Cuttings

THE PLAYBOY INTERVIEW (pt 2) The champ of English camp, Steven Patrick MORRISSEY, puts the boot into DJ Maggie T, Ronald McDonald, foreigners, travel and reckons 'the independent sector is being strangled by its own scarf' ... JAMES BROWN quaffs several litres of carpet cleaner and plunges into the underwear drawer. Playboy bun by LAWRENCE WATSON. There are five Ramones live bootlegs, two Fall LPs, even more Bowie, Raymonde, and Patti Smith tapes, and a multitude of Smiths albums. From James to the Buzzcocks, the cassettes in Morrissey's kitchen cabinet are stockpiled like an illegal collection of classic contemporary guitar rock recordings. Stretching from the colourful androgynous pose of early '70's glam to the sexless but sensitive pop poetry of the Rough Trade and Young Mancunian sounds of the mid '80's, it is an enviable but private collection kept behind a glass door. I only happen upon it whilst using the Moz-phone. The collection is what Morri

MORRISSEY: "I'm a total sex object. A lot of men and women find me unmistakably attractive." Behind the hand-selected security curtains, something stirs... After his triumphant Wolverhampton second coming, the Last of the Famous International Playboys is ignoring the front doorbell, preparing for a No 1 single and fighting a losing rearguard actions against the onset of manhood! JAMES ' I am not naturally evil ' BROWN asks MORRISSEY about ' all the new crimes you are perfecting ' - and plenty of the old ones as well! ' Dear hero imprisoned ' by LAWRENCE WATSON. The door bell rings once. Morrissey looks uncomfortable. “I can’t imagine who that is. We’ll just have to ignore it. But they may not go away. It happens.” There is not a second ring but Morrissey is clearly alarmed. “Some people sit and ring and ring and ring. And circle the house and peer through the windows. It’s very tedious and very embarrassing because I don’t know why they d

IT’S THAT MAN AGAIN! MORRISSEY, part three Following the domestic successes of pet sounds such as ‘Alsatian Cousin’, ‘I Won’t Share Ewe’, ‘How Soon Is Miaow?’ and ‘Pussycat William, It Was Really Nothing’,  sex kitten MORRISSEY concludes his NME interview with a tirade against television, 25 Years Of Top Of The Pops , and America. Words by JAMES BROWN, pic by LAWRENCE WATSON. "Obviously the situation is there for me to become a big pop face in Europe and be on prime time TV everyday, but I do nothing about it because I can’t travel. I arrive at destinations and look 61! The Smiths did about 10 European dates in 1984 which is paltry really. As far as America goes we did two very lengthy and successful tours. ‘I think it’s partly because I don’t travel that I have such a unique relationship with my fans. I think they sense that I do belong here; I'm not going to stray off and do sexy interviews with SKY TV. I’m not going to pop up in some greasy Greece festival, or at some wate

 

'Stop me if you've heard this before' In the second part of our exclusive chat with MORRISSEY, the ex-Smith ruminates on the state of pop, the nature of fame, his acting debut, South Bank Show immortality - and his plans for Katie Boyle’s windows. Interview: LEN BROWN. Picture: EAMMON J. McCABE MORRISSEY Pt 2 ON POP “I THINK that very strong intelligent artists should dictate practically everything, but they don’t. If we talk about Tiffany and Belinda Carlisle and the whole influx of Debbie Gibsons we can quite easily be accused of giving too much attention to obviously untalented, obviously discountable people. But these people really are ruling the world of British popular music and I think it’s a serious epidemic. The Top 40 has never been as dank and depressing and non-musical as it is now. “We’re intelligent people, we all know that the Top 40 chart is a game and is, quite seriously in certain cases, rigged. I don’t believe that people are going out and buying certain

BORN TO BE WILDE Another dark chunk of past to haunt him, or a whip to drive him giddily on? Either way, the ungainly crash-landing of The Smiths was a watershed for Steven Patrick MORRISSEY . It isolated and exposed him as never before and threw up questions that even his mercurial tongue couldn’t immediately answer. But now, with the unleashing of ‘Suedehead’ and his first public proclamation for months, the longest silence of the Mozzer life is broken. Will the world still listen? LEN BROWN volunteers for the job. Morrissey exposure by EAMMON J. McCABE. “We have a warrant here, Mr Wilde, for your arrest on a charge of committing indecent acts.' 'Where shall I be taken?" “To Bow Street." Morrissey and I are sitting in Chelsea’s Cadogan Hotel; in the very room where Oscar Wilde was arrested on April 5 1895. “I’m almost quite speechless now,” declares the greatest living Englishman, “it’s a very historic place and obviously it means a great deal to me . . . to be si