The Smiths featured on Channel 4 (UK) show
"Jo Whiley" Wednesday 19th May 1999, 11.35pm

Segment opens with video clips of The Smiths on BBC's 'Top Of The Pops', performing 'Heaven Knows...', 'The Boy with the Thorn...' and 'Shoplifters...'

Jo's guests, Beverley Knight, Matthew Wright and BILLY BRAGG all gave their opinions of the Smiths from the time.

B Knight was clearly unimpressed, being 'a young girl from the Midlands' and listening to Paul Simon ("You Can Call Me Al"[!]).

M Wright, @university at the time had a friend who "bought into the Smiths big style... looked at his shoes constantly... Morrissey used to annoy me... self indulgent... complicated character... manipulated media..."

BILLY BRAGG, however was much more complimentary:

"[Morrissey] was that kid at school who you knew; who wasn't as tough as everybody else; but was smarter than everybody else, and he was above everybody else. He was getting his influences and he was getting his emotions from somewhere above that little bit of - TV - comic - playground stuff - that you were doing. Because I think you're wrong when you say he was miserable - he wasn't miserable - he was ARCH -you know, he was just - fabulously ARCH, and I miss - so much -the Smiths-Morrissey's lyrics that said - in such a great way, - you know I mean I can write political songs all my life - but to get NOW thing where you've been through school, you've sat all your 'O' levels, you've got your 'A' levels, you been to university perhaps - or maybe not - You get into work - and it STINKS - you know - 'I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows I'm miserable now.' I mean that's very political, its very powerful. And because he took that ARCH way, people just took him at face value, but I think beneath that, there was a real, probably one of the best articulators of - and ANGST is not the proper word for it because he didn't just do angst, he did the whole gamut of emotions - I mean , you know, AND look at the bands we have today; I mean check out the lyrics on the new Suede single -'{flatly}- she's in fashion -ooh ooh ooh, she's on the cover of a magazine...' you know and put that next to 'GIRLFRIEND in a COMA'; who could ever write a song like 'Girlfriend In A Coma' and sing it with a straight face - he was - he was - someone who I think, whatever he would have done - he would have succeeded, whether he'd become a writer; as he originally was - or whatever he wanted to do, but his genius of expressing that archness - and when put together with -I would argue- the best guitar player of his generation, and someone - Johnny Marr - who had an ear for a tune - that was just incredible, to listen to the number of tunes those guys came up with - they had the best singles but they also had B-sides that would just walk over everybody else."

Good old Billy eh? When asked if he thought the world missed groups like the Smiths BRAGG said that their music was a product of the time, when Margaret Thatcher was at her most virulent. The conversation was then turned towards HIP-HOP, which BRAGG said was marginalised be the (British) Music Press.