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| Willy Russell seeked permission from Moz to use his lyrics in "The Wrong Boy" |
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posted by davidt
on Monday October 16 2000, @08:00AM
TrblLuvsMe writes:
Here is the quote from the article in the 10/14 Express:
Russell had to seek permission from Morrissey to quote his lyrics.
The songman faxed him back a letter saying how funny he thought the book was and that he didn't even mind the jibes. "Which was a bit odd since there aren't any," says Willy. "Still, he couldn't have been nicer about it."
And here is the whole article:
(more)
The Express October 14, 2000
ABOUT A BOY
Not content with being one of our premier playwrights, Willy Russell has now written his first novel. BY ROBERT GORE-LANGTON
Willy Russell did a stint as a ladies hairdresser, a teacher at Ringo Starr's old school and a spell working "on the lump" at Ford's Liverpool factory. In his attempts to become a writer he admits modelling himself on the poet Roger McGough, going so far as to buy a green corduroy jacket and "hanging around Toxteth trying to look consumptive".
Years ago his first ever TV play was broadcast the same day Princess Anne got married; it was consequently seen by 12 people and a Jack Russell. But by the late Seventies, thanks to Educating Rita, he was earning more than a grand a week. His agent, the late lamented Peggy Ramsay, would say to him: "For God's sake put it away, dear, it's not yours."
Now aged 53, Russell still lives in Liverpool. He also has an office there, a small flat in London's Soho and "half a house" in Portugal. Very nice, too. But hardly excessive for a man who must be among the top three most commercially successful dramatists in the country.
But as writers go he's not flash and he's never written a novel until now.
Before we get on to his novel, The Wrong Boy, I wonder what was the first book that he ever read?
"Oh I must have been aged seven and it was an Enid Blyton - probably The Island Of Adventure," says the playwright in his Scouse accent.
He has another novel on the stocks, its plot set in the world of theatre.
These books come from the man who could put his feet up, having written such stonking international hits as Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers (now in its 13th year in the West End). So why turn his hand to long, fat books when he has had the theatre totally taped for the past two decades?
"Crazy, innit," says Willy. "But I came up with this character, Raymond Marks, originally to amuse my son (a graphic designer who drew the novel's cover) and his best mate Dave, who was an enormous Morrissey fan singer with The Smiths, a famously depressive pop band . I read bits out from this thing I was writing and they wee'd themselves laughing and I thought maybe this isn't just an amusement. Maybe it's more."
It became a 400-page book. Its hero, working-class Raymond, lives with his mam in a Manchester council flat and finds himself locked into a nightmare. Expelled from school and accused of sexual perversion, he writes long, confessional, unposted letters to Morrissey as life gangs up on him on the road to hell or, to give it its technical name, Grimsby. The book is dark, strange, teenage odyssey and very funny. Like Blood Brothers it is suffused with the world of mothers and childhood.
Russell had to seek permission from Morrissey to quote his lyrics.
The songman faxed him back a letter saying how funny he thought the book was and that he didn't even mind the jibes. "Which was a bit odd since there aren't any," says Willy. "Still, he couldn't have been nicer about it."
Is Raymond the young Willy Russell? "It's not at all autobiographical. I don't identify with Raymond but I do adore him. Sure, it's a dark book. But it has a redemptive ending. I believe in the triumph of goodness over adversity.
So I must be an optimist, musn't I?" But never mind novels. With Blood Brothers coming up for its 5,000th performance isn't he tempted to write another musical?
"Well, the thing is you've got to have a tale that demands to be told in musical terms. I've got one tale I've thought about over the years, but it's such a black story I can't find a light way to tell it. But apart from my novels, I'm working with Tim Firth who wrote Preston Front. He's also a composer, we were thinking of doing an album together.
It might end up as a show.
We'll just have to see." The Wrong Boy is published by Doubleday at GBP 16.99/GBP 14.99
TrblLuvsMe sends another mention on the subject:
Times Newspapers Limited, October 15, 2000
Willy Russell debut novel published
Richard Brooks
Willy Russell, creator of Blood Brothers and Shirley Valentine, has just had his first novel published. The Wrong Boy is a nice enough yarn about a kid whose dad left home and whose gran is a miserable killjoy. The novel is written in letter form - from young Raymond to Morrissey, the one-time star of the Smiths. The only snag is that Russell never asked Morrissey's permission. On delivery, his anxious publisher, Doubleday, told him to send Morrissey the book. Luckily, he approved.
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thats Great!!
See! Morrissey Is a great man!
as long as you ask him first.
Its really not hard