A Morrissey spokesperson says:

The sale of the "South With Morrissey" film is illegal. Barry Derbyshire has no rights to the film. All sound and visual elements are owned by Morrissey. Barry Derbyshire has no rights to sell or to advertise this videotape and no rights to issue the sound elements. The availability and sale of "South With Morrissey", and the use of Morrissey's name by Barry Derbyshire to promote his own website, are all against Morrissey's wishes, and force the inevitable legal action. Because Barry Derbyshire's actions are unlawful, he has disguised himself as J Barry.

I ask Morrissey-solo NOT to promote this film, and I ask people NOT to give Barry Derbyshire any money.

South With Morrissey
A DVD documenting the 2000 Latin American Tour

- A 30 minute tour film which includes concert footage and interviews with Boz Boorer, members of the crew and Morrissey's Latin American fans.

More details / purchase info at http://www.southwithmorrissey.com/

"South With Morrissey" is not a corporate product.

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UPDATE (June 26, 4:45pm PDT): Please read Morrissey's response to this item which was posted later in the day, after this item was published. According to the response, the sale of this film is illegal.
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The director of this film, J. Barry, recently sent me a promo copy of this DVD. It was quite a surprise because I had heard occasional rumors of the filming of it but never really expected it to actually come out. As someone who followed this tour from behind the computer, it was incredible to see this footage, professionally filmed and carefully edited.

Seeing the fans (including the blind girl that got on stage who I'd only heard about), venues, and general hysteria that followed this tour was a great visualization and reminder of all of the great accounts I had read of this tour last year. There is actually quite a lot of footage of Morrissey in these 30 minutes - in concert clips but also backstage and in other more casual situations. Read more info about this film at the above link and I will be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

Brutalful writes:

The following was printed in this week's issue (6-25-01) of POLLSTAR magazine.

"Reprise Records President Howie Klein said he is leaving his position on June 30th to become a consultant to Warner Bros. Records, the label's parent. His position will be terminated following his departure. No additional changes are expected to result."

Jack The Hipper writes:

Due to the amount of e-mails we´ve received concerning the Morrissey milk cartons, we have put out some desktop images with the same Moz illustration. Four different sizes fitting both Mac & PC. Notice that you can choose between two finger styles!

http://www.droidlocks.com/moz/

• Related item: Morrissey on Swedish milk cartons - June 19, 2001

fumblingpoliteness writes:

I was reading Margaret Cho's book "I'm The One That I Want". On page 142, she mentions that she was waiting in a doctor's office and feeling uneasy. The doctor had an autographed head shot of Morrissey hung up on the wall. She wrote that as soon as she saw Morrissey's picture she immediately became comfortable.

Just thought I would share that.

Corinna writes:

Morrissey is briefly mentioned in an interview with Mike Jones, lyricist for the sadly much overlooked 80s band Latin Quarter:

Q: Commenting on "Mick And Caroline", one critic claimed your lyrics hadn’t developed from "Modern Times", was this a fair comment?
A: ... Different individuals tended to find new voices rather than go on evolving once the Rock approach had settled down. So, for example, we have Morrissey’s fantastic "poetic provincialism" – until he sailed a little too close to the nationalism embedded in small town perspectives...

Read the whole interview here.

Or go to http://www.radioafrica.co.uk

George Valdez writes:

There's a new special edition to Q magazine that is completely devoted to R.E.M. Early in the magazine the band members are asked numerous questions by fans around the world. One questions goes as follows: Who Would Win In A Boxing Match, Morrissey or Billy Bragg?

Mills' Answer: Billy Bragg. Morrissey would withdraw in the first round.

Stipe's Answer: But maybe Morrissey's a scrapper.

Buck's Answer: And Billy Bragg's a pacifist. He might throw the match on principle. I could see that.

For any fans of R.E.M. the issue is a must! I just finished reading it, and having Morrissey named dropped made it even more worth my while. Cheers.

A Bloke once in love with a girl from Chorlton writes:

From "The Scotsman" Saturday 23rd June 2001, front page:

MOTOROLA INSULTS STAFF WITH PHONE OFFER, by Frank O'Donnell.

"It used to be that a P45 signalled the end of a working relationship. But for the employees at the doomed Motorola plant in Bathgate, their cheerless walk to the dole queue wil be Marked by a V50.

As a symbol of their years of service on the production line, th US company has decreed that each worker should be given a £200 Motorola V50 WAP handset as a 'sweetener'.

The decision was yesterday branded as "an insult to the thousands of sacked workers, by Danny Carrigan of the [union] AEEU. He said 'A cynical person would say the phones will be handy for anyone trying to ring round to look for a job.'

[the article ends with the following irony, which makes this missive relevant to this website...]

One worker said: 'At least it comes with a a ring tone composer. We can programme it to play What Difference Does It Make? by The Smiths.' "

Once again we have a shining example of corporate stupidity combined with a damning laissez-faire attitude to those ordinary souls who work hard to make their dough.

Lots of people saw this ad which was played a lot last week on different stations. tibby was first to write in:

I was watching "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" on Showtime and after the film ended they showed a promo for the season finale of "Queer As Folk" (U.S.version). This promo featured The Smiths song "How Soon Is Now?" I know that that song was featured on an episode before but this was just a promo.

• Related item: "How Soon is Now?" played on "Queer As Folk" - Apr. 6, 2001

Jonny A writes:

Strangeways is an underground indie pop night in Leeds which has staged 5 nights so far. On a typical night we play loads of Smiths and Moz as well as stuff like Pixies, Belle and Seb, Milky Wimpshake, Violent Femmes, Pavement, Ballboy, El Vez, Half Man Half Biscuit, Wedding Present, Airport Girl.

However on Friday the 06th of July we are hosting a Smiths / Morrissey special playing loads of their records plus the usual rabble. It's at the Think Tank in Leeds oppositish the Corn Exchange from 10 till 2 and it's a Friday night.

Email your requests or feelings on 'Strangeways' to [email protected]