You live in Holland, don't you?
If you don't live/haven't lived in UK, you can't compare the situation in your country and UK.
New NME Morrissey interview???
- Thread starter Bluebirds
- Start date
You live in Holland, don't you?
If you don't live/haven't lived in UK, you can't compare the situation in your country and UK.
JeanneDarc
Senior Member
Yes I'm Dutch. Perhaps not, but Madrid, London and now Paris (is burning). Isn't this just a global problem.
but would you not agree that enlightenment is very much a christian construct?
I have not read the interview yet, but i am assuming he is saying that England is losing its character, and heritage -
Comtesse
Starved Of Mirth
I don't see any controversy at all in Morrissey's statement. I mean, he's been making that very same statement all his career - nothing new at all. Here's just a smattering...
1989: "Even the English language, I find, has been hopelessly mucked about with and everything is American or Australian. It's astonishing but it's so rife. It's not that I dislike America - I think America is fine on the other side of the Atlantic. It works quite well and is interesting. If Margaret Thatcher was a strong person, which she isn't, she would not allow this Americanisation to happen. But because she is such a weak Prime Minister it happens and any influence American business wishes to have on England it has. They've completely taken over Newcastle."
I thought that was the Japanese?
"Well American/Japanese, they're all foreign... I don't mean that."
1991: "England is not England in any real sense of the world, it has been internationalized, and that's screechingly evident wherever you look around the country. The English people are not strong enough to defend their sense of history. Patriotism doesn't really matter anymore. So I think England has died."
1992: "I don't want to be European. I want England to remain an island. I think part of the greatness of the past has been the fact that England has been an island. I don't want the tunnel. I don't want sterling to disappear. I don't want British newscasters to talk in American accents. I don't want continental television. But that doesn't mean that I'm some great twit who lives in a hut and eats straw. I'm not a thing from another age. (laughs) I'm actually quite modern in some respects. But there' s no hope of anyone marching around Westminster with... well you complete the sentence."
1999: "The England that I have loved, and I have sung about, and whose death I had sung about, I felt had just finally slipped away. And so I was no longer saying, 'England is dying', I was beginning to say, 'Well, yes, it has died and here's the carcass' - so why hang around?"
"We look to Los Angeles for the language we use. London is dead... and I'm too much in love."
1989: "Even the English language, I find, has been hopelessly mucked about with and everything is American or Australian. It's astonishing but it's so rife. It's not that I dislike America - I think America is fine on the other side of the Atlantic. It works quite well and is interesting. If Margaret Thatcher was a strong person, which she isn't, she would not allow this Americanisation to happen. But because she is such a weak Prime Minister it happens and any influence American business wishes to have on England it has. They've completely taken over Newcastle."
I thought that was the Japanese?
"Well American/Japanese, they're all foreign... I don't mean that."
1991: "England is not England in any real sense of the world, it has been internationalized, and that's screechingly evident wherever you look around the country. The English people are not strong enough to defend their sense of history. Patriotism doesn't really matter anymore. So I think England has died."
1992: "I don't want to be European. I want England to remain an island. I think part of the greatness of the past has been the fact that England has been an island. I don't want the tunnel. I don't want sterling to disappear. I don't want British newscasters to talk in American accents. I don't want continental television. But that doesn't mean that I'm some great twit who lives in a hut and eats straw. I'm not a thing from another age. (laughs) I'm actually quite modern in some respects. But there' s no hope of anyone marching around Westminster with... well you complete the sentence."
1999: "The England that I have loved, and I have sung about, and whose death I had sung about, I felt had just finally slipped away. And so I was no longer saying, 'England is dying', I was beginning to say, 'Well, yes, it has died and here's the carcass' - so why hang around?"
"We look to Los Angeles for the language we use. London is dead... and I'm too much in love."
Anaesthesine
Angel of Distemper
Yes indeed - the song (and the man) remains the same, but the context has changed.
pandora_cocteau
New Member
these statements he is making mirror those of crazy right winged conservatives here...it frightens me greatly.
we live in the 21st century..global village!...in a world where you can get from one continent to another in the matter of hours...what use is there for borders, nations, patriotism? i thought morrissey of all people would be able to recognize diversity as a step forward.
we live in the 21st century..global village!...in a world where you can get from one continent to another in the matter of hours...what use is there for borders, nations, patriotism? i thought morrissey of all people would be able to recognize diversity as a step forward.
A response has been posted on TTY: http://www.true-to-you.net/
WinkWink
Banned
"what use is there for borders, nations, patriotism?"
not everyone is an anarchist.
do you not respect culture? perhaps not...which is fine. but some people do. Morrissey stating he is sad to see English culture go is not crazy in my opinion. it is crazy if it is framed that way. but take the comments as they are...avoid the spin.
I do respect diversity, and morrissey said as much, but if there exists a time in the future that all we have left is fusion food (yuck) because all culture has been neutralized, well, that's not worth living for.
some people don't really have emotional proximity to a culture. Many people in North America don't so it's easy for someone like you to not understand.
Last edited:
imogen11
Junior Member
~El Boydelz~
Also a client
True To You Statement from Merck Mercuriadis
27 November 2007
Morrissey vs. the NME
Many of you in London will have seen today's NME with Morrissey on the cover while others around the UK, the rest of the world and online will discover it during the course of the week.
We had agreed to do a cover story with the NME in October around the New York shows to announce details for 2008.
We were alerted to the fact that the NME were potentially doing a hatchet job on Morrissey on the 16th of November by an anonymous post on morrissey-solo.com.
We immediately contacted the magazine's editor Conor McNicholas who refuted the suggestion that the NME would be anything less than supportive and personally posted on the site categorically denying the "rumours and untruths."
As you will all see from this week's cover story, this was not the case and appears to simply have been a strategic action to ensure we did not take legal steps to stop the interview being published.
We believed his assurances that all was well until we received the following email from Tim Jonze who did the interview:
"Hi Merck,
Hope you're well. I should mention that for reasons I'll probably never understand, NME have rewritten the Moz piece. I had a read and virtually none of it is my words or beliefs so I've asked for my name to be taken off it. Just so you know when you read it.
Best,
Tim"
When we received this we immediately called Conor McNicholas who after a three day delay responded in the form of the email that follows:
"Hi Merck.
I need to drop you a line about the Morrissey piece running in NME this week. It's going to be much stronger than we'd originally discussed.
Having lived with Morrissey's comments from the second interview and discussed with the editorial team we're running a piece where the comments aren't ducked and NME's position is made very clear.
While Morrissey is obviously entirely entitled to his point of view we're not beholden to re-print them without comment. And given that his views are not those that we'd normally expect to come from someone in the very liberal world of rock'n'roll, we're not able to either support them or print them without comment.
Obviously no-one is accusing Morrissey of racism - that would be mad given what Morrissey says - but we do say that the language Morrissey uses is very unhelpful at a time of great tensions. I am - as I say in the magazine - fully confident that Morrissey's comments are simply the result of a man in his 50s looking back nostalgically on the England of his youth, but his reasoning for that change is unreasonably skewed towards immigration and as a title we think that's wrong. I think he's simply naive and doesn't understand the atmosphere here. I don't think he wishes anyone any harm but I don't think he understand the climate or the possible interpretation of his comments either.
The feature is, I believe, a fair and balanced piece. It's not sensationalist but it doesn't ignore the story either. I have been particularly careful to include all the key moments where Morrissey mitigates his position or makes a strong commitment against racism. The reaction of both you and Morrissey has been very much on my mind when making decisions surrounding this piece.
As you know, I wish I'd never fond myself in this position making these very difficult decisions. I have, to be honest, found the whole experience very depressing. I don't have a reputation of running pieces such as this because it's not in my nature. I am also a huge Morrissey fan, my gold disc for 'You Are The Quarry' is still one of my proudest possessions and still takes pride of place in my living room. And while I'm sure Morrissey didn't sign off each of the discs and its recipient, I felt it was a measure of where I'd got the NME to with him. What I'm trying to make clear is that I never wanted to be in this place but as editor I've simply not had another option.
I'm not going to try and second-guess your reaction but I can imagine it won't be great - another depressing factor given how much I've genuinely enjoyed working with you over the last few weeks. During this whole difficult process you never been anything other than balanced and reasonable - far more than most other managers I've worked with! - and I've really appreciated that. I wanted you to get a heads-up in advance of publication. Hopefully we'll speak soon.
Conor."
Please note that Mr. McNicholas' email above was timed to arrive after his magazine was printed therefore preventing us from stopping the printing.
When / if you read the interview, please look at the credits which are unique:
Interview - Tim Jonze
Words - NME
When reading it we request that you think for yourself and consider what is question and answer and what is inflammatory editorial on the part of the NME which we assume can only be intended to create controversy to boost their circulation at the expense of Morrissey's integrity and for which no journalist is willing to be credited. It might as well say "anonymous."
There is virtually no other artist with a more meaningful following across the history of the NME and it would appear that Mr. McNicholas thought the "new" NME could gain some credibility at Morrissey's expense. The story reads like a cynical exercise by yet another NME editor trying to put his name in the history books via a poorly thought out and terribly executed attempt at character assassination.
As we all know, the NME does not speak for its readership, the artists do. Artists like Morrissey. The NME also does not speak for Morrissey. Anti-racist songs such as "Irish Blood, English Heart," "America Is Not The World" and "I Will See You In Far-Off Places" tell you the true measure of the man.
Conor McNicholas made a decision for reasons known only to himself to betray our trust and make himself out to be a hero at Morrissey's expense.
As you can see from the legal letter below, we will be unrelenting in our quest to bring him / NME to justice.
By the way, the good news of the day is that Morrissey signed his new record deal with Polydor / Decca this afternoon! We will soon be scheduling new singles and albums for next year, but one thing you can count on not happening is a 7" cover mount on the eNeMEy!
Sincerely,
Merck Mercuriadis
28th November, 2007
PS We are also delighted to announce that the six Roundhouse shows have all sold out. Thank you all for your support!
27 November 2007
Morrissey vs. the NME
Many of you in London will have seen today's NME with Morrissey on the cover while others around the UK, the rest of the world and online will discover it during the course of the week.
We had agreed to do a cover story with the NME in October around the New York shows to announce details for 2008.
We were alerted to the fact that the NME were potentially doing a hatchet job on Morrissey on the 16th of November by an anonymous post on morrissey-solo.com.
We immediately contacted the magazine's editor Conor McNicholas who refuted the suggestion that the NME would be anything less than supportive and personally posted on the site categorically denying the "rumours and untruths."
As you will all see from this week's cover story, this was not the case and appears to simply have been a strategic action to ensure we did not take legal steps to stop the interview being published.
We believed his assurances that all was well until we received the following email from Tim Jonze who did the interview:
"Hi Merck,
Hope you're well. I should mention that for reasons I'll probably never understand, NME have rewritten the Moz piece. I had a read and virtually none of it is my words or beliefs so I've asked for my name to be taken off it. Just so you know when you read it.
Best,
Tim"
When we received this we immediately called Conor McNicholas who after a three day delay responded in the form of the email that follows:
"Hi Merck.
I need to drop you a line about the Morrissey piece running in NME this week. It's going to be much stronger than we'd originally discussed.
Having lived with Morrissey's comments from the second interview and discussed with the editorial team we're running a piece where the comments aren't ducked and NME's position is made very clear.
While Morrissey is obviously entirely entitled to his point of view we're not beholden to re-print them without comment. And given that his views are not those that we'd normally expect to come from someone in the very liberal world of rock'n'roll, we're not able to either support them or print them without comment.
Obviously no-one is accusing Morrissey of racism - that would be mad given what Morrissey says - but we do say that the language Morrissey uses is very unhelpful at a time of great tensions. I am - as I say in the magazine - fully confident that Morrissey's comments are simply the result of a man in his 50s looking back nostalgically on the England of his youth, but his reasoning for that change is unreasonably skewed towards immigration and as a title we think that's wrong. I think he's simply naive and doesn't understand the atmosphere here. I don't think he wishes anyone any harm but I don't think he understand the climate or the possible interpretation of his comments either.
The feature is, I believe, a fair and balanced piece. It's not sensationalist but it doesn't ignore the story either. I have been particularly careful to include all the key moments where Morrissey mitigates his position or makes a strong commitment against racism. The reaction of both you and Morrissey has been very much on my mind when making decisions surrounding this piece.
As you know, I wish I'd never fond myself in this position making these very difficult decisions. I have, to be honest, found the whole experience very depressing. I don't have a reputation of running pieces such as this because it's not in my nature. I am also a huge Morrissey fan, my gold disc for 'You Are The Quarry' is still one of my proudest possessions and still takes pride of place in my living room. And while I'm sure Morrissey didn't sign off each of the discs and its recipient, I felt it was a measure of where I'd got the NME to with him. What I'm trying to make clear is that I never wanted to be in this place but as editor I've simply not had another option.
I'm not going to try and second-guess your reaction but I can imagine it won't be great - another depressing factor given how much I've genuinely enjoyed working with you over the last few weeks. During this whole difficult process you never been anything other than balanced and reasonable - far more than most other managers I've worked with! - and I've really appreciated that. I wanted you to get a heads-up in advance of publication. Hopefully we'll speak soon.
Conor."
Please note that Mr. McNicholas' email above was timed to arrive after his magazine was printed therefore preventing us from stopping the printing.
When / if you read the interview, please look at the credits which are unique:
Interview - Tim Jonze
Words - NME
When reading it we request that you think for yourself and consider what is question and answer and what is inflammatory editorial on the part of the NME which we assume can only be intended to create controversy to boost their circulation at the expense of Morrissey's integrity and for which no journalist is willing to be credited. It might as well say "anonymous."
There is virtually no other artist with a more meaningful following across the history of the NME and it would appear that Mr. McNicholas thought the "new" NME could gain some credibility at Morrissey's expense. The story reads like a cynical exercise by yet another NME editor trying to put his name in the history books via a poorly thought out and terribly executed attempt at character assassination.
As we all know, the NME does not speak for its readership, the artists do. Artists like Morrissey. The NME also does not speak for Morrissey. Anti-racist songs such as "Irish Blood, English Heart," "America Is Not The World" and "I Will See You In Far-Off Places" tell you the true measure of the man.
Conor McNicholas made a decision for reasons known only to himself to betray our trust and make himself out to be a hero at Morrissey's expense.
As you can see from the legal letter below, we will be unrelenting in our quest to bring him / NME to justice.
By the way, the good news of the day is that Morrissey signed his new record deal with Polydor / Decca this afternoon! We will soon be scheduling new singles and albums for next year, but one thing you can count on not happening is a 7" cover mount on the eNeMEy!
Sincerely,
Merck Mercuriadis
28th November, 2007
PS We are also delighted to announce that the six Roundhouse shows have all sold out. Thank you all for your support!
sore_lips
New Member
i´m going to be one of those annoying people who reply to a post at the beginning of the thread before having read through to the end, but this is a pressing matter!
i just had a conversation about the EXACT topic tonight for hours.
had morrissey chosen ANY OTHER country than germany, his point would have been so much stronger. germany has NO identity left that you could compare to british identity. i´m german, and i feel that germany has been pretty much stripped of everything that´s been traditional and of any identity in general.
the only part which still has certain traditions is bavaria, but you can´t generalise that.
this obviously doesn´t really have much to do with the interview apart from that morrissey can´t really support his point with this example.
mozmic_dancer
One of the Good Guys
Or perhaps to put it in a more vulgar way, same shit; different color
Oh, why can't I sleep?
For the sake of doing something boring enough to make me drowsy, I would like to add into evidence the NME interview from 2004:
______________________________
From the NME 17 April 2004 interview
NME) Why should one be proud of one's nation?
MOZ) "Because you just are. Because its there in your bloodstream. It's the environment you grew into and up with. And you just have an innate pride and a sense of preservation and also as you get slightly older you realise how much of it is constantly being removed and that strikes you as being quite a sad thing."
NME) What do you miss about Britain, then?
MOZ) "Well, even though I'm working-class, I miss a certain polite middle-classness. Which I know is absolutely pathetic, but the gentler side of England, the softer side. Which I know doesn't make much sense, but it doesn't make much sense to me.”
NME) Because of the fuss about asylum, questions of national identity seem to be at the forefront again.
MOZ) "Yes. It's so difficult, isn't it"
Q) Do you think there'll always be those flashpoints?
MOZ) "Well, it's a question of how many people you'll continue to allow to flood into the country, regardless of where they're from or why they're arriving. It's a question of how it affects the people who still live here. It's a question of space. And they're very tight about it in the United States, so it stands to reason why they should be here. But it's very difficult when people are being persecuted”
______________________________
The issue of immigration, legal/illegal asylum seekers, etc. is a topical one and will continue to be so in 2008, it being an election year in the US, etc.
Morrissey's viewpoint is not that all unique. I haven't read the new interview out yet, but what drips and drabs being reported here, I don't believe he said anything outrageous. Maybe patriotic or idealistic, at best.
Such drama queens at the NME.
CrystalGeezer
My secret's my enzyme.
Wait until Morrissey marries an American. That'll cause a stir.
Depends on what gender the American is.
mozmic_dancer
One of the Good Guys
Re: True To You Statement from Merck Mercuriadis
Holy poop on a stick! Now this is f***in' news! Good one, Boydelz!
Holy poop on a stick! Now this is f***in' news! Good one, Boydelz!
mell
loves moz
Re: True To You Statement from Merck Mercuriadis
Damn, I was so excited to run out and buy a copy of the NME tomorrow (or later this week)...but now, I don't know if I will.
Damn, I was so excited to run out and buy a copy of the NME tomorrow (or later this week)...but now, I don't know if I will.
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