Morrissey
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Comment by Barney Hoskyns, The Virgin Yearbook, 1984
GAY MEN PAVED pop’s way this year. With Boy George’s wardrobe fully open, all the closet cases came spilling forth: Burns and The Bronskis, Frankie ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Village Voice, 2 April 1991
"OH MANCHESTER, so much to answer for..." Contradiction has always been at the heart of Morrissey's mythologization of his hometown: this was nostalgia for a ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1986
The Smiths' front man on the ins-and-outs of being interviewed; his relationship to Smiths fans; the reference points for his songs; Derek Jarman's videos for the band; his fondness for the '60s; 'Big Mouth Strikes Again', and his self-image; treatment by the tabloid press; Live Aid; the nature of the Smiths' success; The Queen Is Dead; song titles; Patti Smith; camp humour; the consequences of fame, and leaving Rough Trade for EMI.
File format: mp3; file size: 91.9mb, interview length: 1h 35' 42" sound quality: ***
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1989
Part 1 of Mat Snow's monumental interview with Morrissey in 1989.
File format: mp3; file size: 91.3mb, interview length: 1h 35' 08" sound quality: ***
Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, Spring 1991
The professional controversialist on his new album, Kill Uncle; his refusal to explain his music, and other people's interpretations; his relationship with the music press; his hatred of Madchester; his lack of interest in pushing musical barriers; on Margaret Thatcher; lyrical taboos; working with Mary Margaret O'Hara; not suffering fools gladly, and not being a sex symbol.
File format: mp3; file size: 122.3mb, interview length: 2h 07' 04" sound quality: ***
List of articles in the library
Readers' Letters by uncredited writer, Sounds, 27 December 1975
THE BRITISH public are very wary of new bands. Anything that aims to change the day-to-day routine of the rock world is carefully observed before ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1984
AMERICA MAY HAVE been charmed by Boy George, but it's more difficult to imagine it embracing the Smiths and their poetic singer/writer Morrissey, the U.K.'s ...
Report and Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, February 1988
"How could they do this to Oscar Wilde's grave?" Len Brown asks of Morrissey, but finds his genitals reduced to paperweights. (Oscar's that is...) ...
Morrissey: Borne To Be Wilde - interview part 1
Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 13 February 1988
"WE HAVE a warrant here, Mr. Wilde, for your arrest on a charge of committing indecent acts." "Where shall I be taken?" "To Bow Street." ...
Morrissey: Born to be Wilde - interview part 2
Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 20 February 1988
"I THINK that very strong intelligent artists should dictate practically everything, but they don't. If we talk about Tiffany and Belinda Carlisle and the whole ...
Morrissey: Songs Of Love And Hate
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 12 March 1988
I THINK I'VE MET THEM ALL NOW. For me, there are no more heroes left. And no new ones coming along, by the look of ...
Morrissey: Songs of Love and Hate, Part 2
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 March 1988
"Did that swift eclipse torture you?/A star at 18 and then – suddenly gone/down to a few lines in the back page/of a teenage annual/oh ...
The Last Of England: Morrissey: Viva Hate (HMV)
Review by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 19 March 1988
FOR TOO LONG, a faction around here feels, the fey, blithe Morrissey has been allowed to saunter through pop history unchecked, fawned upon even — ...
Interview by Paul Morley, Blitz, April 1988
Paul Morley interviews Morrissey, whose first solo album, Viva Hate, is released this month. ...
Review and Interview by Len Brown, Spin, June 1988
Lyricist extraordinaire, celibate aesthete, charismatic bigmouth, the former Smiths frontman returns for tea & sympathy ...
Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 2 July 1988
The Smiths were "like a life-support machine" to Morrissey. Without STEPHEN STREET – co-writer/producer of Viva Hate – it's conceivable that Les Miserable himself would ...
Live Review by Len Brown, The Guardian, 30 December 1988
WITH A soft Charles Hawtrey-style "hullo" and a shower of flowers. Steven Patrick Morrissey returns to the stage. It's two years since his uniquely English ...
Morrissey: Civic Centre, Wolverhampton
Live Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 7 January 1989
MORRISSEY COMES to the Midlands to play eight songs, two of which receive their first airing tonight, and only 1,700 followers adorned with the Stephen ...
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, December 1989
Your fans are fiercely loyal but always "with an aura of love and gentleness". You’re being sued by two former band members but accept it ...
Interview by Nick Kent, The Face, March 1990
Walking backwards into the Nineties, has Morrissey finally lost all sane 'focus' on his career? ...
Interview by Len Brown, Vox, November 1990
Morrissey could probably have done without the last year, and there's a been a few none too kind hacks and hackettes who say we could ...
Interview by Len Brown, Details, March 1991
"IF GEORGE MICHAEL had to live my life for five minutes, he'd strangle himself with the nearest piece of cord," says Morrissey as he walks ...
Morrissey: Kill Uncle (HMV/All formats)
Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 2 March 1991
BETTER RELATE THAN NEVER ...
Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 8 March 1991
Musical literacy makes sound sense ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, April 1991
"I DON'T WANT to be judged any more... I would rather be just blindly loved". Alas, those days are long gone, and Morrissey knows better ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, April 1991
NO STRANGER TO the extravagant gesture, on the sleeve of his first all-new long-player since 1988's Viva Hate, Morrissey is pictured from below as if ...
Interview by Steven Daly, Spin, April 1991
With Morrissey's new album, Kill Uncle, about to be released and talk of a U.S. tour, England's last great pop poet is back. STEVEN DALY ...
Interview by Mark Kemp, Option, May 1991
MANCHESTER IS 185 RAILROAD MILES NORTH OF LONDON, LINKED BY SIGNPOSTS THAT READ RUGBY, BIRMINGHAM, AND STOKE-ON-TRENT; BY SPRAWLING MISTY GREEN MEADOWS, GUSHING STREAMS, AND ...
Morrissey Comes Out! (For A Drink)
Interview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 18 May 1991
Shock! Horror! Girls throw themselves at his feet! Luridly manicured skinheads fling bouquets! Europe quivers beneath his majesty! MORRISSEY talks to the NME! As his tumultuous ...
Morrissey: Wake Me When It's Over
Interview by Mark Kemp, Select, July 1991
The Manchester scene is press-created, shallow, turgid, "a shuddering disappointment". Dance music has destroyed everything, it's "totally shocking and revolting". You are Morrissey and 1991 ...
Morrissey: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 27 July 1991
THE LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT ...
Morrissey: Victoria Hall, Hanley
Live Review by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 12 October 1991
VICTORIA HALL, Hanley is what happens when ambitious architects attempt to cross Edwardian wedding cakes with youth clubs. A three-tier pyromanlac's fantasy of dusty, overstuffed ...
Morrissey: "A gentle adoration"
Report by Robert Sandall, Q, January 1992
Morrissey's US shows have been the scenes of riotous affection. And nobody can figure it out. "It's the intensity of the reverence..." ...
Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 15 August 1992
THE TEE-SHIRT READS "Madstock"; the reality sporadically veers from such cheery celebration. Somewhere in the fun and the frolics, the grubbiness of moronicism smears the ...
Essay by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 22 August 1992
POP STARS are especially strange creatures when it comes to giving that all-important 'image' an overhaul. ...
Review by Chris Heath, Select, September 1992
PLEASE BE UPSTANDING. Just when the memory of The Smiths is being rekindled by Best...1, an unsettlingly English Morrissey emerges triumphantly from his former band's ...
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, September 1992
The lighter side of football violence. The death of pop music. Getting the urge for sex. Being racist. The TV star who is "a pig ...
Brett Anderson & Morrissey: Suedegate
Comment by Sheryl Garratt, The Face, May 1993
Does this magazine print deliberate lies? Well actually no, we don't ...
Review by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 15 May 1993
BEETHOVEN WAS indeed deaf. And, Lord, upon looking at the CD panel and realising that after a full prison stretch of maudlin warbling that there ...
British Rockers Trot Out the Flag
Report by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 5 September 1993
LONDON — In rock-and-roll just as in politics, the United States and England have a special relationship. Together, they have dominated global pop. Over the decades, ...
Morrissey: Vauxhall and I (Sire)
Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 1994
IF TWO WORDS come close to encapsulating Morrissey's sensibility, they are isolation and insularity. ...
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Ray Gun, March 1994
THE FIRST TIME I met Morrissey was nine years ago, when the thin, seemingly mild-mannered singer was slightly in need of a shave; when he ...
Morrissey and The Smiths: There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends
Retrospective by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, 4 March 1994
IN JUNE 1984, Rolling Stone journalist James Henke asked Britain's latest rising superstar, Smiths vocalist Morrissey, for his opinions on the British Prime Minister, Margaret ...
Morrissey, the Ever Marketable
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 27 March 1994
Feeling neglected in the U.S., the uncompromising singer courts a larger audience but vows to stay true to himself-and those who've deified him ...
Interview by Stuart Maconie, Q, April 1994
Goodbye, big-bloused flower-fondler; cheerio, depressed devotee of deathly doom; toodle-oo teetotal football-fearing perma-hermit; we'll sithee, bespectacled Billy NoMates. At 34, Morrissey is no longer the ...
Morrissey: Homme alone 2 — Lost in Los Angeles
Interview by William Shaw, Details, April 1994
With the release of Vauxhall and I, Morrissey intends to take over America. If only he can get over himself. William Shaw gets down with ...
The Smiths: Witty, Sad, Poignant, Green…
Retrospective and Interview by Martin Aston, Q, October 1994
If ever a band established a coherent identity, a rallying point for their fans, through their sleeve artwork, that band was The Smiths. Those famous ...
David Bowie/Morrissey: London, Wembley Arena
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, 1995
THE THIRD OF four nights of two thinnish white pop Dukes with great barbers and a well-honed sense of alienation. Seventies icon Bowie and 80s ...
Morrissey: The King of Bedsit Angst Grows Up
Profile by Will Self, The Observer, 1995
Heaven knows he was miserable then. Morrissey was the archetypal mixed-up young man: anti-fun, seemingly tortured by his sexuality, with a detached and ironic worldview. ...
Morrissey: This Charming Mandroid
Interview by David Sinclair, The Times, 10 February 1995
Back on tour, back in the sights of those who would destroy him, Morrissey talks to David Sinclair about love, hate and fame ...
Morrissey: Empress Ballroom, Blackpool
Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 18 February 1995
The Boxer Beat ...
Morrissey: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London
Live Review by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 28 February 1995
Heaven knows he's a star now ...
Morrisey: Southpaw Grammar (RCA)
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 1995
Wherein Morrissey discovers the missing link between The Byrds' jingle-jangle and Young/Cobain grunge. In contrast to Vauxhall And I, often gentle of mood and sentiment, ...
Morrissey: Do You F***king Want Some?
Interview by Stuart Maconie, Q, September 1995
Morrissey's back in the ring with a violently good LP, Southpaw Grammar, and he's having a Cantona-styled pop at anyone in his path: Hugh Grant, ...
Morrissey: Maladjusted (Island) ** £14.99
Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 8 August 1997
Nine self-pitying, lachrymose albums in a row — isn't it time Morrissey grew up? ...
A Lost World: Morrissey: Maladjusted (Island) ***
Review by Bob Stanley, Uncut, September 1997
WHEN I WAS first introduced to the grimy world of record fairs at the start of the Eighties, the places were almost entirely populated by ...
This Bloke Isn't Funny Anymore: Morrissey: Maladjusted (Island)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, September 1997
ANOTHER YEAR, another Morrissey album. His ninth, incredibly, though you'd be hard-pressed to name the whole lot, never mind recommend them. Which, in itself, is ...
Morrissey: Battersea Power Station, London
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 3 January 1998
OLD POWER VENERATION ...
Morrissey: Heaven knows he's miserable now...
Report and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 17 July 1998
He lives with his mum, he's been dumped by his label and he's going to court. Finally, Morrissey really has something to be fed up ...
Manchester's Answer to the H-Bomb: How It All Blew Up For Morrissey and The Smiths
Report by Dave Simpson, Uncut, August 1998
THE PHONE RINGS at the Sunset Marquis Hotel, Los Angeles. ...
Morrissey: Nine Perfect Minutes With Morrissey
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, SOMA, December 2000
ONCE, HE was the bespectacled singer of archetypal British guitar band The Smiths; now he's living in Los Angeles and shopping for a label. ...
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, MOJO, April 2001
It was a hot California afternoon. Our West Coast gumshoe, Jaan Uhekszki, heard the phone ring. Once again, she'd tracked down her man. He was ...
This Disarming Man: In Defence of Morrissey
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2001
NOTE: These were liner notes for a Rhino compilation of solo Morrissey songs. The singer rejected them. ...
Morrissey: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, September 2002
IN THE END, it takes the final song of the main set, 'Speedway', to sum up Morrissey in 2002. The man who has nothing but ...
Morrissey: Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Live Review by Mark Mordue, 12Gauge.com, October 2002
CURIOUS CREATURE. Half denying us yet wanting our love, chilling us with the dark edges of sadness yet exalting us to ecstasy if not joy; ...
Book Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 16 November 2003
Former World's Biggest Smiths Fan Simon Price checks his credentials against a passionately provocative analysis of Morrissey's art. ...
"Somebody Has To Be Me": Morrissey
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 9 April 2004
NOW 44, STEVEN Patrick Morrissey is, to quote one of his songs, a handsome devil. ...
Interview by James Medd, Esquire, June 2004
From his unlikely hideout on the West Coast of America, pop's Greatest Living Englishman has emerged triumphant with his first album in seven years. "Pop ...
Interview by Keith Cameron, MOJO, June 2004
After seven years away, Morrissey, the exiled don of indie misery, is back, with some old scores to settle. Keith Cameron meets the ex-Smiths frontman ...
Morrissey: Meltdown Festival at Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 14 June 2004
WITH MORRISSEY booking the acts on this year's programme – as well as performing three shows himself, including this, the opening night – the Meltdown ...
A Quiff of Nostalgia: Morrissey: M.E.N. Arena, Manchester
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, August 2004
The toast(ed teacake) of Tinseltown comes home. DVD to follow. ...
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, GQ, October 2005
The former Smiths frontman has had "20 very odd years": from indie outsider to LA's least typical expat, via court battles and enjoying self-imposed exile. ...
Tony Visconti: Bolan, Bowie, Morrissey And Me
Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 23 March 2006
"WHAT A LOT of people don't realise about Morrissey," says the producer of his new album, Tony Visconti, "is that he has a sense of ...
Morrissey: Ringleader Of The Tormentors
Review by Keith Cameron, MOJO, April 2006
Funny things happen on the way to the Forum: Morrissey's eighth album is a love-letter to Rome and getting it on. ...
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, April 2006
THE SENSE OF feverish anticipation that Morrissey still generates before each live performance, record release and even interview is a remarkable testament to the cult ...
The Last Temptation of Morrissey
Interview by Paul Morley, Uncut, May 2006
With Steven Patrick re-anointed St Morrissey following reviews for his latest album Ringleader Of The Tormentors, can Uncut's journalist, a devilishly nosey fellow Mancunian, tempt ...
Live Review by Len Brown, Rock's Backpages, 22 December 2006
A DICKENSIAN SMOG shrouds the city centre and the increasingly familiar ghost of Manchester's Christmas' past shuffles onto the stage. "Well, they look friendly," he ...
Review by David Quantick, The Word, March 2008
There's a lot of Morrissey's newer, louder, less subtle music on his latest greatest hits. David Quantick finds his patience is at an end. ...
Review by Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, 5 February 2009
AGE CAN undermine lesser rockers. But time's cruel toll just validates Morrissey's morbid drama-queen spiels — to paraphrase a lyric from his old band the ...
Retrospective by Len Brown, Rock's Backpages, 22 May 2009
N.B. This is the full, unedited version of a piece published in The Guardian on 22 May 2009 ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 July 2009
AT LONDON'S Wireless Festival last year, Morrissey was a hilarious showman in easy command of his powers, playing rollicking unreleased songs and Smiths favourites. That ...
Morrissey: MEN Arena, Manchester
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 30 July 2012
Morrissey the solo artist, playing a homecoming show at MEN Arena in Manchester, again struggles in the shadow of The Smiths, writes Rob Hughes. ...
Various Artists: Oh Yes We Can Love – A History Of Glam Rock
Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Universal Records, August 2013
GLAMOUR HAS always been pivotal to pop music. Elvis Presley was Glam, and so were Little Richard ('Ooh My Soul') and Billy Fury ('Jealousy'). The ...
Morrissey: Autobiography (Penguin)
Book Review by Stuart Maconie, The Observer, 19 October 2013
IT CAME UPON a midnight clear. Or just after anyway, if you downloaded the eBook or queued in one of the several bookshops that opened ...
Review and Interview by Jim Sullivan, Rock's Backpages, December 2013
N.B. This article combines a live review written in 2009 for the Boston Herald and an interview conducted in 1995 for the Boston Globe. ...
Morrissey: "The reports of my death have been greatly understated...".
Report by David Cavanagh, Uncut, January 2014
EVEN BY HIS STANDARDS, 2013 has been a bizarre year for noted author and sometime recording artist Steven Patrick Morrissey. After 11 months of chaos, ...
Morrissey: Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith
Live Review by Kate Allen, Fashion Music Style, 21 September 2015
"THIS IS MY LIFE," are the words Morrissey welcomes the crowd with. And what a life it is at the moment: playing a large number ...
Report by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 1 December 2015
"bulbous salutation" pops ...
Eric Clapton & Enoch Powell To Morrissey: Race In British Music Since '76
Essay by David Stubbs, The Quietus, 9 August 2016
During an August 1976 gig in Birmingham, Eric Clapton made racist comments and praised Enoch Powell, inadvertently inspiring the Rock Against Racism campaign. Four decades ...
Live Review by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 21 August 2016
THESE ARE CURIOUS TIMES for Morrissey watchers. Last year's List Of The Lost was an excruciating attempt at a first novel, while his recent declaration ...
When did charming become cranky? Why a middle-aged Morrissey is so hard to love
Comment by Dorian Lynskey, The Observer, 23 July 2017
As a new biopic England is Mine charts the Smiths singer's early life, fans speak of their disillusion at his increasingly outspoken views. ...
Review by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 22 October 2017
Newly reissued as a boxed set, the Smiths' 1986 masterpiece still stands as an enduring testament to England in the '80s, the complex relationship between ...
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 16 November 2017
I RATHER LIKED the single 'Spent The Day In Bed', with its mischievous advice to ignore news broadcasts designed "to make you feel small and ...
The Cult Of Steve: Morrissey Live At Wembley Arena
Live Review by John Calvert, The Quietus, 17 March 2020
John Calvert is dragged by his lifelong Smiths fan girlfriend to Wembley — but will he finally see what all the fuss is about? ...
Obituary by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, February 2021
MY GOOD FRIEND Johnny Rogan, who died unexpectedly in January aged 67, was among the most prolific and acclaimed music biographers of his generation. Much ...
see also Smiths, The
see also Ed Banger & The Nosebleeds
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