How do you expect the Morrissey record-deal stalemate to end?

How do yyou expect the Morrissey record deal stalemate to end?


  • Total voters
    47
I hope that he comes to his senses and accepts an offer from a small label.
 
Good poll. Had to decide between 3rd last and last -- being an optimist I imagined M&M doing some choons.
 
He just needs to be more reasonable and realistic too. The Old days are not coming back, sadly...
Cheers Moz
 
I'm not sure "stalemate" is the right word. It suggests two parties at loggerheads over an agreement, which isn't the case as far as we know. He wants a record deal but no-one wants to give him one. Time to shuffle off stage, old boy. We don't need another Tommy Cooper on our hands.
 
Good poll. Had to decide between 3rd last and last -- being an optimist I imagined M&M doing some choons.

Err, thanks! Yeah, I think the Marr thing is reasonably likely as is the small-label option.
The reality is that a Morrissey solo album is pretty much guaranteed to sell 50,000 (it could shift a lot more but not if People Are The Same is presented as the best thing on it, i.e. the lead off single).
A Morrissey and Marr album (almost regardless of quality) is guaranteed to shift 500,000 (many more if it's top notch).
So, if he's happy with a lower-status release, he can sign to a small label easily (50,000 is a heck of a lot more than Bragg, Heaton or Cole can shift these days).
If he wants the record deal of a major mainstream act, he'll have to get back with Marr or at least Street (not totally implausible) or write some amazing new songs without either (looking v unlikely judging by what we've heard).
 
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I'm not sure "stalemate" is the right word. It suggests two parties at loggerheads over an agreement, which isn't the case as far as we know. He wants a record deal but no-one wants to give him one. Time to shuffle off stage, old boy. We don't need another Tommy Cooper on our hands.

Fair comment - it's not a stalemate between a specific record company and Morrissey but it kind of is between the music industry and Morrissey. It's not the case that no-one will give him a deal. Plenty of smaller labels would jump at the chance. As I've mentioned before, many of Morrissey's peers from the 80s so-called 'alternative' scene keep putting out albums which shift between 10,000 and 20,000 copies (e.g. those by Bragg, Cole, Heaton, Gedge), and a Moz release is guaranteed to sell 50,000 (all figures for UK).
However, Morrissey believes that someone of his status deserves a deal that befits a half-million selling act, and that's where the music industry disagrees, hence the stalemate. Although undeniably an icon and a great live performer, the music industry does not think that all that many people are interested in hearing his new songs and, sadly, they're probably right.
 
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good poll, and I like the company I voted with, but one thing?
why did you choose to make it multiple choice, it would seem that this is a poll where one choice makes sense
imo
regardless, I just voted once and yeah, mainly because I want Moz & Marr to collaborate
I think their new band should be called "M&M"
 
To say he'll be in the wilderness for several more years isn't really an answer to the original question. The question asks how the stalemate will end, not how it will continue in the meantime. :confused:
 
I think anyone who doesn't think Morrissey would hold out (for a Major) for a few more years at least, just doesn't know Morrissey.
 
I think anyone who doesn't think Morrissey would hold out (for a Major) for a few more years at least, just doesn't know Morrissey.

...but surely the longer he waits, the less chance there is of that happening??
 
...but surely the longer he waits, the less chance there is of that happening??

Firstly I don't see why the longer he waits, the less chance there is of that happening. The only relevant factor I can think of is the 'comeback' factor, which partly drove the success of Quarry.

Secondly, even if (and I don't see why..) even if there is some clear reason why there is less chance of it happening in the future, he is stubborn and so would hold out for a while anyway. He already held out for many years between Maladjusted and Quarry. If anything he has got more stubborn over the years.
 
are we considering the present day situation another "Morrissey wilderness" era?

why doesn't he just release his tenth album on Major Minor the way he did his last few re-releases? Obviously he was okay with them releasing his umpteenth unnecessary Very Best Of

Or package the tenth solo album with online orders of the autobiography and then call it a day...until he comes to his senses and re-unites with Marr

how hard does this have to be?
 
he's never really gone away though, like he did from '98-'03.

The Moz is always doing some "mini-tour" or festival and his stuff has been routinely re-packaged and re-issued since YOR three years ago

if anything, I'd call this Morrissey's "stalemate era", as though he were standing outside of a major label's window tapping his foot and yelling "I'm waiting, and I'll keep waiting until you give me what I want"
 
he's never really gone away though, like he did from '98-'03.
The Moz is always doing some "mini-tour" or festival and his stuff has been routinely re-packaged and re-issued since YOR three years ago
if anything, I'd call this Morrissey's "stalemate era", as though he were standing outside of a major label's window tapping his foot and yelling "I'm waiting, and I'll keep waiting until you give me what I want"

he didn't really go away from 98-03 either. he toured in 99/00 and in 02, and there were one or two compilations released during that period too. it was just the gap between studio albums that made people think of it as a wilderness era.
yes, I suppose you could call this the stalemate era. he's waiting impatiently outside the major labels' windows but, in the meantime, they're waiting for some evidence that he's written at least a couple of great songs that won't have to rely (virtually) 100% on Radio 2 for airplay (as has been the case since First of the Gang was released).
 
I voted for "in the wilderness for a few years". I would say that since the only press he has really gotten has been for his outlandish comments and t-shirts, that the public needs some time for those things to be a little bit farther in the rearview mirror.
 
are we considering the present day situation another "Morrissey wilderness" era?

why doesn't he just release his tenth album on Major Minor the way he did his last few re-releases? Obviously he was okay with them releasing his umpteenth unnecessary Very Best Of

Or package the tenth solo album with online orders of the autobiography and then call it a day...until he comes to his senses and re-unites with Marr

how hard does this have to be?

Yes, you're right. He is the one making this hard. There are so many creative ways he could release and or market the album and autobiography. I wish he could change just a little with the times and move away from the notion that nothing less than a major label signing him is a defeat.
 
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