...Rogan's latest book, The Byrds: Requiem for the Timeless, a biography of the jangly 1960s band that clocks in at a door-stopping 768 pages. And that's just volume one.
He's lugged it all the way up on the train from his home in Co Waterford, where he's been living for the past 10 years. Rogan made his reputation with his biography of The Smiths, Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance , which detailed the rise and disintegration of one of the most lauded partnerships in pop music, singer/lyricist Morrissey and guitarist/composer Johnny Marr. Since its publication in 1992, the book has never been out of print, and this year the 20th-anniversary edition will be published.
When The Severed Alliance was first published, Morrissey said he hoped that Rogan would "end his days very soon in an M3 pile-up". But for Rogan, being someone's biographer is a lifetime commitment, and he feels compelled to keep up to date on his subject long after the last chapter has been written."
"Most biographers, when they've finished, they leave it behind and move on,” he says. "I keep boxes of material at home, and they keep getting filled up with stuff. I might wake up in the middle of the night and write an essay about, say, is Jarvis Cocker the new Morrissey?"
Rogan works in an almost obsessive way. Last month, he attended the hearing for Morrissey's libel suit against the NME , which, the singer claims, portrayed him as a racist in a 2007 interview. The case will be heard in the high court in London in mid-2012. Rogan also attended the 1996 court case when Smiths drummer Mike Joyce sued Morrissey and Marr over unpaid recording and performance royalties. "I was the only person who went for the whole two weeks. The guy from the Manchester Evening News was there, but that was it. No fans, nothing. It was a very odd experience, because I knew most of the characters who were under oath, since I'd interviewed them."...
