[site sponsor]
Mark Simpson sends the "Saint Morrissey" press release and also a scan of the final version of the jacket:

Click to enlarge "Saint Morrissey" full jacket (1544x736 .jpg)

Maudlin Rich writes:

As reported earlier, Johnny Marr was the featured artist on the Sold On Song feature of the Richard Allinson show on BBC Radio 2 all last week. He commented briefly on four songs he'd co-written: The Boy With The Thorn In His Side, The The's The Beaten Generation, Electronic's Getting Away With It and Is It Really So Strange.
I've transcribed Johnny's exact words below (I missed the The The one).

On 'TBWTTIHS' (mentioned previously):
"One of my favourites and most enduring I think... err... recently -shock horror- Morrissey and I were kind of discussing err... that song as being the one that should be rereleased if ever there was one that was rereleased. There's the scoop."

On 'Getting Away With It':
"Getting Away With It - heard it on the radio a few weeks ago, was absolutely surprised at what a great pop tune it was and kind of a bit of a soundtrack to summer for me and quite a lot of other people and just came out of the blue one early Saturday evening before we were going out to the Hacienda. Kind of perfect really."

On 'Is It Really So Strange':
"Written in Le Parc Hotel in Los Angeles err... head to head me and Morrissey together as usual done very quickly and I love the 'left my bag at Newport Pagnell" - it works every time. It was a pretty good one, yeah."

Jimmy Clitheroe writes:

Andy Rourke's old Smiths used Yamaha bb2000 bass guitar is up for auction at EBAY (starting bid = $2400.00/£1442.48).
 
From description on auction page:
"It was purchased in 1983 and put straight to work on all The Smiths records there-after. The bass has remained in Mr. Rourke's possession for twenty years. It's featured in the gatefold cover of "Hatful Of Hollow". Mr. Rourke has also used this bass on all of the records since the demise of The Smiths:-The Pretenders, Sinead O'Connor, Badly Drawn Boy and more. The bass has a few dings which were inflicted by Andy Rourke & Johnny Marr when they figured their new guitars looked a little TOO new!! It's got a thru' neck and plays great. Plugged in, it instantly has that "Barbarism Begins at Home" twang. It comes in it's original case with a letter from Mr. Rourke. This is a rare chance to own a well documented slice of Rock n Roll history. Mr Rourke will be willing to personally autograph the instrument itself should the winner so wish. Feel free to request any j-pegs or ask any questions."

eBay item 3352946350 - Ex Smiths Bass Guitar

Update: 10/12 16:14 GMT:
Marco writes:

The Andy Rourke bass guitar was sold for US$ 5.800. The winning bid was made by the user gazza51070. There were 31 bids total.

mymorrissey writes:

Was watching the Q Awards ceremony on TV tonight (which was filmed on October 2) and Iain Lee, was the show's presenter talked about past Q Awards Icon's, and in the past Morrissey, along with others have won this prize. Amongst names like Paul Weller and all sorts of other non-sense, "and of course, THE Morrissey." ......The Morrissey?

Hmm...Anyway the Cure went away with it...blah blah blah... 'The Morrissey' was a bit disturbing. Apparently (according to one of my weekly gossip mags) Morrissey was at the actual awards show. I didn't spot em, they focused more on the musicians that matter...Xtina and mockney damon albarn. ZZZZzzzz....

Joseph writes:

Thought this might be of interest to all of you...

The Finale - Dead Letter Office by Todd Hutlock - Stylus magazine

Excerpt:

The Smiths were my own personal Beatles, and their breakup hit me like a ton of bricks. I was in a funk for months when the news broke. I bought the first Smiths album shortly after its release in 1984 at the age of 12, and it changed my life. As a lonely teenager in the rampant throes of puberty, the songs spoke to me like few ever had (or likely will) - I think if I had discovered them at a different time in my life, things would have been quite different, but as it is, the impact was immense.

An anonymous person writes:

Norwegian writer Frode Grytten writes about The Smiths' 'Suffer Little Children' and the similarity between the Moors Murders and the Baneheia killings (Baneheia is an area where people used to go for walks and recreation, and where two little girls were killed after being sexually abused. The killers were caught and stood trial, and people all over the country followed this case closely).

Rough translation from Norwegian:

Morrissey's Murder Ballad

[site sponsor]
dave writes:

friday 24th October
930-230
still £2 before 1030, then £3
The Star & Garter
18-20 Fairfield st
Manchester
(near the new entrance of Piccadilly Railway station)

usual, flowers, cheap drinks, dancing, slides, go-go dancers

as it's the 20th anniversary of the release of casual Smiths fans fave "This Charming Man" might play it in different formats if requested. Mother is looking forward to seeing all the regulars.

flyer

Morrissey Smiths Disco playlist friday 8th August 2003:

Spineless Swine writes:

The Smiths' 1985 TOTP performance of "The Boy with the Thorn in his Side" is to be shown on TOTP2 this Wednesday, October 8. It will be shown 6:20 GMT.
The episode will also feature Kirsty MacColl's 1981 performance of "There's a Guy Works down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis", and John Lennon's "Instant Karma".
Highly recommended.
---
Link to show lineup anonymously sent.

Carolina writes:

Dear Starlet thanks Moz in debut CD
I just picked up the debut EP of the band "Dear Starlet,". They're from South Florida, but have a very British sound. I LOVE the CD, and was delighted to see that, in their "Thank You" section, they list Moz and David Roberts Jones (AKA David Bowie, of course).

As a side-note, I actually first saw this band at a Morrissey-tribute show. They did an amazing, rocking cover of "Late Night, Maudlin Street" (my all-time favorite Morrissey song!)

I spoke with the singer at their last show, and he told me that they're opening for The Walkmen on October 13th in Miami. You can go to their website (www.dearstarlet.com) for the show details.
---
SundownPlayboy writes:

The Ordinary Boys
The Ordinary Boys, the Brighton based mod/punks have a demo version of their track "Maybe Someday" available to hear on the nme website. They don't sound Smithsy/Morrissey-ish but they have a nice punky sound that I think Moz would approve of.
---
biker writes:

Monsters from South Gate
I was at a punk show in East LA last night at a place called "la casa del mexicano" a center for community activism. the show consisted of local latin ska/punk bands but one of the "headliners" was the band "monsters" which i heard through the grapevine was doing billy idol and iggy pop covers. towards the end of their set the band performed an excellent cover of barbarism... my compliments especially to the band who did a very "tight" rendition of the song.
---
EssexBoy writes:

The Killers
Went to see a new band called the Killers, totally ace and the lead singer wore a Moz T-Shirt, they also did a song which sounded like 'Barbarism/what she said', mark my words, this band will rule.
---
Alex Feron writes:

Boy Sets Fire - Smiths Fans?
I just wanted to let you know that the guitarist of "BOY SETS FIRE" was wearing the "MEAT IS MURDER"-Shirt on their gig on the german TERRAMOTO-Festival last weekend. It was a great and powerful show, but SUEDE really rocked them all.

See the picture here.

ASK ME for more, if you want......