Alan Armstrong writes:

An interesting article appeared in Monday's Independent:

The Salford Lads Club has decided to open a Smiths room, which will be full of memorabilia and photos.

The published article has one major glaringly obvious mistake, but it’s worth reading just for Andy Rourke's quote. The article can be found via this link:

Heaven knows we're historical now - iconic youth club turns itself into a Smiths museum
The Independent Newspaper UK
09 February 2004

Excerpt:

The club has decided to repay the band with a permanent presence. A room once reserved for the sport of fives, is to become the 'Smiths Room', full of memorabilia and photos. "They have contributed to making us a national treasure," said community artist Leslie Holmes, who is behind the project.

The concept was an improbable one when the band arrived to shoot the album sleeve in 1987. To guitarist Andy Rourke, the lads club was just another building. "We had only taken photos outside for our album," he said this week. "If I had realised the picture would become so important. I would have worn looser jeans."

The club's first impressions of the band were even cooler. The members' committee didn't want their club associated with the Smiths and, at one stage, pooled £800 to sue them for using the building without permission.

All that is now in the past, though. Rourke, who narrated a BBC Inside Out documentary on the place this week, said. "It's about time the club got paid their dues," he said. "They have had years of fans coming from all over the world to write on their walls and nick pieces of brick."

daniel writes:

from the guided missile recs email list:

DIFF’RENT DJs are currently recording Morrissey Minors. Subtitled "- the songs of THE SMITHS performed by the stars of the future", it’s an EP of kids singing Smiths songs: William It Was Really Nothing, This Charming Man and How Soon Is Now. Looking at a Spring / Summer release for this epic.

BRZ writes:

I didn't see this posted anywhere on the site, so.. well, it's kind of ridiculous, but I thought worth sharing - from pg. 26 of SPIN magazine's JAN 2004 issue, a small blurb with an even smaller b&w Smiths photo (sorry, not available online, as far as I know, so I transcribed it here) -

"Smiths Reunion At Fan's Cemetary Gates?"

In an attempt to restore harmony and balance to the universe, a 34-year-old fan of the Smiths, who coordinates social workers in Kentucky, is making early arrangements to use his final wish (i.e., his will) to mend one of rock history's major rifts. He's imploring Morrissey and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr - estranged for years following the band's 1987 breakup - to cast aside their differences and just hang out for a while. According to the anonymous obsessive's will, the pair will be granted access to all his remaining or unclaimed assets only if they're willing to share awkward silence for an uninterrupted 61 minutes. A provision drafted by attorney and self-proclaimed "big Smiths fan" Stuart Brown states that if the pair "meet with one another alone in the same room for more than one hour," they'll be privy to an estate Brown claims "has the potential to be rather sizable." The queen may be dead, but altruism lives on. (AMANDA PETRUSICH)
---

• Related item: Morrissey and Marr in man's Last Will and Testament - Sept. 22, 2003

next door's cat writes:

There's a noteworthy article titled 'Reunite The Smiths, A How-To Guide' printed in this month's Resonance mag. issue #40- talks about how fans are so devoted. Actual article called: 'Some Fans Are Bigger Than Others' . I was pleased to see Resonance Mag take some participation in the world of Smiths/ Moz fans- check it out.

Ruffian writes:

Today's NME contains a free CD with lots of good stuff on including The Thrills 'Last Night I Dreamt That somebody Loved me'.. described there-on as their '..haunting take on The Smiths angst classic. Listen with hankies'

An anonymous person writes:

Morrissey is featured in this months Word magazine, which includes a half-page photo of him holding up a sign saying 'WE HATE IAMS'. Not sure if it's a new picture; he's sat on a window ledge, with three dogs.
The short transcript is -

".....and here are my pedigree chums"

In the grand tradtion of Meat Is Murder, Morrissey launches a typically swingeing attack, this time on pet food manufacturer IMAS. Pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claim to have found cruel conditions in IAMS' laboratories, and so Morrissey reprises his role as the Salford St Francis of Assisi. In related news, it emerges that Morrissey's first album in seven years will not be called 'Irish Blood, English Heart' after all, but will go under the rather Uncle Monty-ish title 'You Are The Quarry' instead. Songs are said to include 'I Have Forgiven Jesus', 'My Life Is A Series Of People Saying Goodbye' and the undeniably Morrissonian 'How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?'. Oh how we've missed him. One hopes that the wilder rumours - that the record will also feature backing vocals by Courtney Love, Billy Idol and Sir Elton John - are unfounded.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a quick thank you to those who submitted stories for the site in the past year and also to the site sponsors who continue to send in monetary support (especially Sweet and Tender Hooligans, Dave from the Manchester Morrissey/Smiths nights and Tony from the Chicago Morrissey/Smiths nights). I respect your time and efforts and it's good to know there are those who respect mine.