Following the news of Morrissey signing to Sanctuary and the airing of the documentary "The Importance Of Being Morrissey", things have slowed down a bit. It's nothing out of the ordinary considering rumors of the new album and a tour in the near future.

Regarding the site, I am asked every so often what the status of the threat of the lawsuit from a couple months ago is. My lawyer has not received any sort of response or follow through from Morrissey's lawyers Tesser & Ruttenberg since then so I think it's safe to assume that the issue is dead and I won't have to mention it again. Where I decide to take the site from here I am still not certain, so for now keep up the good contributions as usual.

Georgethetwentythird writes:

Big Mouth Strikes again! Just bought the NME Special mag dedicated to the Glastonbury Festival. (I presume it must have come out two weeks ago in time for this year's bash, but judging by the full rack in my local W. H. Smiths, it might have been slightly late!)

There's a 4-page feature on The Smiths' appearance at the 1984 festival. The first two pages are actually just a large photo taken onstage of the band; the third has a photo of Moz and Marr walking towards the stage with a setlist(full page); and the last page contains an out-take photo of the band inside their dressing room (like on Hatful Of Hollow) and one of Johnny sitting on a Merc, along with the short article .

Unfortunately, the text is written by Steve Sutherland - yes, the confirmed Moz-hater from his earliest days at Melody Maker. (It was a hardly a coincidence that the Moz/NME backlash started once he had taken over as editor).

While most of the band articles are about how great they were on a particular Glasto night, the point of the article seems to be solely to point out that The Smiths actually didn't go down very well. There's a couple of quotes from Morrissey on the subject, which you may already have read before.

Worst bit of all is that Sutherland is forced to write "The band were at their peak, the cleverest and coolest band the UK had produced in a decade, and they were about to deliver 'Meat Is Murder' (which of course they weren't for another 8 months!!), their defining statement after the stunning promise of 'The Smiths'."

Which is certainly not what he was writing at the time ... bloody hypocrite.

At £5 ($7.50?) a time, I wouldn't recommend it without browsing through it first. Thought I'd mention it, though!

PS: I can transcribe the text, if anyone's interested.

An anonymous person writes:

The Associated Press reports:

"Actor gears up to release second album
Billy Bob Thornton's rockabilly twang has a new home.

Thornton has signed a recording contract with Sanctuary Records Group, whose artists include Kiss, Morrissey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Mavericks, Sammy Hagar, The Libertines, The Kills and The Allman Brothers.

His second album, "The Edge of the World," will be released Aug. 5"

This is the most unimpressive roster I've ever seen...aside from Moz of course

Ezra sends the link to the article / interview at The Black Table with Jose Maldonado of the cover band Sweet And Tender Hooligans:

November Spawned A Mexican. --Rachel Elder 07.16.03

What do you think the Mexicans in L.A. identify with most about Morrissey or the Smiths? I guess I'd say that growing up Irish in Northern England isn't much different from growing up Mexican in Southern California. Maybe that's how we identify with him as a person. All I can say is that I got into his music because it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. He could have been from Uganda for all I cared. I just knew I liked it.

Brier writes:

Here's an article that I wrote for our local Santa Barbara, CA paper, The Independent, about my love of The Smiths, including a review of the book "The Songs That Saved Your Life":

http://www.brier.homestead.com/files/PSS_May_2003.jpg

And here's a Morrissey concert review that I did for The Independent last September:

http://www.brier.homestead.com/files/Morrissey_Scan.jpg

For the first 3 songs I got to stand right up front (in the gap between the stage and the first row of the audience, cos I had a press/photographer pass), right at Morrissey's feet! And he grabbed my hand & shook it! I think the other reviewers & photographers (who were just there as a job) looked at me strangely for being so excited and emotional there at the edge of the stage! They just couldn't understand. But we do.

Jesse sends the link:

Lavender linguistics - by Liz Gill, The Guardian (July 14, 2003)

Back in the 1950s it was the language of the gay community, a secret code that could help you pull - and keep you out of prison. Now, writes Liz Gill, it's making a comeback