There is something 'goin' on . . .but . . . i'm not gonna say what!!!!!!!
kiss kiss
It's all a bit bizarre isn't it?
A TV interview with Andrew Marr, interviews with three radio stations, including two of the country's biggest?
All for the re-release of a compilation album?
There must be some other reason.
If it is just to boost sales of BD, Moz will be sorely disappointed coz it'll hardly make any difference (with the absence of a single on the radio). The album is likely to do almost as badly as Swords.
Is he trying to generate some positive publicity to counter the absolute PR disaster that was subspecies-gate?
There's something going on!
for any normal pop star, your comments would be spot on.
but Morrissey's interviews, these days, are becoming increasingly counter-productive.
Armitage predicted that his interview would have a negative impact on Morrissey's profile and it looks like this is proving to be the case. The new single is picking up virtually zero airplay - what's more Morrissey's overall airplay has fallen considerably in the last month (just when you'd expect it to go up). http://comparemyradio.com/
so the Armitage interview might have got a trickle of people interested in him (like you) but all it's really done is bolstered the media (and the wider public)'s perception of him as being an unpleasant, humourless, animal obsessed weirdo (if not an outright racist). he was labelled a 'big-quiffed bigot' in the media before he made the Chinese comment.
if he gets asked anymore questions about race or immigration in the upcoming interviews, he's almost bound to make the headlines again for the wrong reasons.
the EDILS re-release is selling bugger all. it will probably be the first ever Morrissey single to miss the top 75, which Morrissey (who is chart-obsessed) will find extremely humiliating.
the idea that any kind of promotion works simply isn't true.
Maybe in hindsight the record company would not have wanted this interview to occur, but I don't think that they realized he was going to insult roughly a quarter of the world's population. Do you see that Armitage's comments came after the interview, when the record company strategy was worked out before the interview?
What this actually does is shows how foolish was the idea that he did this to sell records. He didn't. He doesn't do these interviews to promote records, he does them to promote Morrissey the public figure. Morrissey knows what he is doing. When he advocates bombing the homes of those that torture animals in the name of science, he's not trying to push Robby Williams off the charts. He's reinforcing the public perception of Morrissey™.
When he talks about Madonna's "African child" he's making PETA headlines, not trying to win people over. Morrissey, as far as I know, has never been happy with any record companies' promotional efforts, and has made his name on his own with his own ability to speak to the press. His record company might as well try to promote Satan by putting out the fires in Hell. He might say he wants to be on the charts, but he's very conflicted, if not in thought, certainly in deed, and no record company can overcome the efforts of the star when they put him in the public eye only to have him self-immolate.
Morrissey understands stardom and it doesn't have a lot to do with record sales. Pete Doherty, mentioned above, is famous for being an idiot. That's not going to sell records, but when it's done with such zeal, having drugs fall out of your pocket while visiting court on a drug charge, for example, it will make you famous. Courtney Love was once famous for having a dead husband and making the sorts of comments about other famous people that are not usually stated in public, but it didn't sell very many records. Marilyn Manson was once able to get any magazine cover he wanted for his 'outrageous' appearance, and pretty much straightforward and surprisingly intelligent views about every hot topic (haha) of the time, but he never really had a hit record even when he made some pretty good records. The list goes on. Others get up there and promote their record (someone like Beyonce, for example) and sell millions of copies without ever uttering one quotable line.
As was stated above, Morrissey is playing the promotion game. He just doesn't have the same goal in mind as EMI does.
(and I can't help but hear the Sex Pistols every time I see "EMI")
Well at least he's not being interviewed by Paxman! Otherwise Morrissey would be reduced to a blubbering wreck promising he'd live in a CHinese zoo with pandas.
Paxman vs Sting. Ha Ha Ha. Interview starts about 4 min 30 secs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO4Yftc1bMY
Maybe in hindsight the record company would not have wanted this interview to occur, but I don't think that they realized he was going to insult roughly a quarter of the world's population. Do you see that Armitage's comments came after the interview, when the record company strategy was worked out before the interview?
What this actually does is shows how foolish was the idea that he did this to sell records. He didn't. He doesn't do these interviews to promote records, he does them to promote Morrissey the public figure. Morrissey knows what he is doing. When he advocates bombing the homes of those that torture animals in the name of science, he's not trying to push Robby Williams off the charts. He's reinforcing the public perception of Morrissey™.
When he talks about Madonna's "African child" he's making PETA headlines, not trying to win people over. Morrissey, as far as I know, has never been happy with any record companies' promotional efforts, and has made his name on his own with his own ability to speak to the press. His record company might as well try to promote Satan by putting out the fires in Hell. He might say he wants to be on the charts, but he's very conflicted, if not in thought, certainly in deed, and no record company can overcome the efforts of the star when they put him in the public eye only to have him self-immolate.
Morrissey understands stardom and it doesn't have a lot to do with record sales. Pete Doherty, mentioned above, is famous for being an idiot. That's not going to sell records, but when it's done with such zeal, having drugs fall out of your pocket while visiting court on a drug charge, for example, it will make you famous. Courtney Love was once famous for having a dead husband and making the sorts of comments about other famous people that are not usually stated in public, but it didn't sell very many records. Marilyn Manson was once able to get any magazine cover he wanted for his 'outrageous' appearance, and pretty much straightforward and surprisingly intelligent views about every hot topic (haha) of the time, but he never really had a hit record even when he made some pretty good records. The list goes on. Others get up there and promote their record (someone like Beyonce, for example) and sell millions of copies without ever uttering one quotable line.
As was stated above, Morrissey is playing the promotion game. He just doesn't have the same goal in mind as EMI does.
(and I can't help but hear the Sex Pistols every time I see "EMI")
It's a nice defence but I think you're wrong. Morrissey is completely obsessed with chart positions and record sales - possibly more than any ever pop star in the history of the charts. No-one enjoys chart success, or feels chart failure, more acutely than Morrissey.
If you think he believes his interviews have no impact on sales then you were presumably lucky enough not to read the email he sent the record company after 'The Youngest Was The Most Loved' failed to chart as well as he'd expected - one of the ugliest things he's ever written.
The gist of it was that his media profile was extremely high and he couldn't therefore understand why his single had sold bugger all. He claimed that his media profile that week had been boosted by an NME cover, and from being in the daily papers for another tediously provocative comment about animal rights (making him seem incredibly ruthless/cynical).
I'm afraid that I don't really think Morrissey does know what he's doing a lot of the time especially with regard to the immigration/racism comments. If he did then why feel the need to bail out Love Music Hate Racism to the tune of £30,000? He'll be absolutely devastated by the impact of subspecies-gate.
He wasn't expertly playing the promotion game. He was putting his foot in it and making an absolute buffoon of himself.
My guess is that these interviews are, indeed, about damage limitation (as someone's already pointed out), as is listing 'Young, Gifted and Black' as one of his favourite singles a couple of days ago (which he's mentioned quite a few times before). Hopefully, the new batch of interviews will be fun, witty and revealing, with some encouraging news about future plans. More realistically, it'll probably just be him moaning about not having a record deal, how much he hates modern music, and more ill-advised comments about animal rights/racism/immigration (although I hope and kind of half think, that he's really learnt his lesson there).
Good examples of other people with high media profiles struggling to sell records. I'd add Paul McCartney to the list. His last album came out when all the divorce proceedings were kicking off, and he was all over the media, but the record sold in tiny amounts (for someone of his stature).
Oh cheer up grumpy drawers!
Very well said!
Here is the best-case scenario for the coming week.
Moz rediscovers his charm and wit, and sparkles in the interviews, especially in the Andrew Marr show where, for the first time, he chats to a serving British prime minister (who is somewhat bizarrely something of a fan).
Moz reveals that, in working on the Bona Drag re-issue, he has re-established good relationships with the songwriters from that era (particularly Stephen Street but also Kevin Armstrong who wrote November).
They have agreed to work on some new compositions for an album he will record over the autumn along with contributions from Alan and Boz. He has even been talking with a certain Mr J Maher (of Wythenshaw) about providing some songs for the album.
He announces that his Major Minor deal includes plans for this new album.
He will be doing a small tour of the UK in the run up to Christmas which he hopes will co-incide with the first single from the new album sessions.
There - happy now!
Very well said!
Here is the best-case scenario for the coming week.
Moz rediscovers his charm and wit, and sparkles in the interviews, especially in the Andrew Marr show where, for the first time, he chats to a serving British prime minister (who is somewhat bizarrely something of a fan).
Moz reveals that, in working on the Bona Drag re-issue, he has re-established good relationships with the songwriters from that era (particularly Stephen Street but also Kevin Armstrong who wrote November).
They have agreed to work on some new compositions for an album he will record over the autumn along with contributions from Alan and Boz. He has even been talking with a certain Mr J Maher (of Wythenshaw) about providing some songs for the album.
He announces that his Major Minor deal includes plans for this new album.
He will be doing a small tour of the UK in the run up to Christmas which he hopes will co-incide with the first single from the new album sessions.
There - happy now!