Hi my name is Luke and I'm from Australia and have I got a story for you. I was in England about a month ago and I was in some small town which I forget the name of just about half an hour outside Manchester. I saw this guy in a pub laughing really loudly which is why I noticed him. He took off his sunglasses and to my surprise it was Andy Rourke. Well being a huge fan of the Smiths I had to talk to him. At first he was on the verge of telling me to sod off, being sick and tired of old Smiths fans annoying him about the old days.

Well I lied and said I came all the way to Manchester from Australia just to see and hear old places and stories of the Smiths like Salford Lads club and Mozza's home etc. So he obliged to talk to me for a little while until his mate came back from the bathroom.

Well luckily for me his mate was quite awhile. To cut a long story short by the end of our near half an hour chat he seemed quite sad and slightly choking on his words, he finished our conversation with these words: "If Morrissey ever wanted to make peace with me I'd be by his side in a flash. I miss the times we had in the Smiths and his early solo career but then it all got fucked up, I'm sorry". I don't know if he was saying sorry to me or Morrissey but I felt chills because I felt quite sad for him for some reason maybe because he''s been forgotten unlike Mozza and Johnny.

That's my story and I know the Smiths will never get back together again but still.

I know some might consider this minimal to other Morrissey related articles but I found this quite interesting. On Tuesday July 20, 1999, I was watching Fox Files on the Fox Network when the anchor man was introducing the John F. Kennedy Jr. tragic accident segment of the show to be later on in the show. They then showed some pictures of the late John John as a child before going to commercial. And of all the music to put in the back ground they put no other than Morrissey's own "Used To Be A Sweet Boy". But I have to tell you it was only the beginning instrumental part of the song... no words. Nevertheless it was a perfect song to express those images of the late John F. Kennedy Jr. himself.

I was checking www.deftones.net and I found that it had a real audio file of 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want' (go to the multimedia section click and click again on the 'SOUNDS' part and scroll down to find the sound file).

The Deftones lead singer Chino Moreno is known for being a HUGE fan of Morrissey and The Smiths. and they have covered many songs in concert ('Speedway', 'Sing Your Life', Whatever Happens I Love You', 'Ask') but never any recorded versions, aside from 'Please Please Please...'. You can't find this song on any album or single but it is on there promo single of "7 Words" and was released in '95. If you are familiar with The Deftones you know that their music is very heavy and has a hardcore sound to it, and that Chino's style of singing is mostly screaming. Which is why I suggest you hear their cover cause I think its good. Also they've covered Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and Weezer which are all good covers.

I used to work at a houseware store in Burbank a couple of months back where one day this uniquely looking lad waltzed into the store. I couldn't really get a good look at him because he was wearing glasses. I knew right away that even wearing those glasses I had seen this figure before. I thought to myself who this person might be. It didn't take long before I knew who that person was. I remember saying to myself, "No, it couldn't be him, what would he be doing in my store"? Sure enough it was him. He had taken off his glasses to look at a piece of Rubbermaid storage container. He came up to the register and asked me if I knew what the price of that certain piece was... I was speechless. I was in awe. Like an idiot I asked him, "Are you...?" Before I could finish my question he nodded his head yes. Well anyways I got his autograph on some register tape and he set off to God knows where. It was a dream come true for me.

In this week's Philadelphia Weekly there was an article about the similarities between the two bands. The author, Joey Sweeny, tells us that he poured over the album sleeves of the Smiths and then Belle and Sebastian trying to look for key connections between the two.

He says, "I'll be damned if foolishness is going to stop from proving once and for all, that Belle and Sebastian and the Smiths were, in every Weekly World News sense of the term separated at birth." He goes on to explain, "Lyrically the tone of Tigermilk is frozen in the same sort of sweaty, desperate and ultimately sexless regret that characterizes the most compelling parts of the early Smiths stuff- i.e. "Hand in Glove," "Reel Around the Fountain" and "Rusholme Ruffians." But for B&S, that sort of alienation takes on theme-park proportions."

This writer is obviously a major fan of both bands, and I am as well; however I cannot agree with his separated at birth theory. The bands stand for two different ways of getting things accomplished. B&S are far more childlike, whimsical if you like. Where as I have always felt that Morrissey was trying to grapple with the inequalities of adulthood through his lyrics, once he discovered that one can never truly return to that innocence. He has never been afraid to mention what is unpleasant and vulgar. B&S are far more about denying that reality. Both have their charms, but it is inaccurate to lump them together in such a way.