Word Magazine

Old Mother Hell

Armchair Hedonist
After considering the recent events that resulted in The Word magazine making a court-ordered apology to Morrissey, could it be that the editorial team will now impose an all-out ban on Mozzer and all his forthcoming activities? I sense it could be a bad thing. Word is a fine magazine that had always supported Morrissey. The David Quantick review was just an anomaly that doesn't fit it with the general consensus of the magazine's writers. What do you all think?
 
I do feel he's been a little quick on the draw with solicitors of late, but I think it will be as cyclical as any other aspect of his career--sometimes he'll be on the up; at others, on the down or viewed as irrelevant. The Madstock furor looked to put paid to his press darling status and seriously derail his career, but it all came back around. And, so long as the elder statesmen of the music press (e.g., Paul Morley) raise the torch, he'll almost certainly continue to be covered. (So long, of course, as he submits to interviews.)

This might have been a bigger issue before internet media really took off. And, frankly, the British music press is little better than frothy things like Entertainment Weekly anyway. It depresses me to thumb through an issue of Q nowadays and remember when...

Cheers,
Jamie
 
After considering the recent events that resulted in The Word magazine making a court-ordered apology to Morrissey, could it be that the editorial team will now impose an all-out ban on Mozzer and all his forthcoming activities? I sense it could be a bad thing. Word is a fine magazine that had always supported Morrissey. The David Quantick review was just an anomaly that doesn't fit it with the general consensus of the magazine's writers. What do you all think?

It's a real shame coz Word is an excellent mag and has always been extremely pro-Moz. I remain absolutely baffled as to why they ran the review-it was clearly gonna sever connections.
The Greatest Hits selection was rubbish but getting Quantocks, probably the most obsessive Moz-hating journalist in the business, in to do a bitchy, NME-style review was just unbelievable...
 
You're assuming all the staff at the Word supported the article. I'm sure they all have different opinions. Also, Morrissey settled for an apology rather than tried to get money out of them which must count for something.

If they are professional people then they will try to be objective. There's nothing worse the sort of music journalist who gives good reviews just because he perceives the musician to be a "nice bloke". I remember listening to Andrew Collins spout off on Roundtable one week and all his opinions were soley based on whether he thought the artists were nice people. This usually means whether they have kissed enough arse in mediaworld. Yuck!
 
This might have been a bigger issue before internet media really took off.

Exactly. It doesn't matter all that much who Morrissey talks to and who he doesn't. As long as information about his new releases saturates all the usual web sources his sales-- such as they are-- won't suffer. Throw in some interviews here and there and I'm guessing he wouldn't even notice a drop-off in visibility if Word ignored him.
 
I think two things are critical about how the next album is received : firstly , who the reviewers/interviewers are (I agree Paul Morley is the ideal choice, he's cerebral, gets on well with Morrissey and can be relied upon for a balanced view - cf the crap that Douglas Copeland came out with for the Observer: I wonder if Morrissey's team feel strong enough to decline an interview based on who the mag/paper serves up. As long as Merck can draw the interview genially to a close if the conversation moves on to politics, I suppose).

But also whether we get a court case before then. I doubt whether we will, and strategically it might be better to keep the solicitors talking for a few weeks yet to ensure the date goes into the long grass. It would be a shame for the musical merits to be mixed up with the racism row, especially as the new tracks we've heard are so strong IMHO.

I picked up on another thread that the single release was in doubt, and a couple of the on-line sites were showing 26th May rather than 19th. I don't know how these things work, whether it's put back one week just as a short-term measure . It's odd to me also that the official site seems a bit behind in some areas, eg updates on confirmed concert dates..
 
My guess is there won't be that many interviews for the new album. I don't think Morrissey will want to be directly challenged about what he said in the NME and pretty much every journalist who interviews him will want to ask him about it, they are not going to ignore it just to suit him.
 
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