Link posted by ~El Boydelz~:
Morrissey vs. the NME - true-to-you.net
Morrissey's manager Merck Mercuriadis details the conflict between NME and Morrissey regarding the NME cover story on sale today. Included is communication from the NME editor Conor McNicholas and the original interviewer Tim Jonze, and also a scan of the lawyer letter sent to NME.
Excerpt:
...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!
---
Related items:
bring them to justice! (Score:1)
The paper they have sitting around in the warehouses is probably worth more than the entire company.
(User #36 Info)
Oh (Score:1)
Oh
(User #12729 Info)
merck (Score:1)
(User #401 Info | http://www.omgmyblog.com/)
see (Score:1)
I read and posted it an hour ago
anyway the NME news is nothing compared than
selling out the Roundhouse and a new record deal
take that NME, and wipe yer arse with the current issue, oh no try to sell at least a few
cause yer gonna need the cash Morrissey will
get from you via court.
(User #220 Info)
Decca Resurrection (Score:1)
I'm not sure if this would have been SEPERATE from the WB deal, or a part of it (like Attack was with Sanctuary)...but it came straight from the, erm, horse's mouth, which was Kristeen, who got it straight from the, erm...Mozzer's mouth.
Which has fuck-all to do with racism, I realize, but this is more interesting.
(User #20511 Info)
I knew it!! (Score:1)
So no Smiths box set from Warner???
Still want that Hollywood show on DVD...
(User #2891 Info)
Desperate Measures (Score:1)
Let's face it, nobody buys these weekly or even monthly papers as they are old news by the time you hit the check out line. The internet is where it's at and where it has been for years now. The majority of people who purchase magazines are the ones that do so for the cover star, in this case Morrissey.
Well as I stated before (on a previous post), I am not planning to purchase a copy. To do so only supports this kind of "tabloid journalism". It is not hard to get a few quotes and twist/interpret them into whatever you want them to mean. Peppering quotes with wrong context and editorial notes surely is the one cheap method of "creating" a story.
Tim Jonze who remained suspiciously quiet earlier on has shown a great amount of integrity by separating himself from the NME's version of a story created to sell more issues.
Smart move by Merck and Camp Moz for getting their side of things out in public view. Sometimes staying quiet and not responding has a tendency to allow for "stories" to become "reality". A media source only need to look here or TrueToYou.net to obtain a response to the NME's accusations, if an immediate response from M & M is not attainable.
Speaking of media, did anyone else notice Conor's use of the phrase, "fair and balanced"? American's will recognize that as Fox News' slogan/motto. Funny that.
(User #1113 Info)
Now this looks like a job for me (Score:1)
'Cause we need a little controversy.....
Have you noticed that Morrissey makes sure there's a but of controversy coinciding with every anouncement related to his career, to ensure it gets in the news? so, here we have the signing of a record contract, getting into the news via a feud with NME. At least he didn't stoop to advocating terrorist violence against scientists working on cures for AIDS and cancer this time.
(User #778 Info)
moz who? (Score:0)
Something smells rotten (Score:1)
Let's hope he takes them to the cleaners.
(User #14686 Info)
Mr. Wilde and Mr. Emerson agree: (Score:1)
Congratulations to Team Moz and Merck for getting into a knockdown with an old foe. There's a good bit of publicity to be had, and a very important, complex issue to be discussed. If Morrissey has managed to contrive a "One Man Against the World" scenario for lo these many years, then he's a PR genius of the first order.
As for Polydor/Decca, I can smell the vinyl and hear the needle skipping now. Cool.
Off to Market I go...
(User #14203 Info)
BURN down the eNeMy !!! (Score:1)
So please I ask you to don't buy this piece of shit called NME with Moz on the front page.
BOYCOTT is the only thing to do
The sentence : "I've been stabbed in the back so many many times
I don't have any skin but that's just the way it goes" have never been so close to the reality !!!!
BURN down the eNeMy !!!
(User #19088 Info)
bring back melody maker/sounds (Score:0)
Tip-off (Score:0)
Low down dirty NME (Score:1)
(User #16512 Info)
I don't usually advocate violence (Score:0)
Can someone scan this article, please? (Score:1)
If, of course, we read it and still believe that they're jolly decent sorts, doing the right thing and all that, we can always assuage our guilt by buying a copy.
(User #11873 Info)
Much Ado About Nothing (Score:0)
Drowned In Sound (Score:1)
http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/2643072
Peter
(User #7815 Info)
Re-arrange! (Score:0)
Coincidence or magic? You Decide!
Idiotic NME feature (Score:0)
So the phone interviews with Mojo (2004), The Word (2004) were figments of the journalist's imagination?
The NME also say Viva Hate came out in 1998. Total amateurs...
Idiotic. It's not Morrissey who is ruined but the NME...
Gullable!!! (Score:0)
This phony petty fighting is like two 14 year olds breaking up and getting back together. Both parties thrive on drama. It is more phony than American wrestling
Fuck the NME (Score:0)
Morrissey is not racist.
It is not racist to be concerned by the scale of immigration in England. Millions of people are, including Black and Asain people.
I live in East London, in a borough where white people are in the minority. I don't hate Bengali, Somali or Polish people but I find it difficult sometimes when I am the only white English speaking person on the bus or in the shop. It presents problems on an everyday, practical level when you can't communicate with your neighbours. Vast swathes of East London/ Essex are Black and Asian majority areas. This poses practical problems for the people left behind. The pubs are replaced by Mosques, the shops replaced by Halal Butchers... there are lots of elderly people who feel like foreigners in their own country. I teach Black and Asian children and have nothing against them or their parents' desire to live in the UK but the fact is England is undergoing massive social change at a pace and scale not previously seen in its history. Yesterday it was revealed that 40% of primary school pupils in London speak English as a second language - I have taught these children. They often come to school unable to speak a word of English, their parents often know nothing about the UK's culture - some of their mothers have faces covered and don't lift their veils to speak to you - which means you don't have eye contact with them, ever, even if you work with their children for years.
The middle class white students who read and write for the NME probably live and study in white ghettos where they have no idea of the reality of the difficulties caused by immigration... difficulties faced by both immigrants and the indigenous white British population.
If the NME's editor thinks Morrissey is lying or racist why doesn't he take a trip to Barking or Forest Gate or Whitechapel? England is changing... for good or bad I cannot say but it is a LIE to say Morrissey is wrong on this issue.
The NME can bite my ass! (Score:0)
The NME sicken me. They're sinister. They're not proper music journalists. They're playing at it. They're lazy. They sniff around solo hoping to gather info through rumors.
It's plain that they want to bring him down. He was big enough to give them a second chance and they've screwed him over. Thing is? Without Morrissey I doubt the NME would even exist today. He's given so much to that dumbass rag. Ugh!
Why do they have it in for him? Why do so MANY journalists have it in for him? Many other musicians have expressed far more brazen opinions that have virtually been ignored.
I'm sad that this is probably going to make Morrissey go even farther into his shell in regards to giving interviews.
Also, I'm just plain sad for him. He must feel so frustrated and betrayed right now.
I JUST read it. (Score:0)
Morrissey impressed me, actually.
Five finger Discount - Enemy (Score:0)
Loss of 'British Idenity' is not down to foreigner (Score:0)
England for the English! (Score:0)
I absolutely agree with everything in the article that was supposedly said by Morrissey. I don't think it's racist at all. IT'S THE TRUTH.
Infact, as I was sitting there, perusing the interview, there was a Spanish man, a Polish woman, and 2 Chinese guys, all yapping loudly and obnoxiously on their mobile phones. F**kin idiots. Morrissey point personified. You're hard pressed to hear a British accent in London anymore.
Viva Moz.
No worse than the Daily Mail (Score:1)
The article and it's presentation is typical of the tabloid trash that the NME has been churning out under McNicholas. He claims not to have wanted to sensationalise the situation but that's exactly what has happened through the front cover and the editorial in the magazine itself. I didn't realise that to be in the NME, one had to have the same political and social views as the editor. Frankly, I find it despicable that McNicholas has had the article rewritten to serve his own agenda, and hats off to Tim Jonze for admitting that much to the management.
(User #1727 Info)
bobbins (Score:1)
At no point does Moz mention any specific race, be it Asian, Polish, American, Lithuanian or otherwise. It is quite clearly the NME who are trying to twist an observation of British culture into a slur on Morrissey's character.
It seems to me to be just another case of the NME dragging up the old rumours that were supposedly put paid to in 2004 - where the buck was passed to the editorial team of the time.
Looks like some things never change.
The NME is dead. It says nothing to the modern (or indeed the mature) music fan anymore - it's irrelevant, relying on fads and jumping on any particular bandwagon that goes by. It's about time the press got some integrity. It's that, not the NME's scandalous, scurrelous excuse for journalism, that will attract readers back.
For now though, let's just be thankful that it hasn't affected the record deal, and look forward to the new album and tour. The NME will get what they deserve...
Viva Morrissey!
(User #13204 Info)
I read it (Score:0)
kristeen young (Score:0)
Mainstream society!? (Score:0)
Also you only have to glance at some of the widest selling music papers to see how parts of the music industry and the public have accepted people that they are fimiliar with does having Neil Young, Robert Plant, Paul Mccartney and Kylie Minogue(fucking minger that she is!) as the cover stars really add anything to the world.
Why is there also so much excitment about bands reforming as well, can't they just leave things alone and give others a chance to step up, the amount of articles that have been about Led Zeppelin reforming is beginning to also piss me off, is there any real point to it !?The list of these bands 'cloging' up venues is endless..
When artists do step out and say something slightly contentious and different there seems to form a barrier of opposition against them, god forbid that anyone thinks in different manner to them.An example of this is the recent arguement between nme and Morrissy(Yes, he was always be bound to be brought into this sooner or later..), where he talked about the British identity dissapearing due to immigration.Where he see the British identity as 'very attractive, quaint and very amusing.But England is a memory now...'But he did qualify this by saying 'I'm not sitting here saying this is a terrible thing.I'm saying it's a reality and to many people it's shocking'
I don't think being slightly nationalistic really deserves the 'assasination' that they have printed as most in any country generally are, watching England against Croatia the other day I doubt many people where thinking how they where glad to have Russians living here, it became a case of us Vs them. I personally think countries should maintain a sense of unique sense of character but live harmonously as possible with other nations, who wants the world to erode into a mass of similarity..
I think the music climate was summed up well in the response of nme's editor to Morrissey's threat that he's going to sue them
" his views are not those that we'd normally expect to come from someone in the very liberal world of rock'n'roll"-Christ
Barbed wire Bob www.myspace.com/kingofrob
NME Interview (Score:0)
I cannot beleive the way this idiot of a reporter has attempted to disgrace Morrissey! His summary at the end of the interview is astonishing, it does not relate in anyway to the interview I read! Britain is diluted, it is crumbling and there are too many newcomers... But that is not rascist, it is stating a fact! Brtiain is FULL!
Please tell me how that is Rascist?
Russells (Score:0)
"In summary, you should be under no illusion that our client has instructed us to take all appropriate action to prevent damage to his reputation and business interest that would be an inveitable consequence of your publication of any article defamatory of him."
A Few facts..... (Score:1)
- NME are on their last legs. All magazine sales are down but this was a very sad & pathetic effort to boost their sales. Most weeks NME is as thin as a match and has fuck all in it. Their journalists cannot write to save their lives. There is never ever ANYTHING informative in NME with any depth whatsoever. Please Boycott NME from now on.
- UK is a nanny-state no doubt. Nobody is allowed to say anything. PC gone truly mad!
- England HAS changed.
- Morrissey is NOT racist.
- The state of pop music these days is Shocking! Can it get any more manufactured & superficial? Can it get any worse? Umbrella....my arse.
- How on Earth has NME the authority to say that Morrissey lives/has lived in LA & Rome? Nobody knows where he lives. NME does not know how often Morrissey visits Manchester!
- NME under-estimates the intelligence of their readers: Many people are informed about the world politics and do not wish to be patronised by the NME.
- This will finally come down on NME - Not Morrissey. I wish this was the LAST of the shit-rag. I am appalled how they are making cheap headlines to sell more papers! We need some new blood - NME is so stale. Let's put them out of their misery.
(User #14228 Info)
I will NEVER buy NME again. (Score:1)
(User #14228 Info)
Boy..some of the most ignorant people on here. (Score:0)
(User #17581 Info)
NME will suffer...not Morrissey (Score:0)
Morrissey in 'racism row' (Score:0)
NME = Patronising (Score:0)
‘Your one big contribution…’ (Score:1)
Why Morrissey, whose words have some weight in the world, bothered to stick his neck out again by saying anything at all on this topic is a mystery. However the upshot is sheer drama, and because lots of people read headlines and editorials/summaries without perusing the original text itself, it’s understandable why he would take this seriously enough to legally nip in the bud the liberties that the magazine have taken with him here.
Everyone in the world ideally has equal rights and dignity by birth, and two articles of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights relevant to immigration are:
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country, and
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
However, Article 19 states;
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,
and Article 15 more or less is an example of what one of those opinions might be about -
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
(See http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html for full declaration)
Morrissey has offered his personal experience of change which has been deliberately dressed up as something much more sinister. NME tried to bite more than it could chew this time…
(User #12673 Info)
NME should be sued (Score:1)
NME is a corrupted rag. I will raise legal action.
(User #14228 Info)
NME what losers (Score:0)
The real new is the record deal.
I'm really excited!
Send your letters to NME (Score:0)
[email protected]
I dont think that NME should get away with tarnishing Morrissey's name this time.
Please send emails to [email protected].
They are well out of order.
Morrissey isn't Racist, but NME are Ageist!!! (Score:1)
(User #1479 Info)
Decca (Score:0)
The NME is a joke. Think of it as a run down building - something that used to be so much better in the 1980s - but with no chance of refurbishment or Sarah Beeny saving it's day now.
Strawberry
Any... (Score:1)
(User #20522 Info)
England is mine!!!! (Score:0)
Morrissey MUST remember his OWN family came over from IRELAND does it mean Morrissey will now live in Ireland NOT England????
Morrissey enjoys living in other countries where he wasn't born such as LA (America) and Rome (Italy)!!!!
Morrissey may very well "Appear on the front of the Daily Mail"!!!!
potential trouble for True to You?? (Score:0)
Ms. C