YoR gets a pretty good review in Q magazine - 3*s. The author's main gripe is that Morrissey has become obsessed with his legacy and that this is becoming a bit of a yawn (I think some of us will agree). She raves about Something is Squeezing My Skull and rates Mama, Lay Softly, When Last I Spoke to Carol and One day Goodbye..but complains about to much self-pity and overdriven guitars. Incidentally Bruce Springsteen's new album also gets 3*s.

Still no sign of the remastered version of Maladjusted, which was announced in late October 2008, but now HMV.com as the first online store is taking pre-orders for the other remastered & redesigned release, the expanded version of Southpaw Grammar.

The UK release will hit the shops on 2nd March 2009 via BMG Records.

Academy of Music Philadelphia Tix
This saturday 1/31/09 is the on sale date for the show. The tix are available only through the kimmel center, not ticketmaster or live nation. Just thought I'd pass this along ; )

Update: 01/28 04:53 GMT: BlueGirl writes that the Philadelphia show actually is on Live Nation's site now.
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Stefan also writes:

Amazon is running a special offer on the long-awaited book about Morrissey written by Gavin Hopps, to be published 1st February 2009.

Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart (Hardcover) by Gavin Hopps

Product Description
Morrissey is arguably the greatest disturbance popular music has ever known. Even more than the choreographed carelessness of punk and the hyperbolic gestures of glam rock and the New Romantics, Morrissey's early bookish ineptitude, his celebration of the ordinary, and his subversive endorsement of celibacy, abstinence and rock 'n' roll revolutionised the world of British pop. As an increasingly pugnacious solo artist, he consistently adopts the outsider's perspective and dares us to confront genuinely uncomfortable subjects. In his brilliant and original book, Gavin Hopps examines the work of this compelling performer, whose intelligence, humour, suffering and awkwardness have fascinated audiences around the world for the last 25 years. Hopps traces the trajectory of Morrissey's career - from its beginning in the early 80s with the Smiths to the release of his latest album, "Ringleader of the Tormentors" - and outlines the contours and contradictions of the singer's elusive persona. The book illuminates Morrissey's coyness (how can he remain a mystery when he tells us too much?) , his dramatised melancholy (surely more of a radical existential protest than the gimmick some believe it to be) and his complex attitudes towards loneliness and alienation, as well as his intriguing sense of the religious. In the course of this penetrating study of Morrissey's oeuvre, Hopps offers close readings of individual lyrics and illuminating comparisons with a range of literary figures - such as Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, George Eliot, Christina Rossetti, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Paul Celan and Philip Larkin. "Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart", at once erudite and accessible, argues convincingly for Morrissey's inclusion in the pantheon of literary greats.

About the Author
Gavin Hopps is Research Councils UK Academic Fellow in the School of Divinity at St. Mary's College, the University of St. Andrews, UK.

Product details
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. (1 Feb 2009)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 082641866X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826418661

Brandon Flowers of The Killers says he prefers Morrissey's solo work to the Smiths....

TONY: You’re a big Joy Division/New Order fan, too.
Brandon Flowers: I’m a bigger New Order fan than Joy Division fan; I also prefer Morrissey to the Smiths, which I guess is also sacrilegious. I have a good New Order story: I was driving with Bernard Sumner in Manchester—which was totally surreal—when my wife called me and told me that we were having our baby. So that’ll be a cool story for my son when he’s older.

Full story here.

Time Out New York / Issue 695 : Jan 22–28, 2009

I've had a few requests to run a MozBus tour during the weekend of Morrissey's Manchester gigs and having had a chat with Leslie at The Salford Lads Club, I will organise a MozBus on Saturday 23rd May at around lunch time.

The tour will include a 45 - 60 minute visit inside the club as well as stopping off at Parkers Hotel, Strangeways Prison, Morrissey's old house and the Iron Bridge on Kings Road in Stretford, The Cemetry Gates, The Holy Name Church and the Ritz as well as passing by a few other sites too and lasting around 3 - 3.5 hours.

If anyone is interested please contact me either via email - [email protected] or www.myspace.com/mancmusictour

Cost will depend on numbers - If there is enough to fill a coach then I imagine it wont be more than £10 each.
However..... I may try for something a bit more adventurous..... a double decker bus??? An open top double decker bus???

Either way, proceeds will go to The Salford Lads Club.