Morrissey and Coronation Street

[The Seeker of Good Songs]

Morrissey actuall spends time watching this programme?


from: http://musicnews.virgin.net/Virgin/Lifestyle/Music/virginMusicNewsDetail/0,13556,1259575_music,00.html

Morrissey blasts common Corrie


Former Smiths frontman Morrissey has spoken out about ITV1 soap Coronation Street, branding the soap's characters as "common as muck".

Mancunian Morrissey is disappointed by the way the soap's socially aspiring characters have been replaced by characters who are "thrilled to be common".

In an interview with The Times, Morrissey revealed: "In 1970s Coronation Street, if we must discuss it, the inhabitants were all aspiring to gentility.

"Now everybody is thrilled to be as common as muck and everybody strives to be seen as completely backward and aggressive and lunatic."

 

[mjp]

His point is a fair one and is half lost in the trivial nature of the subject.

I doubt he watches it though - seriously, he's sitting in his house in Rome, flicking through the TV Guide, written in Italian, checking when Corrie is next on........me thinks not.

He's probably watched it a couple of times on the UK tour possibly - if he was to watch any tv.

Remember there was once a time when he submitted scripts for it

 

[Danny]

When Coronation Street first emerged it was a serious attempt to recreate the feel of working class kitchen sink dramas on television. That's why Morrissey was so into it.

It was only in the eighties it started to become the pantomime it is now and Brookside, and then Eastenders took over. Unfortunately they all have their shelf life before they get caught up in the ratings war and stories get more and more ridiculous.

 

[sid james]

Plus with the fact that it's on something ridiculous like 5 times a week now means it would be practically impossible for him to watch the show on a regular basis while touring etc anyway. Heck - I used to watch it when I was a kid and it was on once a week, apart from unemployed people who on earth finds the time to watch these bloody soaps these days?

Mind you - it would crack me up if Moz slipped in an amusing lyric change in 'You Have Killed Me': "Ken Barlow is me, Mike Baldwin you'll be" (or should it be the other way round?)

 

[dcn]

Isn't it pretty much a reflection of society in general? I mean it really has to be the pinnacle in time where a larger number of people are going by the "hey, I demand you look at me and do it now!" mantra. Do the Idol shows ring a bell to anyone? In America at least, all you have to do is look at the wanna-be "punks". If I see one more suburbanite-had-everything-handed-to-them with colored hair or some spikey 'do, I'm gonna puke. It's always, I'm so different just like all the others! Sickening.

 

[sparkly typewriter]

Coronation street is great! I've watched it since I was young. As for the aggression (I'm not that old so don't know what it used to be like!) but I can understand what he means. Far too much testosterone flying around at times, but it can be a good laugh.

 

[Sami]

coronation street is an incredibly confused soap - it attempts to play up to the stereotype of manchester being "grim" and "industrial" - i.e with the cobbled streets and knicker factory (playing upon the old 19th/early 20th concept of Manchester being the hub of "King Cotton") but then you get characters such as sean, who is gay - a product of the 21st century - and he works in the factory - Coronation Street sadly doesn't know what it is and what it's supposed to represent - yet i still choose to watch it

 

[sid james]

It's one redeeming virtue is that it does often try to be amusing, unlike the steaming pile of misery that is Eastenders...

 

[charlie tango]

It's one redeeming virtue is that it does often try to be amusing, unlike the steaming pile of misery that is Eastenders...

exactly.