"The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out now

Re: Severed Alliance book by Johnny Rogan - Anniversary Edition out now

Now out (came out last week).
[Plus I finally got round to watching that Channel 4 programme about Music & Royalty that was broadcast a couple of weeks ago. It was largely rubbish (the usual crap from talking heads who weren't around at the time of the Sex Pistols etc) but I was surprised that David Quantick said something positive about Morrissey ("He wrote a great song called The Queen Is Dead." or something like that...) ]

I saw that and couldn't believe my ears either. When did Quantick ever like The Smiths or Morrissey?

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

Well, did you read this?
http://www.amazon.com/Morrissey-Joh...&qid=1340279171&sr=8-14&keywords=johnny+rogan
To call that one half baked would really be a compliment....

I'd forgotten about this one

just ordered a copy on Amazon, so thanks for the reminder!

Johnny Rogan thanks you as well

 

[Anonymous]

I can't see it on Amazon. Can only see the old edition. At least the new one has both Morrissey AND Marr on the cover, even if it's a lousy photo. Still, don't judge a book by its cover. Although in this case...

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

'By 1921, the English invaders were forced to the negotiating table ...' Like we needed Rogan to tell us this and like this tells us anything about Morrissey!!

Well it tells you the political circumstances faced by his grandparents, then goes to explain the reasons behind his parents' (and Marr's/Joyces's) emigration to England... the rest follows.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

I'd forgotten about this one

just ordered a copy on Amazon, so thanks for the reminder!

Johnny Rogan thanks you as well

... in which you'll discover that Johnny Rogan (who appears in his own index!!) 'has no email address, internet facility, mobile phone, credit card, bank card, DVD, video, fridge freezer, dish washer, car or any other vehicle, but has a late afternoon routine of scouring local supermarkets in search of out of date food at bargain prices.' Now there's an incentive to read his work!

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

Well it tells you the political circumstances faced by his grandparents, then goes to explain the reasons behind his parents' (and Marr's/Joyces's) emigration to England... the rest follows.

Bollocks - it's a bunch of cut and paste from a high school history book. This is pseudo-background that is too general and remote to tell us anything meaningful about his grandparents' lives, let alone The Smiths. It's then downhill all the tedious, plodding ("it reminds me of the time I showed my fingernails to X") way.

 

[Anonymous]

"Much thicker than the last edition"

Blimey. How much more dimwitted can it get?

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

... in which you'll discover that Johnny Rogan (who appears in his own index!!) 'has no email address, internet facility, mobile phone, credit card, bank card, DVD, video, fridge freezer, dish washer, car or any other vehicle, but has a late afternoon routine of scouring local supermarkets in search of out of date food at bargain prices.' Now there's an incentive to read his work!

he does have e-mail because I've exchanged several with him.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

Bollocks - it's a bunch of cut and paste from a high school history book. This is pseudo-background that is too general and remote to tell us anything meaningful about his grandparents' lives, let alone The Smiths. It's then downhill all the tedious, plodding ("it reminds me of the time I showed my fingernails to X") way.

Not so. The political/economic upheavals, civil war, De Valera's Gaelicization policy, the redevelopment of Dublin and movement of families to houses in Crumlin all had an effect on the Morrissey family culminating in emigration to Manchester.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

There's something so unsexy about Rogan's writing.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

Not so. The political/economic upheavals, civil war, De Valera's Gaelicization policy, the redevelopment of Dublin and movement of families to houses in Crumlin all had an effect on the Morrissey family culminating in emigration to Manchester.

And these events affected all people in Ireland at that time identically? No - I agree with the earlier poster, these are remote generalities culled from a school textbook - which "say nothing to me about their lives"

 

[joe frady]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

50 pages of "Endnotes"! ~ footnotes in anyone elses language. 11 page 20th Anniversary Preface ~ in which we finally get the full, unexpurgated TRUTH behind Morrissey's M3 pile-up quote (it involves Fred Dellar, NME and a fax machine - I could say more were it not for the fact that I've forgotten the rest as it's so hellishly uninteresting), a few extra pages on the court case, the promise of additional material throughout the book (I'll take Johnny's word for it) and nowt beyond 1996/High Court.

I remember liking it 20 years back, cos I knew sod all back then, but honestly the guy writes like an OCD case. The new preface was enough to send me back to Gavin Hopps for a little light relief. No pics now neither.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

And these events affected all people in Ireland at that time identically? No - I agree with the earlier poster, these are remote generalities culled from a school textbook - which "say nothing to me about their lives"

Well, yes, we're talking about mass emigration here. It had a profound effect on families throughout Ireland. Plus, it's ludicrous to suggest, as the previous poster did, that it's 'high school textbook' (spot the out of place Americanism!) in origin. No such books exist that combine a social history of Crumlin/Dublin, complete with first hand testimonies and reminiscences of growing up there, alongside economic/political discussion of material some actually taken from the private sessions of the Dail. Hardly standard school textbook stuff is it? If it wasn't for this complex history there'd be no Morrissey/Manchester connection and, ultimately, no Smiths.

 

[123xyz]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

50 pages of "Endnotes"! ~ footnotes in anyone elses language. 11 page 20th Anniversary Preface ~ in which we finally get the full, unexpurgated TRUTH behind Morrissey's M3 pile-up quote (it involves Fred Dellar, NME and a fax machine - I could say more were it not for the fact that I've forgotten the rest as it's so hellishly uninteresting), a few extra pages on the court case, the promise of additional material throughout the book (I'll take Johnny's word for it) and nowt beyond 1996/High Court.

I remember liking it 20 years back, cos I knew sod all back then, but honestly the guy writes like an OCD case. The new preface was enough to send me back to Gavin Hopps for a little light relief. No pics now neither.

Thanks for posting this. Much as you did, I liked this book when it first appeared. There really was f***-all in the way of Moz-information back then. I think I first began to recoil from Rogan when it finally dawned on me that so many of the unattributed (in the main text) Moz quotes were simply ancient postcard/letter/etc. remarks. To not give proper dates or details or general context to these struck me as quite sly and disingenuous.


Oh well, it now looks certain I won't be thumbing through updated material on that schoolmate-of-Morrisseys-shitting-in-schooldesk episode or about the night the teenaged Moz went (gasp!) sleepwalking into the next room ...


I shouldn't really take that tone - it isn't as though the 1st ed. was mean-spirited or ugly or anything that terrible...

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

... in which you'll discover that Johnny Rogan (who appears in his own index!!) 'has no email address, internet facility, mobile phone, credit card, bank card, DVD, video, fridge freezer, dish washer, car or any other vehicle, but has a late afternoon routine of scouring local supermarkets in search of out of date food at bargain prices.' Now there's an incentive to read his work!

This was covered in the first edition 20 years ago

so feel free to step into the present with your insightfulness any day now.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

Well, yes, we're talking about mass emigration here. It had a profound effect on families throughout Ireland. Plus, it's ludicrous to suggest, as the previous poster did, that it's 'high school textbook' (spot the out of place Americanism!) in origin. No such books exist that combine a social history of Crumlin/Dublin, complete with first hand testimonies and reminiscences of growing up there, alongside economic/political discussion of material some actually taken from the private sessions of the Dail. Hardly standard school textbook stuff is it? If it wasn't for this complex history there'd be no Morrissey/Manchester connection and, ultimately, no Smiths.

Fair enough - but none of this 'complex history' finds its way into Rogan's book, in which the background material is like the disjointed footage that's played behind stationary cars in old films.

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

This was covered in the first edition 20 years ago

so feel free to step into the present with your insightfulness any day now.

He's still the same dickhead

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

Not so. The political/economic upheavals, civil war, De Valera's Gaelicization policy, the redevelopment of Dublin and movement of families to houses in Crumlin all had an effect on the Morrissey family culminating in emigration to Manchester.

For someone who supposedly doesn't use the internet, Johnny's putting in a lot of hours trying to defend his book!

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

He's still the same dickhead

That's certainly up to date!!

 

[Thesmithsmorrissey]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

He's still the same dickhead

and your point is?

A lot of people are dickheads, for long periods of time in their lives. Most people from England are dickheads. That's why they drive on the wrong side of the road and use exorbitant currency. Johnny Rogan included

But the guy knows his shit about The Smiths/Morrissey, as evidenced by the years he put into this book. You can't deny that

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Article: "The Severed Alliance" by Johnny Rogan - 20th Anniversary Edition out no

and your point is?

A lot of people are dickheads, for long periods of time in their lives. Most people from England are dickheads. That's why they drive on the wrong side of the road and use exorbitant currency. Johnny Rogan included

But the guy knows his shit about The Smiths/Morrissey, as evidenced by the years he put into this book. You can't deny that

The fact that he's put years into it and gathered up cuttings like a nutty hoarder doesn't mean he can think or say anything interesting. One of my favorite stupidities is the bit where he writes about Morrissey's sleepwalking "It would be crass to speculate on his unconscious motivations" and then proceeds to do exactly that! Could it have been ... ?? Was he unconsciously ... ?? Perhaps he was ... ?? etc etc As if Rogan, the intellectual midget, could speak for the inside of Morrissey's head!!!