised that it's time they hopped on the bandwagon once more, so as not to miss out on selling more copies with Morrissey's mug-shot on it.

His comments were vulgar at the very least. To take joy in 'creating this music soap opera' just shows the kind of creature he is. I think Morrissey would have sold a substantial amount of records of 'Quarry' without his NME interview (although not as many admittedly, as the NME do hold sway with a large contingent of young music listeners who will not know of Morrissey, but will do now) through his huge hardcore fan base and the amount of coverage he was receiving prior to the interview. As for selling out his principles, well, i don't think he has, as he readily admits that it's not the same 'smelly old NME' and as he has grown older, he appears more content with life and less likely to hold grudges (as we are all well aware, he holds / held quite a few)

...when we see how much the sad old NME's sales figures were boosted by having him on the cover, which let's face it was the reason they've tried to get him back over the years. And then they'll slump back again after this week...

"Journalists who lie
The truth is, it happens
Praise, then crucify
Just follow this pattern..."

Is criminally overestimating the importance of the NME on what music people listen to, or shall I say what music people spend money on.

"Only one winner" of what? The interview was about the 6th best of the last 10 published and the issue will be the only sales blip in the inevitability of their diminishing returns. One to nil? You mean discounting all the years NME was a nil it itself?

"Bands, you see, are merely characters in the eternal soap opera that is the music press."

You've got it backwards, nimrod.

Morrissey mentioned that the nme had rid themselves of the old croneys, well we know he meant mark sutherland and his kind.

He is just trying to get back at mozza for saying that, the nme needed that interview more than mozza needed it. I think its big of mozza to do it, and maybe the nme has changed.

Shame 6 music still give the tosser a voice, though ltd and boring at that.

when bands and press fall out, there can only ever be one winner. And it's never the one wearing the pop star trousers"

yeah, Mark- yure a winner.

does he think that moz would have spoken to them had they not engaged in massive amounts of ass kissing last year?

whether they like to believe it or not, if they were only interviewing the local pub band, ain't nobody going to buy an NME for their writing skill....

an amusing, but silly piece. the relationship between artists and press is symbiotic, always has been. the falling out between the nme and moz was inevitable. they were, to quote no one in particular, 'too much in love'. it had to end in tears, or at the very least, a petted lip. now, the nme journos of old have stuck their knives in, twisted them, got bored, got old and moved on. morrissey has shown many subtle signs of regretting the tangy whiff of racism the madness shows (and some less than tactful song titles) released. it's time to kiss and make up. however bad a music paper the nme is/was, it was always the place where morrissey seemed most at home for a good part of the 80s. morrissey doesn't 'need' the nme, and the nme doesn't 'need' morrissey. the truth is, they both need us, the fans. morrissey is using the nme to reach out to a wider public than we loyal morrissey-solo users. and quite right too. there are 13 year olds out there who need to know who morrissey is. we can't just keep him to ourselves. no matter how much we'd like to.

Sorry, but i had to make a comment. People always refer to tactless song titles such as 'National Front disco', but does no one see the humour and wit in that title. The words national front obviously are heavily loaded with racial prejudice, yet is contrasted by the frivolity of disco. We should not be scared to talk about racism, because, as much as we all like to think, Britain still has elements of racial prejudice. The recent and continuing hyperpole of asylum has highlighted such elements. If people want to bury their head in the sand, so be it. I don't agree with Morrissey when he remarks about pride of where you came from, but at least he doesn't shy away from these issues.

Sutherland is a grade a tit, this is the man who persuaded Blur to delay their single release to coincide with Oasis so he could shift a few more copies of NME.

If Mark Sutherland truly considers this as some kind of victory, then what a hollow and pyhrric victory it is.
It's laughable that Sutherland should claim that the NME gave Morrissey little more than "a light grilling". A huge feature/hatchet-job with an accompanying cover-shot and constant barracking from overtly self-righteous(ha-ha) 'writers' like Steven Wells ::spit!:: that often bordered on farcical fiction is somewhat more than a light grilling surely.

Sutherland claims that, at the end of the day, the pop-stars/rock-stars (call them what you will) will always need papers like the NME. And WHAT exactly would the NME write about if all those acts dissapeared? Their owned bloated egos?

Oh no, they write about those already dont they.

"I'd like to see the music press blown up in the morning. You know...the press...the great enemy of the world! The people that are, like, so full of their own ego-trips that they dont actually write about the records anymore."
                                                      John Lydon, 1977.