"A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths" by Tony Fletcher (Sep. 6, 2012)

I am actually looking forward to reading this. I will attempt to read anything about Moz and would only leave a book about him and The Smiths unfinished if it was the most dreadful, pathetic and unreadable crap ever written. Hopefully it is worth the paper it is typed out on. Guess I shall have to wait and see...

This is Tony Fletcher interviewing Morrissey in 1994
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsqloR9xej8

Sorry, that should have said Tony Fletcher interviewing Morrissey in 1984!

Originally Posted by Thesmithsmorrissey

bitchin'!

More reading material time-filler while we wait for the Moz-gospel to drop in December

It isn't happening this year...

He also wrote the first real bio of R.E.M. and it was very well done.

Originally Posted by silentandgrey

He also wrote the first real bio of R.E.M. and it was very well done.

His biography of Kieth Moon is THE biography of Kieth Moon...his novel Hedonism about the nineties Limelight NYC club scene is fantastic, and his recent historical review of the NYC musical history called All Hopped Up is stunning...can't wait.

With the reviews of the author from the people above this book may be worth a buy. I'm sort of with you Dead Girl . Read all I can find if it is not an attack or hatchet job !!!!

Originally Posted by Anonymous

His biography of Kieth Moon is THE biography of Kieth Moon...his novel Hedonism about the nineties Limelight NYC club scene is fantastic, and his recent historical review of the NYC musical history called All Hopped Up is stunning...can't wait.

He wrote a book about Limelight in the 90's? I need to check that out. I used to go there religiously during that period. What memories. I doubt there will ever be anything like that again. Hedonism doesn't even begin to describe it. Anyway, I'm rambling and this has absolutely nothing to do with Morrissey.

Originally Posted by !Viva Hate!

It isn't happening this year...

proof, please.

Originally Posted by Thesmithsmorrissey

proof, please.

He mentioned it in a recent interview, so I'm not holding my breath

Q. The one thing I am very excited about these days is your autobiography. Oscar Wilde once said, “A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.” How much did you reveal about yourself in your book?

A. I'm very proud. I won't be hurried. I don't want it published this year. It's very dramatic and action-packed, and those who criticize everything I do with untiring hatred have probably already written their malevolent reviews. Oh, you know the drill.

http://zulalmuzik.blogspot.co.uk/201...d-my-life.html

14 July 2012

Fair enough, I'll wait. He implies it's finished, and that's enough

for now.

Originally Posted by Anonymous

A Light That Never Goes Out

The Enduring Saga of the Smiths

by Tony Fletcher

Hardback / William Heinemann /6 September 2012 /£20

They were, their fans believe, the best band in the world. Critics and sales figures told a similar story: every one of their seven albums between 1984 and 1988 made number one or number two in the UK charts. Twenty-five years after their break-up, the band remain as adored and discussed as ever. To this day, there is a collective understanding that The Smiths were one of the greatest of all British bands.

The Smiths - Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce - were four working-class youths who came together, by fate and chance, in Manchester in the early 1980s. Their sound was both traditional and radically different, a music that spoke to a generation, and defied the dark social-economic mood of the Thatcher years. By early 1984, barely a year after their first headlining gig, they were the hottest name in modern music. In the years that followed the group produced an extraordinary body of work: seventeen classic singles, four studio albums, and over sixty unique songs. Yet for all their brilliance The Smiths were continually plagued by their own reticence to play the game, and by the time of 1987's Strangeways Here We Come, they had split. The Smiths would never play together again - their enormous contribution to pop culture forever condensed into a prolific and prosperous halcyon period, their legacy intact and untarnished.

Now, on the thirtieth anniversary of their formation, their firmament remains bright. Their light has never gone out. It's time their tale was told. A Light That Never Goes Out is a meticulous and evocative group biography - part celebration, part paean - telling the complete story of The Smiths for the very first time. The product of extensive research, hundreds of interviews and a lifetime's obsession, it will serve to confirm The Smiths as one of the greatest, most important and influential rock groups of all time.

Tony Fletcher is the bestselling author of five non-fiction books and one novel. His biography of drummer Keith Moon, Dear Boy, has been named in countless Best Music Book lists, and his authorised biography of R.E.M., Remarks Made, has been published in over half a dozen countries worldwide. Fletcher has contributed to publications including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, New York Press and SonicNet in the US, and the Observer, NME, Sky and Record Mirror in the UK. He has been seen and heard on VH1 'Behind the Music', NPR's 'Weekend Edition', BBC's 'Living Famously', and many more. As the founder and editor of the magazine Jamming! He frequently interviewed The Smiths and conducted the first TV interview with Morrissey for The Tube and maintains relationships with many of the key players.

Contd/...
A Light That Never Goes Out – talking points

*Access to a wide array of previously unpublished letters and paperwork, including the band’s physical contract with Rough Trade, a source of much previous speculation and guesswork. Unprecedented analysis of the group’s legal and financial framework, including (entirely new) specific details of the Smiths’ defection to EMI at the height of their success.

*Revealing new details on Morrissey and Marr’s childhoods, the similarities as well as the differences in their personalities and socio-economic circumstances, drawing both on interviews as well as extensive research on their childhood neighborhoods and economic backgrounds.

*The story of Manchester as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the impact of its rapid transformation from market town to factory city upon the working poor – especially the immigrant Irish, of which all the Smiths were descendents – as well as the City’s subsequent key role in the emergence of Trade Unions, the Chartists, Sunday Schools, the Labour Party, the Suffragettes, and Whit Walks.

*Story of Manchester as a hotbed of music, from jazz and Rhythm & Blues, through the success of its pop bands in the 1960s, the impact of the Sex Pistols’ four concerts there in 1976, the emergence of the Buzzcocks and Joy Division and the Fall, and Manchester’s subsequent reputation as Britain’s second (if not first) musical city.

*A detailed account and analysis of the impact upon the band members of their Irish Catholic backgrounds and their strict, disciplinary Roman Catholic schools.

*A first ever accounting of the Smiths’ popularity in America, including a comprehensive study of the Anglophile ‘post-modern’ music scene there, a wave which the Smiths rode to gold records and sold-out arena tours alongside the likes of New Order, Depeche Mode and Echo & The Bunnymen.

*A frank but sympathetic study of Morrissey’s personality and sexuality, drawing on his own commentary, and new interviews with old friends, that questions the veracity of his claims to celibacy and suicidal tendencies yet admits to the impact those claims nonetheless had on a generation of forlorn teenagers. A similar look at the thinking behind and the impact of his headline-grabbing quotes, and how his quest to become a generational spokesman proved the wisdom of the old adage, Be Careful What You Wish For.

*Fresh insight from Johnny Marr into the circumstances that drove him to quit the group, including insider information on the failed video shoot that proved the final straw.

*Fresh insight from Andy Rourke on his troubled childhood, his dabbling with and then his addiction to heroin, his firing from the Smiths, his subsequent arrest and then his reinstatement to the group.

*First clear understanding of the hiring and subsequent firing of Craig Gannon as fifth Smith, and a fresh overview of his role within the group throughout 1986.

*Sober analysis of Morrissey’s lyrical themes, and also a previously unseen look into the musical construction of many Smiths songs, both in composition and in the studio – including a definitive, eight-page accounting of the classic “How Soon Is Now?”

*A clear understanding of political context, how the story of the Smiths ran parallel to that of 1980s Thatcherism, and how the two indeed impacted upon each other.

*Detailed look at the group’s internal finances, including but not limited to the circumstances behind Rourke and Joyce receiving a considerably smaller share of group income (eventually leading to the post-Smiths High Court case). Detailed accounting of the group’s steady stream of short-term managers, and how Morrissey’s failure to trust in an external adviser led not only to the group’s premature break-up but resulted in considerable financial and personal problems in the interim.

JJ
PS Come on City

The thread exists, so I merge with the original one.

Already preordered. Tony seems like a decent sort indeed, really looking forward to it.

P.

Hi,

I just recieved an advance copy of the book yesterday. I happen to know Tony Fletcher and know how much work he put into this book. I've had a busy weekend so I've only managed the first 30 pages but I like what I see so far. As a friend of Tony's I'm not going to start trying to sell the book here but I've read a number of his previous books and have always enjoyed them.

As for Uncleskinney's comment above that 'Tony seems like a decent sort' - he really is. You would have to look hard to find someone as modest, understated and interesting as Tony. I only met him ten years ago and when I went away and read him up I couldn't believe all of the things he has accomplished. I hope this book is well received given the amount of work that has gone into it.

With his last book Tony went on a tour of the states doing book reading / Q&A events. If he repeats that this time it would be well worth your while going to one if you get the chance. I think people here will find him knowledgeable, interesting to listen, measured and above all, knowledgeable.

All the best and I hope those getting this book enjoy it. It looks really good too!

All the best

Originally Posted by Anonymous

Hi,

I just recieved an advance copy of the book yesterday. I happen to know Tony Fletcher and know how much work he put into this book. I've had a busy weekend so I've only managed the first 30 pages but I like what I see so far. As a friend of Tony's I'm not going to start trying to sell the book here but I've read a number of his previous books and have always enjoyed them.

As for Uncleskinney's comment above that 'Tony seems like a decent sort' - he really is. You would have to look hard to find someone as modest, understated and interesting as Tony. I only met him ten years ago and when I went away and read him up I couldn't believe all of the things he has accomplished. I hope this book is well received given the amount of work that has gone into it.

With his last book Tony went on a tour of the states doing book reading / Q&A events. If he repeats that this time it would be well worth your while going to one if you get the chance. I think people here will find him knowledgeable, interesting to listen, measured and above all, knowledgeable.

All the best and I hope those getting this book enjoy it. It looks really good too!

All the best

Signed, Tony

Negative review in The Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...r-8100846.html

Tony Fletcher Radio Interview With Tom Dunne (NewsTalk)

Tony Fletcher on Morrissey and The Smiths, 14 Sept 2012

http://www.newstalk.ie/2012/programm...nd-the-smiths/

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Is there more to life than Smiths books?

http://www.independent.ie/entertainm...s-3229647.html