Len Brown sends the statement about his rare contribution to this week's NME:
The Return of the King?
Very very nice to be quoted by my old employers in this week's New Morrissey Express. It makes me nostalgic for those heady Eighties days when journalists hated big-mouthed Moriarty but publishers realized his working class mug sold thousands of copies. Interesting piece by Gavin Haynes with useful insights from Mssrs Walker, Manzur and Tobias. But, in truth, if I do qualify as being one of "the people closest to him" in 2014 then I'm afraid Morrissey must be in a very lonely place. "His Greatest Ever Comeback?" Plenty of enthusiastic reviews suggest this but surely the main point is that, love him or loathe him, he's back infecting the airwaves, extending the subject matter of the art form and - whether he likes the old prizefighter tag or not ("the Crumlin Hardchaw" according to Damien Dempsey) - the showman seems to be unbeaten and unbowed. Cue the usual Radio Four questions about why he expresses such pessimistic and negative views of our world in lyrics. (Wouldn't it make more sense to question why so much of early 21st century pop music seems to be about absolutely nothing at all?)
Len Brown, Halfway down the Poly staircase, Giggleswick
The Return of the King?
Very very nice to be quoted by my old employers in this week's New Morrissey Express. It makes me nostalgic for those heady Eighties days when journalists hated big-mouthed Moriarty but publishers realized his working class mug sold thousands of copies. Interesting piece by Gavin Haynes with useful insights from Mssrs Walker, Manzur and Tobias. But, in truth, if I do qualify as being one of "the people closest to him" in 2014 then I'm afraid Morrissey must be in a very lonely place. "His Greatest Ever Comeback?" Plenty of enthusiastic reviews suggest this but surely the main point is that, love him or loathe him, he's back infecting the airwaves, extending the subject matter of the art form and - whether he likes the old prizefighter tag or not ("the Crumlin Hardchaw" according to Damien Dempsey) - the showman seems to be unbeaten and unbowed. Cue the usual Radio Four questions about why he expresses such pessimistic and negative views of our world in lyrics. (Wouldn't it make more sense to question why so much of early 21st century pop music seems to be about absolutely nothing at all?)
Len Brown, Halfway down the Poly staircase, Giggleswick