'I feel like I've been had': Morrissey's collaborators respond to his politics - The Guardian

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'I feel like I've been had': Morrissey's collaborators respond to his politics - The Guardian
The former Smiths singer’s new album features guest spots from Billie Joe Armstrong and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste. Are they not put off by his increasingly unpleasant right-wing stance?

Excerpt:

As US music magazine the Fader asked: “What possible reason could any of these people have for lining up behind Morrissey now?”

Droste declined to comment. The only artist willing to speak with the Guardian was Canadian vocalist Ariel Engle, who performs with cult indie outfit Broken Social Scene. She received a call from the American producer Joe Chiccarelli asking her to contribute backing vocals for a cover of Joni Mitchell’s Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow. “I thought, ‘Oh the Smiths, sure’,” she says. “It was $500 for two hours’ work.”

Engle says she didn’t become aware of Morrissey’s political views until the album was announced and a friend emailed to question her involvement. “It’s a very weak argument to claim ignorance,” she says, “but it is my argument. It’s not an excuse but it happens to be the truth.”

Morrissey’s manager, Peter Katsis, says he is unaware of statements made by any guest vocalists, but that the intention of the covers album was supposed to be fun. “This is where his head is at,” he says. “Maybe enough has been said with the last few albums being political.” Of Morrissey’s political views, Katsis says: “I manage his artistic career and sometimes I have to deal with things he says, but it’s not for me to comment.”

Chiccarelli echoes Katsis’s sentiment. “I can’t speak to Moz’s politics,” he says. “I’m a record-maker. I’ve known him 10 years and he’s been a gentleman and a pleasure. I consider him a friend.” When asked about the far-right figures for whom Morrissey has expressed support, Chiccarelli says: “I’d really have to research it and see if it crossed a particular line for me.”

Engle says that learning of Morrissey’s political opinions has left a “bad taste”, and that she stands in opposition to his views. “The inflammatory things he says are not my politics. I think he’s completely out of line. I grew up around multiculturalism and I am the product of multiculturalism and immigration. I feel like I’ve been had, but it’s my fault.”

The American singer LP offered a statement through a PR representative: “As I’m a huge fan of his music and poetry, I was honoured to be asked to collaborate on the album.” Representatives for Lydia Night of California band the Regrettes offered no comment, but the 18-year-old told punk magazine Kerrang!: “I’ve grown up loving the Smiths – my cat’s name is Morrissey!” Representatives for Armstrong said he was in the studio and therefore unreachable.

The guest stars on California Son are all North American, suggesting a difference between perceptions of the former Smiths frontman in the US and UK. Katsis, who is American, sees the critical focus on Morrissey’s politics as a British preoccupation.

“I don’t think they know enough about it to care about it,” he says of Morrissey’s US fans. “I don’t feel knowledgable enough to comment on British politics, therefore it’s probably not as important to me or the international fans as it is to UK fans. This whole thing has had me perplexed. The subjects are very complicated and dividing.”

The figures bear out Morrissey’s enduring support across the Atlantic. He ended 2018 with arena shows in North and South America, and has announced his first Canadian tour in 20 years for this April. In November 2017, Los Angeles City Council declared 10 November “Morrissey Day”.

“In America, he tends to be seen as the rock star who sang about queer life and spoke openly about feminism when nobody else did,” says Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield. “These two images define him, and he’s still seen in terms of his pioneering place in history. His grumpy old age is not really held against him. Americans tend not to follow UK politics very closely, so when he makes mind-blowingly offensive statements there might be outrage or humiliation for a few days, or hours, but then it’s back to listening to The Queen Is Dead”.




Media coverage:
 
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Really like the Apollo but Ritz, Academy and Albert Hall are nearer the city centre. I took my daughter to see Blossoms at the Victoria Warehouse and that’s a decent venue. Thinking about Morrissey and his liking of nice buildings it would be the Albert Hall but Victoria Warehouse is nearer to where he grew up.
Victoria Warehouse looks good, never been, just checked it out, its big enough though. Their is GMEX, Bridgewater Hall, Lowry Centre too, just don't fancy another night in the Arena, although 2016 was quite good I thought. Moz must celebrate 60 in Manchester, it's his home, mine too!!
 
Actually, I do so every day. Nothing ever happens to me. Were the three black motherf***ers to know what you write about those like them regularly, it's very safe to say that you will found crapping in your pants and denying all you've ever wrote, as a smile spreads across their faces.
That'd be a sight to behold on one of those CCTV programmes on Freeview, as narrated by Jamie Theakston. ✌️
Sounds like you presume the black motherf***ers would show violence towards me... that's your prejudiced mentality: all black people are violent so one must walk as if on eggshells around them.

You my friend are an authentic racist.
 
Peter's (Pete's) back garden.

Peter's (Pete's) wife could do the security.

You could do the merch.

they all live in a one block radius at that particular council estate. Hooky, Mani, Bernard, Mr Cometry
all the posting sock puppets.:crazy:

Hooky can auction a ferret.:thumb:
 
An equipment box went for £21,000, even posters were going for thousands. Hubby has some Joy Division DMs, he was pleased when Peter Hooks’ pair of the same boots sold for about £400, he doesn’t realise his won’t be worth quite as much...... I had my photo taken with Peter Hook, he seemed very nice

Crikey, some serious money shelled out. Agree with you, he is a very nice chap.
 
WRONG.

You are one of David Lammy's 'White Saviours' and you know it.

Weak reply. If this is all you have as a comeback, it's no surprise that it's so easy to laugh at you so easily as you make it so. I'm black....and a Morrissey fan.
Your ignorance and all too obvious fear of those you make "the other" drips from each and every syllable you type....and it shows very regularly indeed.
Thanks for selflessnessly and constantly displaying your life's insecurities on public display. Good night! ✌️❤️
 
Hubby did a running estimate and it came to roughly £220,000 and that is a very rough guess, of course less fees and taxes but the charity should be very happy with the donation
 
Victoria Warehouse looks good, never been, just checked it out, its big enough though. Their is GMEX, Bridgewater Hall, Lowry Centre too, just don't fancy another night in the Arena, although 2016 was quite good I thought. Moz must celebrate 60 in Manchester, it's his home, mine too!!

I think it depends on how many punters any promoter thinks he can pull. Victoria Warehouse holds about 5k, so could be a good option Can’t see him filling the arena or Gmex at this time to be honest. Bridgewater Hall is fantastic acoustically, I saw the Bunnymen with an orchestra there last year. Never been to a gig at the Lowry, only shopping!
 
Weak reply. If this is all you have as a comeback, it's no surprise that it's so easy to laugh at you so easily as you make it so. I'm black....and a Morrissey fan.
Your ignorance and all too obvious fear of those you make "the other" drips from each and every syllable you type....and it shows very regularly indeed.
Thanks for selflessnessly and constantly displaying your life's insecurities on public display. Good night! ✌️❤️

Black Morrissey fan my bottom.

You my friend are a liar. And not a very effective one.

So goodnight to you too. White racist and saviour.
 
You must be extremely sensitive and been pretty weak minded to think anything Morrissey says is offensive . The UK thrives on being offended and wouldn't know what to do without it .
 
5 tour dates sold out

WTF!!!! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

SOLD OUT LIKE IN TIX SOLD OUT WHERE MOZ GETS MILLIONS IN MONEY?:moneybag::moneybag:
TO GO ALONG WITH THE OTHER MUCHO MONEY FROM THE CHART TOPPING RELEASES:moneybag::moneybag:

SKINNY SAID THE FERRET WAS RUNNING BACKWARDS:laughing:
 
What confuses me is how someone could not know about Morrissey's views when he doesn't exactly keep them hidden. Type his name into Google or listen to any of his more recent albums and you have a bounty to choose from.
 
Black Morrissey fan my bottom.

You my friend are a liar. And not a very effective one.

So goodnight to you too. White racist and saviour.

Awww. Shocked that an Afro-Caribbean former Mozhead calls you out for who you are, poppet? Of course. It's to be expected from you. Sad individuals like yourself hate to be exposed when you make lazy and sweeping generalizations of those within the community I was brought up within. You're the fool who sees multiculturalism as a "Jewish construct", yet lauds Zionist shills such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and his fellow wife-beater Richard Spencer for having the same nonsensical view and self-serving weaponised "victimhood" which comes as standard with the alt-right.
How revealing of you that you constantly self-justify, yet hate being put on the spot and scrutinized for your risible views. Oh well. If you see yourself as an aesthete in bovver boots, don't surprised if you're shown up and laughed at for who you are. Where I grew up in North London, the Irish where the largest immigrant community, yet they loved, laughed and mixed with others immigrants experiencing discrimination in their daily lives. My best mate at school was half-Irish, half-Greek Cypriot. Virtually all the kids that were biracial had an Irish parent where I lived ("We Irish mix very well", a lovely lady from Dublin I knew once told me).
I have a dear friend who's mother is Irish, and her father Pakistani - a survivor of partition. Like all true Londoners, she lives and lets live - a simple act that always leaves your sort seething. I myself worked within a diverse neighbourhood for nearly 20 years, and saw kids of all faiths and ethnicities getting on with their lives and growing up to be all that they could. You and your ilk hate seeing those you arrogantly and stupidly make "the other" achieve and ascend in our lives, while losers like you have nothing other than fate and an accident of birth you neither had any say nor input in as comfort for your all too apparent failings in life.
I'm black, poppet....and more than comfortable in myself. Seeing you make a prime-time pappy show of yourself with your frankly sloppy posts definitely explains your pathetic need to hide yourself. You for one - like so many here - are far too spineless to say what you think in the real world. I do so regularly. Free speech has implications and consequences you're cowardly to face up to. Is it any wonder you hide, eh? No wonder you call me "racist". Just like Trump, you hate seeing what's in the mirror when reflected back for what it is. Unlike you - and others like yourself, I can comfortably face the world as I am....unbowed and free to speak as I do.
Sweet dreams! :thumb:
 
Sounds like you presume the black motherf***ers would show violence towards me... that's your prejudiced mentality: all black people are violent so one must walk as if on eggshells around them.

You my friend are an authentic racist.
So? You take the smiles upon the faces of the three black motherf***ers as a sign they'll automatically attack you then, eh? So very revealing. So totally you. You're far too predictable, and your response effectively confirmed this.
Thanks for the replies. I'll get a few screenshots and pass 'em onto those who love to laugh at you. It is the civic thing to do, after all.
Ta-ta!
 
I love LP even more now. Kudos to her and f*** this piece of garbage article.

:thumb:

true, btw, your avatar is very similar to Barnaby Jones, our resident old timer and detective. At first i thought he was making sense for the first time but I knew such a thing not possible and went back and double checked
the avatar.
keep up the exc posting.:rock:
 
Awww. Shocked that an Afro-Caribbean former Mozhead calls you out for who you are, poppet? Of course. It's to be expected from you. Sad individuals like yourself hate to be exposed when you make lazy and sweeping generalizations of those within the community I was brought up within. You're the fool who sees multiculturalism as a "Jewish construct", yet lauds Zionist shills such as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and his fellow wife-beater Richard Spencer for having the same nonsensical view and self-serving weaponised "victimhood" which comes as standard with the alt-right.
How revealing of you that you constantly self-justify, yet hate being put on the spot and scrutinized for your risible views. Oh well. If you see yourself as an aesthete in bovver boots, don't surprised if you're shown up and laughed at for who you are. Where I grew up in North London, the Irish where the largest immigrant community, yet they loved, laughed and mixed with others immigrants experiencing discrimination in their daily lives. My best mate at school was half-Irish, half-Greek Cypriot. Virtually all the kids that were biracial had an Irish parent where I lived ("We Irish mix very well", a lovely lady from Dublin I knew once told me).
I have a dear friend who's mother is Irish, and her father Pakistani - a survivor of partition. Like all true Londoners, she lives and lets live - a simple act that always leaves your sort seething. I myself worked within a diverse neighbourhood for nearly 20 years, and saw kids of all faiths and ethnicities getting on with their lives and growing up to be all that they could. You and your ilk hate seeing those you arrogantly and stupidly make "the other" achieve and ascend in our lives, while losers like you have nothing other than fate and an accident of birth you neither had any say nor input in as comfort for your all too apparent failings in life.
I'm black, poppet....and more than comfortable in myself. Seeing you make a prime-time pappy show of yourself with your frankly sloppy posts definitely explains your pathetic need to hide yourself. You for one - like so many here - are far too spineless to say what you think in the real world. I do so regularly. Free speech has implications and consequences you're cowardly to face up to. Is it any wonder you hide, eh? No wonder you call me "racist". Just like Trump, you hate seeing what's in the mirror when reflected back for what it is. Unlike you - and others like yourself, I can comfortably face the world as I am....unbowed and free to speak as I do.
Sweet dreams! :thumb:


Ok Skinny Supefly we know you are always saying what you think in the real world, hollering racist. Congratulations whoopee.
You all kinds in the cul de sac, Mani, NDSP.. etc :crazy:
 
I’m a veggie Labour voter. I think the Guardian and NME are a little confounded by the left-leaning protest songs on the album. It really ruins their narrative.

They may be confounded by Morrissey's choice of songs, but it is simply a sign of their lazy journalism.

The songs concerned (Dylan & Ochs) were both written in the 60s, at a time when a young generation stood up to rebel against the ruling norms. Both songwriters were also known for their strong pacific views (You can add Buffy Saint Marie to that list too). As a teenager, Morrissey was attracted to that spirit and shared their pacifist views. I doubt that his relationship to the ideas expressed in the songs probably has changed much over the years.

The world today is an entirely different beast, and we are all grappling with it in our own way. I don't think that Dylan, Ochs and Morrissey would find themselves at the same side of the (political) spectrum today. Why didn't the Guardian & co contact Dylan and Ochs to ask them how they feel that their songs are being covered by a racist twat? They obviously don't care, as they gave their permission.

You can deplore the turn that Morrissey's political views have taken since then and in response to recent developments. I feel no need to defend his views either. But that doesn't erase where he comes from, does it?
 
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