As spotted by Cossy, and posted in the forums...

In this issue... - Hot Press

Just for the record, I've never, EVER received all Smiths royalties from record sales in the U.K. or worldwide for that matter. Maybe some of the people who visit this site could ask Morrissey through their contacts just WHO receives ALL Smiths royalties now...Mmm?

Mike Joyce

As you know Morrissey is a PETA fan, and here at PETA we’re BIG fans of him! We have a pair of tickets worth nearly £100 to see him play on July 4th at the O2 Wireless Festival in London. Want to go? Enter here.

Hi everyone

The Morrissey solo material previously available at The Smiths File Online has been relocated to a new Morrissey-only site. Lucky Lisp (www.luckylisp.com) combines select articles, album reviews, live reviews, news items and photos to reconstruct a more or less chronological account of Morrissey's remarkable 20-year career as a solo artist.

Frequent visitors to The Smiths site will already be familiar with much of the material at Lucky Lisp. First-time visitors should find much of critical and historical interest in a full and up-to-date account of Morrissey's entire solo career. In addition to the main section of the site, Lucky Lisp also includes various appendices, as well as a supplemental page featuring miscellaneous items of interest relating to Morrissey. Also included is a detailed account of the circumstances which prompted Morrissey to recently begin legal proceedings against the UK rock publication New Musical Express and its editor, Conor McNicolas.

Lucky Lisp is the companion site to The Smiths File Online (www.plunderingdesire.com).

Thanks to everyone who has visited my Smiths website. Your warm and enthusiastic comments have been greatly appreciated.

Jason Collins, editor Lucky Lisp & The Smiths File Online

Not sure if this is old news, but it looks like Johnny Marr has been joining Peter Buck at a few of the recent REM/MM shows. Check it out at JMarr.com.

I saw them all at Berkeley's Greek back on June 1st. Great show! During the encore just before they played "Fall On Me," Michael Stipe announced that it had been specifically requested by one of the members of the other band that they "have tremendous respect for." Clearly that was Marr. I was so hoping that he'd come out to join them for a song that night, but it didn't happen. Guess we in CA just missed it. Great to see the video at least though!

This story may yet have further developments but the facts so far are these. iTunes (confirmed in at least two countries, US and UK), amazon.com and Rhapsody (original forum post) are selling paid, apparently legal, downloads of a Smiths compilation "Rare".

iTunes can be found by searching in the iTunes store.

These three stores are very respected and would not willingly deal in illegal or bootleg releases.

Initial fan speculation was that it is a fake. Stephane from passionsjustlikemine said "I know what you mean, but it's still a bootleg. Even the artwork is bootleg quality." in the forum thread here. However, as the release of The Very Best Of The Smiths demonstrates, Warners have every legal right to compile previously released Smiths material as they see fit. Could this be a budget digital-only release? Or how was a bootlegger able to fool not one but three of the most reliable digital retailers in the business?

As posted by Vicarinatutugal in the forums...