Never dull, gotta admit. You have to love a guy who sticks to his guns and has that much pride in his product. And you also have to wonder why if he's such a cult figure, why doesn't he go with an indie label? Either way, I'll buy it.

I consider it a slap on the face. So if ther is no U.S. release, Morrissey will lose millions to people downloading the album illegally.

More pointless compilations, eh? Warners should get their act together and start remastering and the Smiths' actual studio albums.

No further dates planned for 2008? America that means we have a chance in 2009, start saving your pennies!

Cool- something to look forward to in my least favorite month of the year (Feb). Anyway, no U.S. issue- no problem. Also, he should take this time to add some good songs to the track list. These new songs are shite!
As for Smiths Greatest Hits- why? For what reason? Money, money, money- that's why. Good for Moz, he should not take part in such shite....
thetexasbloke

Gutted. I was sooooo hoping to see Morrissey again this year, I was so sure he'd play a UK tour in autumn/winter. Oh well. I'll have to wait.
And the album being pushed back is a blow. But there's no point complaining, these things happen, he's toured a lot recently and with Jerry Finn and that its probably understandible its been put back and he's taking a break. Still, can't help but feel gutted!

P.S. this new Smiths release is shameful! I'm glad Morrissey has no part to play in it. How many compilation albums do people need? Its simply cashing in! But they won't be getting any money off me or I suspect the majority of people on here! We already have all the songs for goodness sake! How ironic it would be if they put "Paint A Vulgar Picture" on it. Somehow I think they won't!

the "Gigs Soon to be added" on his official site. That had my hopes up.

"[Mozza], who drove you to it?
Was it the pigs in grey suits
Persecuting you?..."

We're gonna miss him while he's gone. Let's hope for plenty of strategising and popping up out of nowhere before the February blaze.

It's nice to have something on the "official" website but someone needs to let them know that Southpaw Grammar didn't get a re-release in July and many of us would like to know when we will be able to buy it.

I hope the Smiths release has something to offer, not just another reshuffle of previous.

Another crap Smiths compilation with Charles Hawtrey on the cover would be a waste of everybody's time but let's not judge it before we see it. It's alright for us because we're the fans, but the truth is that there is no obvious, good novice's introduction to The Smiths out there on CD. And what if this time they got their act together and included rare tracks like "Jeane" or "Wonderful Woman"? Let's wait until we see the cover and the tracklisting before we start chanting "reissue, repackage, repackage". If it gets more new/young people into discovering The Smiths, how can this be a bad thing?

I agree - anything that can get people listening to the mighty Smiths is a good thing. But I'm not confident Warners will do a good job.

As someone mentioned above, let's instead see all the Smiths LPs remastered and reissued. There's the potential to do something really worthy here. I mean, The Smiths have one of the greatest discographies in rock - let's see a repackage that celebrates the fact!

We may be in for a long wait though. Oh well, fingers crossed.

I can be patient for the album, but I really want some shows this fall. Moz, please just do a handful of shows; no need to do a giant tour! Thanks dearie. We love you. :)
xox

...that is seriously one moody if not depressing statement. Why not have a presser and take questions so we can all kill ourselves? The Master of Mope is alive and well! Vive le Moz!

Considering the paucity of festival dates that he appeared at this summer, it seems to me that those dates were contractually obligated to promote the album, or he was putting in a new swimming pool.

Considering how his albums have sold for longer than a decade (13 years if you count from "Southpaw" to the present), I don't think Decca signed him with the hope of his suddenly becoming a double-platinum artist, especially in the US. They probably released "Greatest Hits" on a dare that it would be purchased by anybody. What probably happened is that if enough people purchased actual physical copies, Decca would have been obliged to actually release Years of Refusal in a physical format. However, what Decca probably wanted to do was simply make Years of Refusal a digital-only release. If they dumped it in the stores in May without any fanfare and it sold about 10k copies total, they could make the argument that they don't need to spend the overhead printing and distributing a CD throughout the US.

At the same time, the avenues for promotion of Moz's type of music have really dried up in the US. You've still got the internet, but music stores themselves have really dried up on the vine. Places where people walk into the store to shop around and examine the selection and whose eye are caught by a poster are a thing of the past....at least, in the vast majority of the US. People no longer have to go into Amoeba or Tower and look around to see what is interesting. They can sit at home and pull up clips of the songs on their computer and read all about the artist and know much more about what they are buying without rising losing money. If they like it, they can download it directly to their iPod.

In other words, the kind of audience that seeks out Moz's kind of music is on the internet and Decca would much rather make the album available as a download rather than spend the cash to send out a lot of CD's. They're probably figuring that the vast majority of those physical copies aren't going to be sold and they'd rather have lack of overhead in simply providing it for download on the internet and sending the album to the people who actually want it.

The years of depression start here.
Let's see who's gonna stick around this time.

1. What about Southpaw?

2. Does "Moz dropped Decca" actually mean "Decca dropped Moz cos Greatest Hits didn't sell"?

3. WTF is wrong with him?!?!?!

rrrrrgh.

why can't he just be easy? oh, I'll never learn

but of course something so fabulous to look forward to!

Morrissey will become 50

years of refusal, april release

I bet it gonna be great, again with a birthday
gig , but now at Old Trafford open air, well
the field, the seats are pretty well rainfree,
but I guess no one will be bothered , even if it poured purple rain

amen

It’s not all bad, guys….

It’ll be September before we know it… Moz’ll get a US Label without much trouble. I’m sure Universal can have one of their subsidiaries partner labels releases it. 98,000 copies of ROTT in the US is not a lot compared to the chart-toppers of today but still a pretty respectable number for a 49 year old croon-rocker. Someone will want to cash in on that, and if properly promoted could easily exceed 125,000-150,000 units.

First single will drop right around Christmas/New Years and we’ll have shows lined up beginning in January (who knows where!? Hopefully everywhere!!) which will probably be announced around late October/November….

So everything is going to be ok – just give it two months and we’ll be right in the thick of things again. He's got new management so its probably good they have an extra 4 months to sort things out and plan for a proper released.

These things take time.....

i'd like to see morrissey sign w/ anti here in the states. very cool label.

Decca didn't so much blow the promo for "Greatest Hits"...but the long gap between ROW and US release was ridiculous and killed off any momentum it might have had when it dropped in the rest of the world. By the time it came out in the US, most die-hards would have bought it on import for the ~2~ unique songs. But lets face it, how many "Best Of"s can M expect to sell, especailly when this one was so focused on the Sanctuary-era singles.

That album should have come out at the time of the "Greatest Hits" tour in 2007. That's when the casual fans might have picked up a copy...while the great shows were fresh in their minds.

the Mail on sunday, just like prince did.

What Morrissey should do is start "doing the season" in Blackpool! Big vegas style MOZ letters. All the fans from across the UK - some of them pensioners already - would flock to Blackpool in coach loads and have cat fights on the pier.
If you can't beat them, join them I'd say! Give 2 fingers to the credit crunch and greedy record companies.

I am sick of the record company policies: Nobody needs another Smiths compilation. You can buy the whole Smiths back-catalogue for £4.99 per album - let alone millions of people selling their CDs on eBay for a lot less!

Dark side of my sleep. I'm sorry bit that album puts me to sleep. It is so borning. And Led Zep... Can you say over-rated?!!