Harvest ends contract with Morrissey - TTY

Re: Harvest Ends Contract with Morrissey - TTY

Moontastic with the name there, buddy. Seeya in 20 minutes.

 

[Anonymous]

The Smiths are dead.

Yes - that's why people are morbidly fascinated by the idea of resurrecting their ghoulish remains and having a look at it. Enough to probably shell out a few quid on any resulting new record or tour, just to see what it's like.
Morrissey, on the other hand, is alive and well - and nobody really cares. At least, not enough the buy his record in any numbers. Otherwise he'd have a record deal.

 

[fredkocherpepsi]

This is definitely not what I was expecting to see upon waking up on a Sunday morning. I agree with the points that he needs to work with a larger indie (Anti/Epitaph came to mind for me as well) but we know that’s not going to happen, sadly.

 

[Chickpea]

I think it was over with Harvest before it began, honestly. I don't think anyone there understood who or what they had on their hands, or how to properly promote any of it. So many half-starts and sloppily-executed semi-promotions that went nowhere. I agree with the breakdown Smiler posted above, and even without knowing the circumstances of Morrissey's lack of interviews, etc. (he claims he wasn't asked, but who knows), I can't help but put the blame on Harvest.

I cannot see Morrissey going the self-release route. He is too much of a traditionalist (and, I think, nostalgic to a fault) when it comes to the record industry.

This wasn't the fault of the songs or the album as a whole, though, that is for sure. At least we got an excellent record out of all this.

 

[fredkocherpepsi]

Let’s not forget Letters To Moz (which hasn’t had an update in almost a month)

 

[smiler]

When 'You Are the Quarry' came out, after The Wilderness Years Part 1 - everyone - public and media, were GAGGING for it. To be honest, I think the gap between 'Years of Refusal' and ''World Peace' wasn't long enough. The Wilderness Years Part 3 needs to be about 15-20 years of total silence. Then Morrissey could release a fart and everyone would go mad for it.

Rubbish the only difference was that YATQ had TV appearances a recent feature length documentary, several press interviews, TV adverts, accompanying concerts and real singles with videos. The interest is there from the mainstream media and the general public, the autobiography has proved that.

 

[Anonymous]

Does all this affect the value of my collection of Morrissey memorabilia?

It's worth jack shit to be fair.
He's made a proper Charlie of himself recently, no-one can do anything with him lets just face facts the guy is radio rental full stop.

Benny-the-British-Butcher

 

[Chickpea]

Let’s not forget Letters To Moz (which hasn’t had an update in almost a month)

That's exactly the kind of half-start, half-assed "promotion" I'm talking about. It was all so poorly executed, with zero follow-through. I find that kind of thing maddening—if you can't do it right, don't do it at all. The same goes for the teaser wheatpastes—if you ONLY have the teaser part of the campaign (album title only, without Morrissey's name) with no eventual reveal, what does it accomplish? No one other than fans who already knew the name of the album had any clue what it was about. Pointless.

I don't know if Morrissey can do better at this point, but he certainly deserves better.

 

[fredkocherpepsi]

That's exactly the kind of half-start, half-assed "promotion" I'm talking about. It was all so poorly executed, with zero follow-through. I find that kind of thing maddening—if you can't do it right, don't do it at all. The same goes for the teaser wheatpastes—if you ONLY have the teaser part of the campaign (album title only, without Morrissey's name) with no eventual reveal, what does it accomplish? No one other than fans who already knew the name of the album had any clue what it was about. Pointless.

I don't know if Morrissey can do better at this point, but he certainly deserves better.

So much, this. It seems like at the beginning, with the preorder packages, the teaser wheat pastes, etc....that this was going to be a nice relationship. I can’t say there’s ever a dull moment in Moz land, that’s for sure.

 

[liquidmuse3]

Rubbish the only difference was that YATQ had TV appearances a recent feature length documentary, several press interviews, TV adverts, accompanying concerts and real singles with videos. The interest is there from the mainstream media and the general public, the autobiography has proved that.

And the only difference between YARQ & this record is 3 spots in the charts. Please don't cite actual sales, they're down across the board.

Just reading a biography of Barnett, he seems to work with really experienced, really professional artists, so either Moz massively pissed him off personally (possible), or more likely, he saw the sales as just not worth the effort. Moz thinks he's the indie Bono (& he is), but in my opinion, he highly overflates his fame, esp. since it was built on being in the Smiths. I still say this is an overreaction (last straw?) from the bodyguard scandal, as Barnett thinks he has the Tiffany label, & doesn't need this sickly, opinionated, scandal-inducing diva on his hands, especially when his record will be out of the charts in 3 weeks.

 

[fredkocherpepsi]

I just looked at the list of Harvest artists for the first time....besides TV On The Radio (whom I didn’t know were on there) and Death Grips (who I only knew because of seeing their name around) I’d never heard of any other artist.

 

[Chickpea]

Just reading a biography of Barnett, he seems to work with really experienced, really professional artists,

as Barnett thinks he has the Tiffany label, & doesn't need this sickly, opinionated, scandal-inducing diva on his hands, especially when his record will be out of the charts in 3 weeks.

I don't know anything about Barnett or his history, but given the rest of Harvest's current roster of artists (primarily very young bands just starting out), I'm confused by this assessment.

 

[Anonymous]

Rubbish the only difference was that YATQ had TV appearances a recent feature length documentary, several press interviews, TV adverts, accompanying concerts and real singles with videos. The interest is there from the mainstream media and the general public, the autobiography has proved that.

The autobiography was very different though, in that part of Morrissey's schtick has always been his reticence to discuss his private life in anything other than ambiguous (read "gay as a lorry") code; so the release of a giant autobiography was always going to be met with interest - and, of course, the thing that everyone immediately focused on was all the gay (sorry "homo-humasexual"). Once all of that's out in the open, what's left of the Morrissey formula? Attacking judges and the faintly hypocritical anti-elite stuff. He's left England behind so he doesn't really have a culture or a social milieu to write about anymore. So the heart of the lyrics has gone. I get a very strong sense that a major result of the last few years' "controversial" comments by Moz has been a resigned apathy from most people ("Oh, not again. Very interesting, Moz").
This is why the new album should have been promoted so much more because there really wasn't any great anticipation from anyone other than his fans for a new Morrissey album.

 

[smiler]

So much, this. It seems like at the beginning, with the preorder packages, the teaser wheat pastes, etc....that this was going to be a nice relationship. I can’t say there’s ever a dull moment in Moz land, that’s for sure.

The pre-order packages looked good only not available in the UK! and delivered late

 

[marred]

I just looked at the list of Harvest artists for the first time....besides TV On The Radio (whom I didn’t know were on there) and Death Grips (who I only knew because of seeing their name around) I’d never heard of any other artist.

 

[Anonymous]

Steve Barnett is January: "Morrissey is clearly one of music’s most important and influential artists. He is the rare soul who has stayed consistently true to his artistic vision and ethical principles since he first exploded onto the scene in the 1980s. We are so happy that he has chosen Capitol Music Group as his home and that his forthcoming album on Harvest will bring new Morrissey music to the world.”

Steve Barnett 8 months later: "Get the f*** outta here, mush" (or words to that effect).

Obviously something's gone tits up. Presumably if sales were strong they wouldn't mind Morrissey an being awkward bugger to work with, and constantly surrounded by controversy, but I guess he's just not worth the effort in terms of bringing in the loot. Either that, or McDonalds has bought a stake in the company.

Sad, really.

 

[fredkocherpepsi]

Hot Topic exclusive Pink Floyd vinyl?

 

[Anonymous]

Great new band, there.
They need to get rid of that lead singer, though. Seems a bit odd...

 

[Anonymous]

Venues will be queuing up now to go meat free, praying he and the tin-pots will turn up and perform a full set list without boring the audience and telling them to sing his songs for him before walking off.
These gigs will sell out in minutes and all statements will remind us that Tosserrey still remains without a record label or contract.

Benny-the-British-Butcher

 

[21punksalute]

He forgot to mention that radio station that was playing "Istanbul ". Can any of our German friends let us know if it is still #1?

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

I've told this story before, but I think it still very much applies to Morrissey. When Leonard Cohen dropped the finished tapes to his Various Positions album the record label refused to release it. Cohen demanded a meeting with the CEO to get some answers, and was told "Leonard, we know you're great. We just aren't sure if you're any good." That's where Morrissey finds himself, and has done for a decade or more. His reputation goes before him.

If this was a traditional record deal, which is what Morrissey was looking for, doesn't that mean that every penny of expenditure is met by the artist and recouped through sales? Perhaps Morrissey didn't want to end up paying for all the bells and whistles, for the physical singles, and huge promotional outlay. A single piece of poorly photoshopped artwork for the entire project seems strange in itself.

I still don't think even Morrissey himself was fully behind this album. It's a brave record, and an interesting record, but it isn't a great record. You can create a brave, interesting and great record: Kevin Rowland's My Beauty falls into that category for me and still sold extremely poorly, but World Peace, sadly, just didn't click.

As I've said from the beginning, after his dreadful self-created PR disasters he needed something absolutely top drawer to bring in not only new listeners, but many old fans who had become disillusioned by his shenanigans.

There will be a lot of people busy putting lipstick on a pig in this thread, but this was not a problem created by Harvest in the last six months. It is the culmination of poor songwriting, poor luck and poor judgement over many years which can be laid wholly at the feet of Morrissey himself.