Morrissey is evil according to Tony Wilson

Interesting, because Tony Wilson was so involved in the Manchester music scene. I just learned he's also passed away (cancer.) Was he still involved with The Hacienda when the Smiths played there? Is his opinion formed from talking with previous Moz collaborators, or from direct interactions with Morrissey himself? Could jealousy of Moz's success play a role?
 
Interesting, because Tony Wilson was so involved in the Manchester music scene. I just learned he's also passed away (cancer.) Was he still involved with The Hacienda when the Smiths played there? Is his opinion formed from talking with previous Moz collaborators, or from direct interactions with Morrissey himself? Could jealousy of Moz's success play a role?

There is a lot of history between the two of them ,Tony knew Morrissey before he became famous with the smiths and Tony also offered to help Morrissey publish some writing or prose? Am I right, cannot remember what I've read
 
From the outside - I always see Tony Wilson as a very much loved character, he seems very upset when speaking of Mr M. Something must have happened . . .

Also, John Peel, another very very much loved character, spoke of Mr M. too . . .

Morrissey is beautiful . . . and the story of stories will be told . . .

:thumb:
 
From the outside - I always see Tony Wilson as a very much loved character, he seems very upset when speaking of Mr M. Something must have happened . . .

Also, John Peel, another very very much loved character, spoke of Mr M. too . . .

Morrissey is beautiful . . . and the story of stories will be told . . .

:thumb:

What did Mr. Peel have to say?
 
Tony Wilson, though clearly a legenday figure in Manchester music, was also a massive c***, and he and Moz famously didn't get along. I wouldn't pay much attention to anything that came out of his mouth.
 
Lovely John Peel was talking of Morrissey's great talent for humour and an outstanding lyricist. Shall try to find the rest of his comments . . . read them somewhere on the www . . .

:straightface:
 
i remember seeing some interview wilson did with morrissey in the 80,s it may have been from granada news or the oxford road show i cant remember that far back and wilson was really bunging morrissey up and morrissey came across as a bit shy.what we dont know is what they spoke about off camera did tony wilson want the smiths to sign to factory i dont know and as wilsons dead will morrissey ever say your guess is as good as mine.if any of you out there in morrissey land no i would love to find out.
 
According to this article...

http://motorcycleaupairboy.com/interviews/1992/observer.htm

When he discovered that Tony Wilson of Factory Records had described him as 'the Jeanette Winterson of pop music: a woman trapped in a man's body', Morrissey responded by saying that 'the day somebody shoves Wilson in the boot of a car and drives his body to Saddleworth Moor, that is the day Manchester music will be revived', and that Wilson was nothing but 'a pig trapped inside a man's body'.

'Actually I was misquoted on that one,' Morrissey says. 'What I actually said was that he is a man trapped in a pig's body.'
 
To me it seems quite a lot of people in the music industry in manchester dont like morrissey, Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner, Mike Joyce, Tony Wilson ect ect......the reason

JEALOUSY!
 
i remember seeing some interview wilson did with morrissey in the 80,s it may have been from granada news or the oxford road show i cant remember that far back and wilson was really bunging morrissey up and morrissey came across as a bit shy.what we dont know is what they spoke about off camera did tony wilson want the smiths to sign to factory i dont know and as wilsons dead will morrissey ever say your guess is as good as mine.if any of you out there in morrissey land no i would love to find out.

IIRC Wilson wanted The Smiths to sign to Factory but his enthusiasm was lukewarm because of a so-so demo tape he'd heard.

Thus, in later years, Wilson could justify his decision by saying The Smiths didn't deserve to be signed to Factory at the time, meaning he made the right choice as label boss, even though he naturally acknowledged it would've been nice to have signed them in retrospect.

I don't think there's any "secret" bad blood between Wilson and Morrissey. The insults in the press probably don't go any deeper. It wasn't the right time for Factory to sign The Smiths. Both parties got on with it. End of story.
 
What did Mr. Peel have to say?

Peel had enormous respect for The Smiths and they were a big draw on his show in the Eighties. From interviews I've seen and heard, he specifically cited the band's professionalism, musicianship, and the humor in Morrissey's lyrics. He also said they were one of the few truly original bands to come along in the Eighties.

Incidentally, Anthony H. Wilson would have said pretty much the same thing. He just might have added one or two comments about Morrissey.
 
IIRC Wilson wanted The Smiths to sign to Factory but his enthusiasm was lukewarm because of a so-so demo tape he'd heard.

Thus, in later years, Wilson could justify his decision by saying The Smiths didn't deserve to be signed to Factory at the time, meaning he made the right choice as label boss, even though he naturally acknowledged it would've been nice to have signed them in retrospect.

I don't think there's any "secret" bad blood between Wilson and Morrissey. The insults in the press probably don't go any deeper. It wasn't the right time for Factory to sign The Smiths. Both parties got on with it. End of story.

thank you worm thats put that one to bed for me
regards ed
 
There's not a lot of love at all for Morrissey from a certain circle of Manchester musicians/artists, Wilson was involved with mostly all of them.
 
There's not a lot of love at all for Morrissey from a certain circle of Manchester musicians/artists, Wilson was involved with mostly all of them.

That's true, but he wasn't much involved with Billy Duffy, and Duffy pretty much repeated what everyone else has said: Morrissey is a great artist and a lousy human being.

Not knowing Morrissey personally, I don't know if that's true or not. I don't believe Morrissey is a jerk. But a lot of Mancunians have said that over the years and I'm not sure how many of them can be dismissed as jealous, especially when so many of them openly admired The Smiths.

There's also the fact that, as I understand it, Mancunians have a unique way of speaking about their own-- a certain acerbic sense of humor, a certain amount of sarcasm and bluster. Since I don't make any claims to understand anything about Manchester, perhaps someone from that city can chime in and explain why outsiders may not always be able to tell exactly what's really being said when these public figures attack each other in the press.

For instance, in my sense of things, which is admittedly a total guess in this case, the two people who publicly traded insults, Morrissey and Wilson, would have gotten along just fine if they'd met privately in a pub, whereas the two unlikely pop stars photographed smiling brightly together in a BBC studio in 1988, Morrissey and Rick Astley, would've ripped each other's throats out given half a chance.
 
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Didn't Phil Collins dump his wife (or girl) over a fax while vacationing with his lover?

What's this man drinking anyway? I don't like him.
 
I thought it's an well known fact that Tony Wilson was actually gutted not signing The Smiths because Rob Gretton against it.
 
I thought it's an well known fact that Tony Wilson was actually gutted not signing The Smiths because Rob Gretton against it.

I've heard both stories, that Gretton didn't like the demo tape and that Wilson didn't like it. In Rogan's account, Wilson says he didn't sign them because he felt Factory couldn't promote them properly. He was doing The Smiths a favor. Then he mentions Gretton's dislike of the tape; Gretton was Factory's A & R man in addition to New Order's manager and co-owner of Factory.

However, I've heard Wilson say the tape was shit, and in any event, I seriously doubt Wilson was gutted. As he told Rogan, "I don't know if I'd have loved to work with him. From the beginning, I always thought I loved Steven, and that behaving like a c*** was intentional... He behaves like a stuck-up guy still, and it works a treat. If you behave like a sensitive, weird megastar, within months people think that's what you are. I think he is very difficult to work with as a manager and a record company. Yet EMI now seem happy with him and he with them, which has always surprised me. So maybe I could have worked with him, but I wouldn't have wished that on myself".

People often said Wilson was full of shit. It's very likely Wilson would have said anything to make it appear as if he passed on The Smiths, when in reality he was very upset. But, by the same token, Wilson was full of shit, after all-- he made a lot of inexplicable and sometimes perverse choices-- and therefore I find it believable that he and Factory just didn't want to work with The Smiths. I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between. If The Smiths had been hot to sign with Factory, he'd probably have been happy to put out their records. Since they weren't, he wasn't. I think it worked out well for both sides, and Wilson probably felt that way too-- not to mention Morrissey and Marr.
 
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