Pearl E King writes:

This article in Friday's London Evening Standard on Morrissey's decline and his current position in LA, even mentions the writ against Morrissey-solo...

The original pop geek by Simon Goddard, London Evening Standard (May 23, 2003)

Last month, Coldplay's Chris Martin announced to a sell-out crowd at Earl's Court that his band's commercial triumph was proof "that geeks can succeed". But 20 year ago Morrissey, lead singer of The Smiths, became the first pop geek with his NHS spectacles and gladioli...

JiltedJim writes:

There is a story in today's NME following up the classified ad in last week's issue advertising the sale of Andy Rourke's royalty stream, as well as a few more snippets of Smiths information.

Here is a transcription (How nice of NME to steal from Word magazine's exclusive interview, and not even mention the magazine once!):

Ex-Smiths bassist Andy Rourke is seeking legal advice after an advert appeared in NME offering his royalty stream for sale.

Back in 1999, the Smiths bassist was declared bankrupt. 'The Works' classical ads section in last week's NME carried an advert which read: "The trustee in bankruptcy of Andrew Michael Rourke (formerly of 'The Smiths') wishes to sell Mr. Rourke's royalty stream." Readers were given the name and address of a Manchester law firm, who are handling enquiries.

NME contacted Rourke's manager, who said that the advert for royalties came as a "surprise" to both the bassist and management. "Basically, we are taking legal advice on the position and that's all I can say" he told NME.

NME contacted Turner Parkinson solicitors - the legal firm who placed the ad - for an explanation as to what exactly a Smiths fan would be getting if they shelled out the cash, but none was forthcoming as we went to press.

In other Smiths news, Morrissey has given a rare interview in which he ruled out any reunion because of his dire relationship with drummer Mike Joyce. But he said that had it not been for guitarist Johnny Marr's "dreadful decision" to leave the band, they could've made 20 albums.

He said "Johnny made a dreadful decision and I think he's spent the last 13 years trying to justify it... I don't see how we could or would make music together again."

Don't miss the june 7 issue of NME which comes with a free magazine dedicated to the Smiths.
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• Related item: Andy Rourke's royalty stream for sale in NME classifieds (10 May 2003) - May 9, 2003

Shawn writes:

The writer Joe Pernice, more famously associated with his band The Pernice Brothers, has a short book on Meat Is Murder due out in October on Continuum Books.

http://www.pernicebrothers.com/news.shtml

Book update:
Meat is Murder by Joe Pernice will be out in October. It's part of Thirty Three and a Third, a new series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the past 40 years. By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the books in this series demonstrate many different ways of writing about music, and all of the authors - musicians, scholars, broadcasters, and writers - are huge fans of the album they have chosen.

Joe's words:

Marcus writes:

Yes, they call this a promotional poster. No, it is not a real band, so don't try to find them at your local record store. It's just a fantasy, a parody done purely in the name of fun, something to share with the Morrissey-solo community.

The Blacksmiths

mickymoz writes:

On Saturday night (UK tv) a new show was shown about a seedy pub in west England and one of the locals put "This Charming Man" on the jukebox and started doing a Moz impersonation, then his mate entered and started doing a Moz dance and they both started asking each other pop quiz questions about the song and chart positions etc and said they loved The Smiths and the song.

Half way through the landlord asked if they wanted to play cards and when they said yes he promptly turned The Smiths down and said get that shite off. A great touch from the writer of "The Royle Family", another Manchester based tv show.