...At this point, even though you’ve only seen a small sample of the evidence, it would be entirely rational for you the reader to concede that Morrissey did foretell the death of Princess Diana. This raises many questions, chiefly, ‘Who enabled Morrissey to do this and why?’ I can report that I possess thoroughly-evidenced answers to these particular questions. However, I lack the skills necessary to clearly present the remaining 95% of the data I’ve compiled since discovering the Diana-Morrissey phenomena. Therefore, I am currently accepting offers from writers and publishers interested in collaborating on the immense task of converting my tangled mountain of evidence into a readable format.

...

Yes, there is yet again an article in the only Seattle music magazine that counts, The Stranger, about the one and only Morrissey...

SAINT MORRISSEY
In Praise of the Man Who Murdered Pop
by Mark Simpson


NEVER TRUST A VEGETARIAN. Especially those that come bearing flowers and talking about love. Pop music's most famous vegetarian, Steven Patrick Morrissey, has blood on his hands -- the blood of English pop. As the lover-destroyer of 19th-century polite society Oscar Wilde put it, each man kills the thing he loves -- the brave man with a sword, the coward with a pop single.

Back in the '80s, Morrissey pronounced, "The ashes of pop music are all around us if we will but see them." He forgot to mention that he was the one holding the box of matches. Now that the '90s are history and along with them the phenomenon of "Brit pop," we can see that Morrissey was the ultimate incarnation of English pop -- which is the same thing as the end of English pop.

Morrissey's unrivaled knowledge of the pop canon, his unequaled imagination of what it might mean to be a pop star, and his single-minded, desperate, mad commitment to the pursuit of these things exhausted the form forever. Morrissey's mastery of Englishness was so self-conscious, so ironic, so devout, so evil, and finally so played out that English pop and even Englishness could never hope to recover from it. The unnatural, analyzing, stripping heat of Morrissey's love of Englishness, the grainy black-and-white '60s iconography of the Smiths' sleeves, the lyrical world of iron bridges, hum-drum towns, repression, frustration, and amorphous desire could only end up separating Englishness from anything solid and turning it into a free-floating signifier -- bought by Americans.

When the Smiths finally expired in 1987 after guitarist and collaborator Johnny Marr walked out of the group, Morrissey may well have risen again on the third day and succeeded in pursuing a successful -- if uneven -- solo career. But in hindsight, it looks as if the body of English pop remained lifeless in the tomb, hopelessly extinct, wrapped in back issues of the New Musical Express -- with a large rock blocking the entrance, rolled there by Morrissey himself.

The so-called "Brit pop" phenomenon of the '90s, which so excited some newspapers and a couple of hairdressers at the time, ultimately did not -- despite some interesting moments -- represent a resurrection of English pop, but was merely a galvanic motion induced by the application of large amounts of cash. Brit pop ended up being little more than commercial footnotes to the Smiths, a belated and somewhat hysterical attempt by the record industry to cash in on the legacy of the original "indie" four-boys-and-guitars band whose money-making potential was never fully realized in their lifetime.

It may be impossible for a generation raised on a diet of hype to comprehend, but the Smiths were never played on daytime radio. They never made it into the popular press, except to be denounced. And until their final record, they refused to make videos. In other words, by today's slaggy standards, they were a bunch of losers.

Yet the Smiths had a large and fanatical following, and are still revered today by many as the greatest pop group ever. Their 1996 album, The Queen is Dead, has been officially ensconced as the '80s album by the American and British rock press. By contrast, the media-P.R.-record-biz conglomerate known as Brit pop had the keys to the world handed to it on a platinum plate -- and yet it failed to inspire a single Kleenex's worth of the devotion the Smiths did.

The '90s Brit pop bands themselves seemed strangely deathly -- much more slavishly retro than the Smiths (denounced at the time for their nostalgia) had ever been. Blur were the Kinks for students and confused teenage girls who mistook Damon Albarn for someone sexy. Suede were David Bowie before he went all Let's Dance, with some Marc Bolan licks thrown in for good measure. Oasis were a Beatles tribute band for car thieves and New Labour Members of Parliament, and by only their third album they managed to become their own tribute band. This band of Anglo-Irish Manchester lads were seen as the Smiths minus the troublesome, effeminate, evil genius -- which is to say, Marr without Morrissey (according to the legend, Noel Gallagher decided to become a pop star after seeing Johnny Marr with the Smiths on Top of the Pops).

In effect, Morrissey had to become an unperson in order for the '90s to happen. Hence, in 1992 he was accused of thought crimes by the New Musical Express after appearing on stage with a Union Jack. Banner headlines accused him of "racism," and Morrissey left in a sulk for America. (Ironically, just a few years later, the Union Jack would become an official part of New Musical Express-sponsored Brit pop merchandise.)

Put any of the Brit pop "stars" alongside Morrissey, and you immediately see why he had to be exiled to Los Angeles: English pop stars have turned into mere celebrities. Even their fans don't pay any attention to what the leaders of Blur or Suede have to say, which is probably just as well. Pulp's Jarvis Cocker promised a great deal, but threw it away with an insatiable hunger for publicity and a general post-Different Class shabbiness. As the outpouring of grief after her death showed (in the British remake of Madonna's Evita), Princess Diana was the nearest thing to an English pop star the '90s produced. Which is, of course, the greatest indictment of that decade.

The last laugh really was Morrissey's. Not only did Brit pop fail to achieve the only thing which would have justified it -- to halt or even just tread on the toes of the advance of dance -- but it also failed miserably in its main, material ambition: America. Brit pop faltered in the U.S. and then promptly imploded in Britain, because America already had the genuine article in the form of Morrissey, thank you very much.

It is probably too much to expect that what's left of England will rehabilitate Morrissey. So long as he's still alive. After all, to invoke another Anglo-Irish dandy who had to be destroyed, society often forgives the criminal, but never the dreamer. And like Oscar Wilde (the first pop star), Morrissey (the last pop star), is both. So long as it doesn't plan to honor its extradition treaty with the U.K., America is likely to become the permanent home and resting place of the man who murdered pop. With his genius.

Mark Simpson is the author of It's a Queer World (Haworth). His psycho-bio Saint Morrissey will be published by Little, Brown (U.K.) in June. Website: www.marksimpson.com.

* Related article: "The Man Who Murdered Pop" by Mark Simpson" - Nov. 5, 1999

NME PREMIER AWARDS - THE COUNTDOWN COMMENCES!

For the third year running, a record number of votes have been cast for the NME Readers Poll.

The winners will be announced on February 1 at the NME Premier Awards, hosted by Radio 1's Steve Lamacq and Mary Anne Hobbs at the London EC4 Mermaid Theatre. The nominees are:

* BEST MUSICAL EVENT
Glastonbury Festival
Reading Festival
Stereophonics at Morfa Stadium
The return of Morrissey
Bonehead and Guigsy leaving Oasis

* BEST BAND EVER
Radiohead
Nirvana
The Beatles
The Smiths
The Stone Roses

The ceremony will be webcast on nme.com and Radio 1's Evening Session will broadcast from the event.

Excerpt from The Irish Times:

Noel Gallagher of Oasis on U2

"U2, man. Totally. Right from the early days, for them four to stay together that long, is f***ing staggering. America didn't break them, they broke America, and they smashed it all the way around the world. They went through their religious phase and all that, and they've done some pretty cutting edge music.

And when you meet them, they're the nicest f***ing guys in the world, they can drink any c*** in this room under the table. And they're brilliant musicians, I don't care what anybody says, they write f***ing brilliant songs. To me they were always... I wished that The Smiths had gone on and got as big as U2, y'know what I mean, only because I felt closer to The Smiths because they came from Manchester, but if I was to have a surrogate gang of musicians it would be U2."

...The Smiths DVD has a new release date. The info on Reprise Record's site tells us that the new release date is 4.4.2000. This info can also be found on Recycled Papers' page. The Morrissey DVD's date is still unknown.

Southern California rock group SENSE FIELD, who have recently finished recording their newest record for Warner Bros., have done a cover of The Smiths "What Difference Does it Make?" and rumor has it that it will be the first single off of the record. Apparently insiders within the industry believe it will be a hit. Just thought you'd like to know.

Everything is final for the Morrissey Afterparty following the Saturday 19th performance.

I have booked once again NYC's The Salford Lads to play, and vendors are in the works -- a ltd hand numbered edition of 50 huge prints advertising the event will be for sale.

Two DJ's will alternately spin Smiths / Moz / and 80's new wave.

This will be at the same place as the birthday parties: The Upstairs Lounge / corner of Lancaster and Causeway streets, north station BOSTON across from the Fleet Center.

21+, expect to pay between 5 and 7 for cover.