Flowers for Andy Rourke​

How Blitz Vega rose from the ashes of The Smiths bassist’s tragic passing

September 27, 2024 Lily Moayeri
Andy Rourke (Image: Kav Sandhu)
The hidden lights tucked around Kav Sandhu’ shelving keep changing colors, rotating through all the hues of the rainbow.
Sandhu is home in Surrey in the UK for the moment, one of the places he takes up residence, the others being nearby London, New York and Los Angeles. He’s wearing oversized, yellow-tinted glasses, shielding his emotions. But as he speaks about his late bandmate and friend of 25 years, bassist Andy Rourke, most notably of The Smiths, Sandhu’s voice shakes every so often. Finally, he just breaks down. A few tears make their escape, catching Sandhu by surprise.
His...

September 27, 2024

Maggie Smith, RIP

September 26, 2024

"Oscar Wilde was physically a work of art. The new statue 'of' him in Chelsea (by Eduardo Paolozzi) is even more grotesque than the ridiculous statue in Merrion Square in Dublin by Danny Osborne. Both statues are too repulsive to be shown here - or anywhere. As Oscar Wilde said, 'All art is quite useless'."
MORRISSEY.

September 26, 2024

Summing up info posted in the forum thread James and Johnny Marr US Tour:

Thanks again to @Famous when dead for finding the video with the actual quote.

At about the 24:30 mark:



"The lyric to that song was put up in a Morrissey forum as an example of how awful my lyrics are. 'Life's A f***ing Miracle'... doesn't quite tally, maybe, with Morrissey's message."

The forum post referenced is by @Lucifer Sam posted on May 7, 2024 in the thread.

Lucifer Sam said:

Yes, I'm well aware. But so far Morrissey hasn't done anything as cheesy, gimmicky, and washed-up as performing with a full orchestra like Johnny Marr and James have done. Plus I was listening to the new James album the other day ("their first no. 1 in 40 years!" cheer the dads) and I couldn't even make it past the first...

Click to expand...

September 26, 2024

'Say what you want about Morrissey...he was right about Islamic terrorism in the UK' - Brendan O'Neill

Excerpt:

The Spiked Political Editor tells GB News that Morrissey summed this up perfectly during a gig at the Palladium in London a few years back.
The former lead singer of The Smiths was introducing his new song at the time, ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’, which is about the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017.
Mr O'Neill, who was in the crowd that night, alleged Morrisey looked out at the audience and asked: "How come you know the name Myra Hindley but many of you won’t know the name of the man who bombed the Manchester Arena?"

It's such a good question. We all know Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. But if you went out on the streets and asked a hundred people to name Salman Abedi [the Manchester arena bomber] I bet they wouldn't be able to," the Spiked Political Editor said.
It's a striking observation given the asymmetry of the crimes and when they occurred: Abedi killed 22...

Link via Reddit:


Excerpt:

And here they are then covering a James song in their own sets from time to time.

That was sweet, because that was the only song they ever covered. It was the first lyric I ever wrote for James. I remember Morrissey calling me to the house, asking me for the lyrics, him writing them down, and then watching his eyebrow arch when he could really make out what I was saying. We shared a love of Patti Smith, who has probably been the main inspiration for both of us becoming singers. He introduced me to Mary Margaret O’Hara’s music, which was a big, big deal to me. We used to go walking in graveyards, as was his want at that time. We have really great memories of that time, but we knew we weren’t ready. We didn’t want to do photos. We turned down the NME front...