N
nonesoever
Guest
Telly talk: This Charming Man
Ian Wylie
EVERYONE
should take tea
with Morrissey.
He's a man who
likes to stir.
Writer Alan
Bennett is a
former neighbour
of the eccentric
Manchester
legend, and still
bemused by their encounters.
"The doorbell rang one day and he was
on the doorstep. Quite ridiculously early
on in the conversation, he asked me
whether I knew anything about a
comedian called Jimmy Clitheroe.
Morrissey was fascinated by this figure.
"Well, I gave him tea in my house and
then he would give me tea in his house.
We never went anywhere or really talked
about anything other than Jimmy
Clitheroe."
The Importance of Being Morrissey is set
to be screened on Channel 4 next month.
A film crew was given exclusive access to
the former vocalist and lyricist with The
Smiths on a solo tour last year and inside
his home off Sunset Boulevard.
There's the story of Morrissey, now 43,
growing up with his family in Stretford,
and a letter written by the teenage Steven
Morrissey to music magazine NME.
In his first major TV interview for 16
years, he equates meat eating to child
abuse and labels the fox-hunting royal
family "evil", adding: "Charles, above all,
has no intelligence whatsoever." It's not
the first time he's attacked the royals,
previously branding them "immoral" and
calling his band's classic 1986 album
"The Queen Is Dead."
Morrissey is asked if he still follows
football. "No. If they were kicking
politicians around, I'd follow there. If it
was Tony Blair, instead of a round object,
I'd be captivated."
His other targets in the hour-long film
include former Smith drummer Mike
Joyce, who won a High Court action over
royalties, forcing Morrissey and guitarist
Johnny Marr to pay him £1.25m. "It was
a terrible miscarriage of justice. So it's
been really shocking. I wish the very, very
worst for Joyce for the rest of his life."
Dissecting
Friend James O'Brien comments: "If you
spend any time with Morrissey, one of the
things you find yourself doing more than
anything is sitting round, pot of tea on,
dissecting and annihilating people's
characters. It's his favourite thing in the
world to do."
Celebrity fans - including Harry Potter
author JK Rowling and Noel Gallagher -
give their views. Bono sets the record
straight about this often misunderstood
character. "I don't get the miserable thing
at all. I find him very funny."
But the icing on the teacake is Morrissey
himself, worshipped by his followers, yet
without a record deal. "The Smiths was
an incredibly personal thing to me," he
explains. "It was like launching your own
diary to music."
He recalls his upbringing in Manchester.
"I suffer greatly from depression. It was
very serious when I was a teenager and
when I was in The Smiths. So I took
prescribed drugs for a long time."
We see him having his hair cut at a
gentlemen's barber in Mayfair, and taking
over from the hapless assistant. James
comments: "He probably finds himself the
most attractive person that you could
possibly meet." This charming man
refuses to answer the phone,
communicating by fax, and still won't
discuss his sexuality. "People can think
what they like."
Nancy Sinatra calls by for tea and biscuits
at the enigmatic one's Los Angeles home,
built by Clark Gable for his wife Carole
Lombard. Hollywood's Queen of
Comedy was killed in 1942 when her
plane crashed into Table Mountain near
Las Vegas.
Morrissey recounts how the 33-year-old's
tragic death came shortly after she had
been given the keys to the house. He
seems happy living with ghosts from the
past. "I've left my fingerprints
somewhere. That's good enough. I am my
own person, and that's good enough, and
I stand my ground, that's good enough."
On tour in Australia, a female fan thanks
him for making her and other fans so
happy over the years. Hailed by some as
a genius, and by others as the Pope of
Mope, her idol is a picture of
freshly-brewed embarrassment as he
replies: "I didn't mean to."
The Importance Of Being Morrissey
will be screened on C4 in June.
20/05/2003
Manchester Online - Telly talk: This Charming Man
Ian Wylie
EVERYONE
should take tea
with Morrissey.
He's a man who
likes to stir.
Writer Alan
Bennett is a
former neighbour
of the eccentric
Manchester
legend, and still
bemused by their encounters.
"The doorbell rang one day and he was
on the doorstep. Quite ridiculously early
on in the conversation, he asked me
whether I knew anything about a
comedian called Jimmy Clitheroe.
Morrissey was fascinated by this figure.
"Well, I gave him tea in my house and
then he would give me tea in his house.
We never went anywhere or really talked
about anything other than Jimmy
Clitheroe."
The Importance of Being Morrissey is set
to be screened on Channel 4 next month.
A film crew was given exclusive access to
the former vocalist and lyricist with The
Smiths on a solo tour last year and inside
his home off Sunset Boulevard.
There's the story of Morrissey, now 43,
growing up with his family in Stretford,
and a letter written by the teenage Steven
Morrissey to music magazine NME.
In his first major TV interview for 16
years, he equates meat eating to child
abuse and labels the fox-hunting royal
family "evil", adding: "Charles, above all,
has no intelligence whatsoever." It's not
the first time he's attacked the royals,
previously branding them "immoral" and
calling his band's classic 1986 album
"The Queen Is Dead."
Morrissey is asked if he still follows
football. "No. If they were kicking
politicians around, I'd follow there. If it
was Tony Blair, instead of a round object,
I'd be captivated."
His other targets in the hour-long film
include former Smith drummer Mike
Joyce, who won a High Court action over
royalties, forcing Morrissey and guitarist
Johnny Marr to pay him £1.25m. "It was
a terrible miscarriage of justice. So it's
been really shocking. I wish the very, very
worst for Joyce for the rest of his life."
Dissecting
Friend James O'Brien comments: "If you
spend any time with Morrissey, one of the
things you find yourself doing more than
anything is sitting round, pot of tea on,
dissecting and annihilating people's
characters. It's his favourite thing in the
world to do."
Celebrity fans - including Harry Potter
author JK Rowling and Noel Gallagher -
give their views. Bono sets the record
straight about this often misunderstood
character. "I don't get the miserable thing
at all. I find him very funny."
But the icing on the teacake is Morrissey
himself, worshipped by his followers, yet
without a record deal. "The Smiths was
an incredibly personal thing to me," he
explains. "It was like launching your own
diary to music."
He recalls his upbringing in Manchester.
"I suffer greatly from depression. It was
very serious when I was a teenager and
when I was in The Smiths. So I took
prescribed drugs for a long time."
We see him having his hair cut at a
gentlemen's barber in Mayfair, and taking
over from the hapless assistant. James
comments: "He probably finds himself the
most attractive person that you could
possibly meet." This charming man
refuses to answer the phone,
communicating by fax, and still won't
discuss his sexuality. "People can think
what they like."
Nancy Sinatra calls by for tea and biscuits
at the enigmatic one's Los Angeles home,
built by Clark Gable for his wife Carole
Lombard. Hollywood's Queen of
Comedy was killed in 1942 when her
plane crashed into Table Mountain near
Las Vegas.
Morrissey recounts how the 33-year-old's
tragic death came shortly after she had
been given the keys to the house. He
seems happy living with ghosts from the
past. "I've left my fingerprints
somewhere. That's good enough. I am my
own person, and that's good enough, and
I stand my ground, that's good enough."
On tour in Australia, a female fan thanks
him for making her and other fans so
happy over the years. Hailed by some as
a genius, and by others as the Pope of
Mope, her idol is a picture of
freshly-brewed embarrassment as he
replies: "I didn't mean to."
The Importance Of Being Morrissey
will be screened on C4 in June.
20/05/2003
Manchester Online - Telly talk: This Charming Man
