Likely a set up, but Morrissey is saying what the silent majority are thinking. He could get a job on the Daily Mail with quotes like that!

Will be interesting to read the whole article. Maybe it is Conor McNicolls madate for him to get a better job than the NME editorship, ala that cunt who was in charge in 1992 (Danny? Can't remember his name!)

not again

I think Moz said it because it's been bad for business to have the NME happy with him.

He'd much rather be the "I can STILL piss of the whippersnappers at the NME" guy over "I can be the friendly old uncle with candy bars for the whippersnappers at the NME" guy.

If this comment is correct, this will do him more damage than last time I'm afraid.

Last time at least he left some room for debate with his silence. Coming out with crap like this will just confirm what people have been saying all along.

Who knows. Maybe that's what he wants. Maybe he really wants people to turn against him. He certainly seems to have a victim fetish.

this saddens me.

I wouldn't mind playing with him.

I am shocked that Morrissey is on the front page of the NME
In my opinion, I think it just shows how bad music is today
Is Morrissey even relevant anymore. I am a fan, have seen him live on a number of occassions, and buy his new records, but I look at Morrissey more with nostalgia than real interest in anything new that is going on.
I think a lot of people would agree with me.
Morrissey is a lot like Bruce Springsteen in America. While people may like him and even buy his new stuff, they still swarm to hear "Born to Run."

I think Morrissey takes himself way too seriously. I don't care what he thinks about England. If the NME thinks they will sell more copies by putting him on the cover, so be it. But I think they will be dissapointed (no pun intended) when they look at the bottom line.

Does he like to suffer? I am afraid some idiots will attack Morrissey.
Or maybe he wants some publicity, good-or bad.

Can someone explain to me why the cover quote would be considered significant in England? It's not a racist comment, and at best it could be construed as xenophobic, but that is merely one's own opinion. The fact that someone cannot even discuss the subject openly is more concerning to me than any implicit xenophobia.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think Morrissey often comes across as a close-minded puritan, but I fail to see why anyone with any degree of intelligence would feel "saddened" by such a comment.

I'm an American, and I read the BBC. There does appear to be an immigration issue, as there is in the U.S. However, England is much smaller than the U.S., and it doesn't seem to have the economy, or space to support the flood of immigration. On top of that the ghettos that house many M.E. immigrants seem to be breeding ground for terrorism as well. This is completely unlike the U.S. in that respect.

England is slowly turning into a third world country. Sorry, Morrissey is within his rights on this one.

Although, the sniveling, reactionary press in England will have a field day with the cover story. I guess Morrissey won't be invited to Billy Bragg's Christmas part this year.

Moz can state whatever the hell he pleases. He does not have to please YOU or the masses. If you don't like it, too bad. If it doesn't bother you no fretting, you will still buy and listen to his albums. He is not out to make nice with the world the way most are conditioned to be. He will speak his mind and I for one am thankful for it; somebody must. He hasn't much cared that he has not been widely accepted, why should he feel any different now. Sounds like many of you want him to (as expressed in "This is Not Your County") zip-up his mouth. Piss off the lot of you, anti-free-speech Nazis.

-The Pugilist You (Never) Turned Out To Be

Could he not just shut the fuck up for heaven's sake! I mean he doesn't even live in the bloody "country" so wherever he stays now, people could say the same about him. Making such comments when interviewed by the NME is utterly stupid and frankly really boring, it's always the same thing, the same stories, the sames so-called provocative statements.. i mean this not fucking vitorian england anymore this is modern , 21st century England. And yes there is only so much you can take in, as far as immigration is concerned , for all the reasons we know. But to promote such narrow minded ideas only is going to feed rumours again and harm those who don't deserve it. Maybe they're not just rumours after all!!!!!!!! and yes I am a huge fan of 20 years, the malady lingers on indeed!!!!!

I'm loath to comment until I've read the interview, but sod it, I will, anyway: sounds like another 1992-style set-up to me..

In America, you can say there are too many Mexicans crossing the border and not be labeled a racist.
There's nothing wrong with this opinion and there is nothing wrong with Morrissey's. It's not racist. morrissey is giving us some of the cons. anyone who thinks it is racist, is simple-minded.

What's the difference with morrissey?

If it's a quote taken out of context for hyperbolic reasons, which I doubt, then...that will become evident upon reading the whole article. But more likely he's just being honest, again, and will be vilified, again, although...not in the same way as before. Because for one thing, people agree, I think, and also...it's Morrissey. It's not an act, but it's part of the package...which we all know by now.

All going to show that Morrissey has not softened with age at all...and still courts controversy arm in arm, unless it's the cheap, lowest common denominator type that has to do with public proclamations of cunnilingus skills.

Oh, wait, I forgot..that was "high art."

and wait until you've read the interview. How can you fall so easily for a tawdry headline designed to pull you in?

......... I'd STILL trap his fat un ;)

Some information, please?

On behalf of the Theo van Gogh Martyrs Brigade, I'd like to welcome Morrissey if he's now willing to stand up against the Islamist menace plaguing England.

What album are they referring to as "The Contender for Worst Album of the Year"?

Be honest some of you dont want more Immigrants to come into the U.S. and there is plenty room, and to top it of.

It was never YOUR Country anyway.

`All of the rumours keeping me grounded, I never said that they were completely unfounded` Morrissey doesn`t answer to anybody. His comment scares me. That`s why I like him. Unflinching as ever. And remember, it was the NME who put him on the cover. The media are a trillion times more sinister than Moz.Yamaha

when the media sees a pop star with political opinions, and with feet on the ground, they seem to get baffled, and turn commonly-shared opinions into a front-cover scandal. Morrissey just refuses to project that usual image of a star as an alienated alien who lives far away from our planet. that's quite unusual these days, now that we are seeing nothing but protest singers (Dylan, Lennon) who died or aged. If he would be a protest singer, it would be ridiculous: he said that protesting hasn't done any good, more radical measures need to be taken. Not that he takes these measures, nor that he knows what measures should be applied for (the world or England?) to work, but just the fact that he talks about them is reason for a media scandal. But it's nice anyways to see someone (who could be traveling on a comet) being like us, tired an disillusioned with today's politics.

And not only has it happened to England, but it's happened to America...

I know SOME people would like to blame ALL of our/their problems on George Bush and Tony Blair...but in all honesty we were involved in this mess long before that...

If you think America and England should allow Sharia Law (which condones stoning and lashing) to be passed like the majority of Muslims do in this country and England, then I'm afraid you people have serious mental problems and are just as much part of the problem...

...while the rest of you are debating whether or not our man's a racist because he is troubled by unchecked immigration into his homeland, I have decided to infilitrate this thread by letting everyone know that if you need a copy of "Steet Life", I have finally found one and have posted it for download on my MySpace page.

This is the Roxy Music cover that was performed only a few times early on in the Tormentors tour, then totally dropped. I had a VERY hard time finding it anywhere, but then I finally found it on Soulseek so if any of you want it, here ya go.

By the way, I know this post was off topic and that some of you may indeed already have the song (all hail internet god VIVA)...so you can rant and rave about what a loser I am (and I will lose SO MUCH sleep)...but for those of us who still feel that the fun of the music is the bottom line...come on to my house.

www.myspace.com/rhamphorynchusistheone

And how long a roll of them can English bankers,
NME press, and one northern drummer put between
their cheeks. The NME is not about the music,
rather, how much money people will buy into it.
It's money-country-goods-stomachs-people, in
that order.

I think it's safe to assume that Morrissey's contradictions on the immigration issue in regards to the Hispanic population in America have more to do with him simply pandering to what he feels is a devoted demographic. Many people saw through this when the hype initially occurred. He's not above such behavior. However, make no mistake, it is a glaring contradiction.

Also, I'm very suspicious of him favoring an Iraqi singer. It seems like a political maneuver, similar to the often recited "Some of my best friends are black."

What I'm more concerned about is his almost stereotypically right-wing fascination with an England that is long gone, or one that may not have even existed at all. His reasons for feeling that way seem woefully shallow. Morrissey doesn't seem to deal well with change well, and that's generally the recipe for severe narrow-mindedness.

Many of his fans come across the same way, which is why they have a tendency to denounce almost everything that is not Morrissey related.

Personally, I think there are more important reasons to be concerned with the immigration issue in both America, and England than some trivial notion of cultural purity, which is forever in flux, and not sustainable.

When you have groups of extremists who are willing to breed like rabbits solely for the purpose of creating a future Islamic army to overcome a nation's political system the question remains, what stipulations if any, do you apply to such massive immigration? It's a real problem.

Most countries need immigration, but the road to hell is often paved with good intentions.

Many foreign countries are quickly becoming surrogates for Islamic extremists.

WTF? All these negative comments. I can't understand that. Immigration HAS failed. He's just speaking out loud what the majority of ppl is thinking. Just because WWII happened to the Jews everyone thinks it's similar if you say something about the muslim community. The difference is muslims are the new Germans. Not the other way around. Madrid, London (and NOW) Paris is burning. I dont agree with Moz on many things. But he's damn sharp on this.

40 years of failed immigration policies, immigrants that can do no wrong in the eyes of politicans. The immigrants had no ambitions to enlighten or work themselves up in society, in fact searched any excuse not to evolve but parasite on the West. The combination of the above mixed with cultural aspects (big families, islamic dominance) resulted in hatred against the West, a goddamn time bomb that's waiting to explore.

Good luck on solving this one Europe.

Wow....coming from someone who hasn't lived here for 10 years is a bit rich! Don't get me wrong I think he's fantastic but it seems a bit like a publicity stunt to me...and after what happened at Oxford University on Tuesday night,do we really need anymore of this? Moz,immigration is a great thing, my dad is a immigrant and works 5 jobs-that's 5 lots of tax and national insurance her pays which is more than most natives-don't knock it-especially if you live in America.

And the reason for this is because most of them don't wash, and they eat Mcdonalds, and they contaminate planet earth.

Paul

Good for him.

I appreciate reading all your comments concerning the front page, but as for myself, I will decline to comment further until I read the entire article.

It's bad that Moz doesn't want a bunch of fucking towel-head terrorists taking over his country? Good for him. This only makes me like him more. Although it is funny that he doesn't have the same feelings about our borders.

can someone post the interview here??

If you have been to the UK recently you would know that Moz's comments are long over due. The country has become completely infested with criminal immigrants. He only likes criminal immigrants when they come from LA and buy his records... The Islamic trash in the UK don't buy his music so he can see them in a more objective light...

Truth hurts huh?

27 November 2007

Morrissey vs. the NME

Many of you in London will have seen today's NME with Morrissey on the cover while others around the UK, the rest of the world and online will discover it during the course of the week.

We had agreed to do a cover story with the NME in October around the New York shows to announce details for 2008.

We were alerted to the fact that the NME were potentially doing a hatchet job on Morrissey on the 16th of November by an anonymous post on morrissey-solo.com.

We immediately contacted the magazine's editor Conor McNicholas who refuted the suggestion that the NME would be anything less than supportive and personally posted on the site categorically denying the "rumours and untruths."

As you will all see from this week's cover story, this was not the case and appears to simply have been a strategic action to ensure we did not take legal steps to stop the interview being published.

We believed his assurances that all was well until we received the following email from Tim Jonze who did the interview:

"Hi Merck,
Hope you're well. I should mention that for reasons I'll probably never understand, NME have rewritten the Moz piece. I had a read and virtually none of it is my words or beliefs so I've asked for my name to be taken off it. Just so you know when you read it.
Best,
Tim"

When we received this we immediately called Conor McNicholas who after a three day delay responded in the form of the email that follows:

"Hi Merck.

I need to drop you a line about the Morrissey piece running in NME this week. It's going to be much stronger than we'd originally discussed.

Having lived with Morrissey's comments from the second interview and discussed with the editorial team we're running a piece where the comments aren't ducked and NME's position is made very clear.

While Morrissey is obviously entirely entitled to his point of view we're not beholden to re-print them without comment. And given that his views are not those that we'd normally expect to come from someone in the very liberal world of rock'n'roll, we're not able to either support them or print them without comment.

Obviously no-one is accusing Morrissey of racism - that would be mad given what Morrissey says - but we do say that the language Morrissey uses is very unhelpful at a time of great tensions. I am - as I say in the magazine - fully confident that Morrissey's comments are simply the result of a man in his 50s looking back nostalgically on the England of his youth, but his reasoning for that change is unreasonably skewed towards immigration and as a title we think that's wrong. I think he's simply naive and doesn't understand the atmosphere here. I don't think he wishes anyone any harm but I don't think he understand the climate or the possible interpretation of his comments either.

The feature is, I believe, a fair and balanced piece. It's not sensationalist but it doesn't ignore the story either. I have been particularly careful to include all the key moments where Morrissey mitigates his position or makes a strong commitment against racism. The reaction of both you and Morrissey has been very much on my mind when making decisions surrounding this piece.

As you know, I wish I'd never fond myself in this position making these very difficult decisions. I have, to be honest, found the whole experience very depressing. I don't have a reputation of running pieces such as this because it's not in my nature. I am also a huge Morrissey fan, my gold disc for 'You Are The Quarry' is still one of my proudest possessions and still takes pride of place in my living room. And while I'm sure Morrissey didn't sign off each of the discs and its recipient, I felt it was a measure of where I'd got the NME to with him. What I'm trying to make clear is that I never wanted to be in this place but as editor I've simply not had another option.

I'm not going to try and second-guess your reaction but I can imagine it won't be grea

Read the rest of this comment...

I just read the retort from Morrissey's manager on True To You, and all I can say is, what a set-up.

What disgusts me is the manner in which the N.M.E.'s editor qualifies the piece by stating that he doesn't believe that Morrissey is racist, but that his comments may create unecessary tension.

This is a brilliant example of how political correctness has virtually neutered discourse on issues regarding race and politics. This seems all the more rampant in England.

In related news, we should all expect numerous songs from Morrissey calling for the death of the N.M.E. Mike who?

In hindsight, I can't believe that Morrissey allowed himself to be suckered into this. It's almost embarrassing. He did make the comments, and he knows how the English press is in general. Once bitten, twice shy. He should have gone to greater lengths to protect himself, since the issue was being discussed in the interview. It seems to me that he gained a bit too much confidence with his return status.

Personally, I don't know how effective litigation will be. I'm quite sure that the N.M.E. have that covered.

I've often disagreed with Morrissey, but this as clear as a set-up as you can get.

Stay in America Moz. We'll take care of you.

Thanks Merck for announcing

hope Decca/Polydor and Morrissey both benifit of this new coperation

btw, does Morrissey hold his Attack label?

Rediculously long post about an article I haven't read:
The whole 'Morrissey is being controversial in the NME thing' is kind of curious. Mostly because it seems difficult to put in context. Whenever I hear Morrissey talk about various political topics, his point of view always seems to be emotional and reactionary, rather than analytical. There are tons of example of this. For one, he once said he wouldn't vote because there isn't any point, which is an emotional reaction. The song Margaret on the Guillotine, along with everything else he's ever said about reviled public figures, is a strongly expressed political opinion that is never accompanied by critical analysis. (I'm not saying it should contain political critical analysis because what kind of shitty pop songs would be made up of that anyway? Just that it doesn't.)

What ever he will say or did say, for me, as long as he isn't ramdomly hate-mongering, (which judging from his lyrical body of work seems out of character anyway) it won't really change my opinion of him. I just think it has to do with the fact he is an emotional, reactionary thinker not a logical, intellectual one. I don't listen to him because of his intellectual intellegence, I listen to him because of his emotional intellegence anyway.

Morrissey has questioned in print, why people ask rock stars 'important questions' and it's true, nothing in their line of work suggests them to have particular insight on the world's issues (unless they are politically educated on the side). I think the point of asking those questions is for the audience to gain insight on how the object of their interest thinks, not to authentically engage in a constructive dialogue about said 'world issues'.

So the NME may have unjustly monkeyed with the interview (if so, shame on them) and Morrissey may have said some potentially inflamatory stuff. But I guess in summation, what does that really change?

Who reads the fucking nme for astute political analysis anyway???

The very natures of the US and UK have changed from thoughtful, smart culture to low class, thuggish, ass-shaking multi-culturalism. The growing masses of white trash are as much to blame but so are the burgeoning populations of people of so-called color.

now if only some1 would say the same
about the mexicans in the u.s
but we've been brainwashed into thinking that its racist to protect your country from
the endless stream of 'proud' mexicans

Morrissey has the balls to say what lots of people feel, hence his massive following. Just because a couple of jumped up middle class fucks at some worn out fucking tinpot indie magazine get excited, it doesn't mean anything.

In my opinion Morrissey is saying 'you want an opinion? Get a load of this you fuckers!'
Morrissey is in control here and he's using the dumb NME to devastating effect. Viva Moz!!

Hello Morrissey fans

    I support Morrissey’s thoughts and ideas of how immigration is destroying Europe and England, i fell the exact same way i don’t want to be in my own country (Greece) as an foreigner surrounded by Arab immigrants ,and Asians cant you people see whats going on in Belgium Switzerland and the Netherlands number one growing relegion is Islam
is Europe a islamic society!!!!!!!
    I want to hold on to my traditions and culture of how i was born and raised
Iam a pure Nationalist such as Morrissey and don’t tell me guys his not!!!!!!!