The tour got off to a good start with the three excellent shows in Arizona this past weekend. Thanks to everyone for all the great postings in the tour section for each of the shows, job well done. Summer Sonic Festival concerts in Japan are next (Saturday and Sunday), then back to the US - Seattle, WA on Aug. 22.

As you have already read I'm sure, the four new songs played are named "The First Of The Gang To Die", "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores", "Mexico" and "I Like You". Ambitious-Outsiders has stated that they will have the songs for download shortly. MorrisseyTour.com has transcribed lyrics (look in the Yuma review). Both sites also have extensive coverage of the tour with photos for each concert.

Here are a few photos from the first show, click through the small and medium sized images for highest resolution (1280x960).

Phoenix, AZ (Aug. 9, 2002) - photos by davidt (5 total)

The Goat writes:

The chances are this will only be shown in the North of England.

Manchester Evening News Saturday 10th August 2002.

SEARCH FOR THE BIG MOUTH RECLUSE by Nick Webster

A team from Granada TV has started on a quest for the holy grail of music - an interview with reclusive Smiths' frontman Steven Morrissey.

Morrissey is notorious for avoiding the media but David Nolan, producing the documentary 'These Things Take Time: The story of The Smiths' hopes he will make a remarkable exception.

''Morrissey has not given an interview for 10 years and as part of the programme we are filming the process of tracking people down'' said David.

He continued ''This year is the 20th anniversary of Morrissey meeting the guitarist Johnny marr and the formation of The Smiths. They met in the spring and The Smiths had been formed by the autumn.

It is a very tortuous story but Johnny Marr played in a variety of bands including one featuring Coronation Street's Kevin Kennedy (Curly Watts). Whilst Morrissey knocked around with punk bands Slaughter and the Dogs and Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds - both Wythenshawe bands.

They literally met in a bedroom and reeled off 'Suffer Little Children' there and then which is a classic Smiths song. Morrissey had all the lyrics and Marr did the music.''

The band's influence was massive and the makers of the one hour programme, due to be broadcast on 8th November 2002, are also hoping to make contact with Smiths fans with stories to tell.

David Nolan can be contacted at Granada TV on: 0161 827 2298
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• Related item: Granada TV producing a Smiths documentary (to be shown in Nov.) - July 20, 2002

Billy Idle writes:

I was passing the time watching ITV's Star Treatment (a crappy British morning television programme) and who was stopped in the street by the presenter? Non other than the wonderful Alain Whyte. He was wearing a beautiful Black Harrington jacket, a grey v-neck top and a battered old pair of Levis.

She obviously did not have a clue who he was and asked if he worked in a music shop. He chuckled and said he was a musician, then the presenter said she was nearly right and she then went onto to stop somebody else in the street.

Alain Whyte looked great.
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belfast boxer also writes:

Did anyone else in the UK or who has access to GMTV through satellite or cable see who I am 99.99% was Alain White being interviewed on the street?

This was broadcast at approx 9.25am on 13th August 2002 and involved a presenter stopping people at random in the street and trying to guess their occupation by what they were wearing. The guy in question was wearing a black leather jacket and red checked shirt, had his hair oiled in a definite 1950's style and said he was a professional musician - a guitarist.

This was bizarre!!!

I.Terry writes:

Thought it may be of interest to mention that Q magazine issue 194 contains a rather nice "buyers guide" to Smiths / Morrissey albums. They rate Your Arsenal as the essential Moz album, whilst Kill Uncle is unsuprisingly bottom of the stack.

The Queen is Dead rates as the best Smiths selection, though Strangeways Here We Come is also deemed to be "skyscraping".

All in all an interesting article.
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Stuart H writes:

The new Q magazine has an evaluation on Smiths and Morrissey albums. It doesn't seem to be linked into any release or anniversary (despite it being 15 years since 'Strangeways...' was released) so I can only assume they were a bit short on content this month.

It's a bit of a scattergun approach, including collections such as Hatful of Hollow and Louder than Bombs, but missing out Bona Drag, amongst others.

They pretty much stick to the usual view that Smiths = Fantastic (although dated in The Smiths case), Your Arsenal = Great , Vauxhall and I, Viva Hate = Good, Everything else = Crap.

[email protected] writes:

There are a limited number of tickets available for the Salt Lake City Zephyr Club date on August 26. Tickets are available at 24tix.com.

Marco writes:

I received an e-mail from nme.com as a subscriber for his newsletter and Morrissey's show is the best selling at the moment (Aug. 13). He was #2 on Aug. 12. Check out the e-mails...

Top Five selling gigs (Aug. 13):
1. MORRISSEY
2. V2002
3. COLDPLAY
4. THE MUSIC
5. UNDERWORLD

Top Five selling gigs (Aug. 12):
1. V2002
2. MORRISSEY
3. COLDPLAY
4. UNDERWORLD
5. THE MUSIC