Cuttings

FOR MORRISSEY, JAMES DEAN IS NOT DEAD “WEIRD!" SCREAMED the headline in the Daily Mirror’s White Hot Club. “EXCLUSIVE!" it frothed on, " MORRISSEY sits on James Dean’s Grave”. Below this is a story - “shock”, “macabre” the usual furniture - about the promotional video for Mozza’s ‘Suedehead’ smash. It's complete with made up quotes and a little tale recounting how the star wept after seeing the grave of his long-time hero. While nowhere near as scuzzy as her classic Beastie Boys stitch-up, the tone of the whole thing makes you glad that Gill Pringle can’t spell “necrophelia”. It’s also quite a lot of fuss over something as common or garden as a video, but then this is no ordinary mime-a-long fashion show... Most will be familiar with it by now but for those of you whose TVs are on the blink, ‘the film’ (as both its director, Tim Broad, and star prefer it to be called) follows Morrissey from the streets of London to the snowy wastes of Fairmount, Indiana, birt...

The Division Tell • DEBORAH CURTIS (pictured above) has spoken of the anguish she endured while writing Touching From A Distance. Curtis, who started writing the book seven years ago, said she did it because it was therapeutic. She also wanted to put the record straight concerning the suicide of her husband. "When the band was going it was fantastic," she said. "It was really great, so exciting. I used to be so proud of Ian when he was up on stage and I wouldn't trade that for anything. But even though everything seemed black and white, Ian was tormenting himself. Nobody realised how awful his epilepsy was. He was constantly afraid of dying during a fit." Curtis said she has finally come to terms with her husband's death, 15 years after she found his body in their kitchen. She said: "After it happened I had Natalie ( their daughter ) to focus on. I lived with my parents for a while. I feel I've only just reached the time where I can carry...

ORIGINAL ARTICLE -  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/jan/15/popandrock Johnny Sharp hopes an Ian Curtis film won't tear fans apart Despite existing long after the advent of colour photography, Joy Division are a band who seem to have only ever existed in black and white. Maybe that’s because their beautifully bleak music often sounded like it was recorded in black and white. But it’s probably more to do with the fact that all the best-known images of the band are stark monochrome portraits. And while Joy Division became the considerably more colourful New Order, one of their number was left behind, forever frozen in those images. Since his suicide in 1980, Ian Curtis has looked down from many thousands of college room walls, a grey icon of alienation. So it’s kind of appropriate that a film of his life is to be directed by Anton Corbijn, whose pictures (along with those of Kevin Cummins) did so much to make Ian Curtis an icon. He captured the vulnerable, troubled look Cur...

FROM MANCHESTER WITH LOVE Manchester’s most enduring musical export since Freddie And The Dreamers has come of age. With the release of ‘Substance’, Roger Morton takes a wander through the life of New Order , from their previous incarnation as Joy Division to the Pernod-drinking, Bermuda shorts-sporting chart band of today On the TV screen, brightly costumed bubble figures are bouncing and fighting along in time to a glorious surge of yearning synth-pop. It’s the jolly surreal video for New Order’s chart hit ‘True Faith’, a serviceable piece of coasting techno dance which would do nicely enough for a weekend drive through the countryside. Once upon a time, when New Order were a different group called Joy Division, Bernard Albrecht/ Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and their singer; Ian Curtis made the sort of music which many people thought could only do nicely for driving down a dark tunnel into a brick wall. Anyone old enough or bored enough to remember Joy Division might...

FACTORY FLAW THIS FRIDAY. IAN BROWN PLAYS MANCHESTER WITH SUPPORT FROM ALL CORNERS OF THE MANC MUSICAL HERITAGE INDUSTRY. BUT, ASKS MADCHESTER DENIERS' BLOG FUC51. ISN’T IT TIME THE CITY GOT OVER ITSELF? When people say “Manchester”’, many immediately think of its musical legacy: a romantic, wistful notion of slate grey skies pelting down with rain, melancholic romantics in trenchcoats listening to Unknown Pleasures for the 51st time that day. And if it’s not these imagined industrial dreamers, then the other Manchester image that dominates is one of Oasis-esque thick-skulled lads bowling about in loose-fit jeans, out on the scam and skinning up cheap hash. Of course, such stereotypes are not true of a place as diverse and great as Manchester. However, Manchester can be its own worst enemy and this is how our blog FUC51 was bom. By sheer fluke, we rolled it out just as Peter Hook opened a temple to Manc revivalism in the old Factory offices. The nightclub, Fac25l, is os...

SMITHS SPLIT-A SECOND EXCLUSIVE. . . MARR SPEAKS THE SPLIT in the ranks of The Smiths - exclusively reported in last week’s NME while the other titles were blithely announcing tour dates - has now been confirmed by the group’s record company, Rough Trade. A statement issued on behalf of the band (but written, it later transpired, without the knowledge of guitarist/composer Johnny Marr) ran: “The Smiths announce that Johnny Marr has left the group. However they would like to confirm that other guitarists are being considered to replace him. “It must be stressed that the concept of ‘The Smiths’ will remain the same and the group will continue to promote their forthcoming single and album releases and are eager to plan live dates once a new guitarist has been selected. “The Smiths would like to state that although Johnny’s departure is sad they wish him every happiness and success with his future projects.” The obvious questions thrown up by this statement - What exactly con...

ELECTRONIC KICK HAC! ELECTRONIC MANCHESTER HACIENDA “WE FOUGHT the law and we won” smirks Barney and the Hacienda heaves a sigh of relief which erupts into an almighty cheer. Tonight is a time for uneasy celebration, the free tickets are stamped with the word ‘Thanksgiving’, there’s glasses of champagne on the door and once more the floor is ram-jammed with party people. After months of biting their nails, the Hacienda can smile again and relax. On certain occasions Manchester feels like it has to be Madchester, and there is a mass gathering of the clan. Gone are the days when pop stars should be heard but not seen and tonight you can’t move more than three people without tripping over an Inspiral. The music mafia are out in force, from old partisans to fresh young blood, celebrating the Hacienda's resurrection. The Hacienda, once an empty abattoir that no one knew what to do with and more recently host to a scary phenomenon called ‘dance music', has been snatched from the jaw...

Cup final candidates The Morrisseys, Natalie Cole, Dog Faced Hermans, Electric Dog Sex and The Wonder Stuff line up for inspection Handshakes by JAMES BROWN 'MORRISSEY MARRIED' SHOCK "MORRISSEY is married, you know," some beery-eyed bloke muttered just as last orders were called, "honest!" “Don't be daft!" the patrons seemed to sneer from every corner of the public house. “He can't be!" Could the man who made the Whalley Range signpost a tourist attraction really have 'tied the knot'? Could he have two children, as suggested, the second just two years old? No, of course not. Further investigation disproved this wild, and alcohol-induced claim. The Stephen we were discussing was not, in fact, the Morrissey, but a Morrissey. Stephen Morrissey and his wife Julie live in Little Hulton. It's a humdrum, down-and-out estate on the outskirts of North Manchester where the only other vaguely interesting residents are Peter...

IT'S TIME THE TALE WERE TOLD... Johnny Marr's departure signals the end of the first chapter in the history of the Smiths. As Morrissey, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce prepare to carry on without him, this month will see the release of their fourth studio LP, ‘Strangeways Here We Come', Nancy Culp, who spent nine months as the group's press officer in 1984, looks back on their glittering career In the present climate of overnight pop success stories, the Smiths’ rise to fame looks positively Rip Van Winklean in comparison. But back in late 1983, when they burst forth on ‘TOTP’, in a shower of gladioli, with the vital This Charming Man’, they were proclaimed as being something of an overnight sensation. Yet the Smiths were formed back in 1982, at a time when the charts were dominated by Dollar and their ilk. It took them precisely one year to break the hold. Right from the start, there was a strong myth perpetrated about the strange Stretford lad Morrissey ...

TELL ME, HOW DOES IT FEEL? The best-selling 12" of all time! Two million copies world wide! Five years on from its original release (four spent in the Top 200), NEW ORDER’S 'Blue Monday’ has finally gone Top five. NME reports. NEW ORDER and the 'Blue Monday' syndrome: the NME fact-ory remix “THE INITIATIVE came from America, from Quincy Jones and his record company Qwest,” says New Order manager Rob Gretton of the remixed/repackaged 'Blue Monday 88’. “It’s been remixed for America, he wanted a blacker feel for American radio, the bass sequencer is softer”. Gretton - long-time Joy Division/New Order associate - seems unsurprised by the astonishing, renewed British success of the band’s ’83 release. “None of us were really that interested, because the record’s five years old. But no one was against it being remixed. The band did a video for it, and they went in and recorded over-dubs, but Quincy didn’t use the re-recorded vocals or drums. The thing is, it...

ROCK OF AGES: CLASSIC NME INTERVIEWS THE GALL OF CONFUSION Summer 1983. In England, the last vague rumblings of punk and post-punk subside to make way for glistening techno-pop. In New Jersey, the turning point tour of the world’s most enigmatic band grinds to a halt. At this point in their development, NEW ORDER were both unique and symbolic of the sea changes sweeping Britpop; once (as Joy Division) the acme of indie inscrutability, now fledgling disco technicians. The diehards in overcoats were horrified. But many more were thrilled. NME ’s CHRIS BOHN met up with the band on the road revealed an irreverent bunch hitherto unknown to many fans. The original blurb described New Order as 'The world’s leading and wilfully independent group’. Plus ca change . pictures: KEVIN CUMMINS Text from earlier article (including last few paragraphs that were not repeated here)

SINGLES GOING UNSTEADY THE WEDDING PRESENT  Hit Parade II ( RCA/All formats ) THE SEVEN-INCH single is about to die. Think about it. The chunky plastic coins that once mapped out the progress of millions upon millions of adolescences are heading for the knacker's yard. And accompanying them are the component parts of a culture that still retain a tear-jerking romance: Top Of The Pops , proper jukeboxes, Sunday evenings spent crouching next to the radio to hear the Top 40. They're all expiring, forced into the afterlife by multiformatting, declining sales,  The Chart Show and Altern 8. Still, never mind, eh? The Old World isn't quite dead. It's found its last champion in a scruffy ex-student who loves the seven-inch single like a close relative. He likes appearing on TOTP . He's probably a bit miffed that Pan's People weren't around to shake their stuff to his records. So he hatched the one-45-a-month scheme to guide several thousand Wedding Presen...

WORKERS OF THE WORLD - RECITE! BILLY BRAGG Talking With The Taxman About Poetry ( Go! Discs ) SUBTITLED 'THE DIFFICULT third album', this is Billy growing into a Big Boy. Decorating the sleeve with Mayakovsky's poem, Bragg takes seriously his role as poet in a workers' land - the minstrel, gleeman, troubadour, retaining certain community traditions yet sending counter-myths crashing. Poetic rhymes are a "caress, a slogan, a bayonet" . Alternate scourge and diplomat, he moves from the more confessional, awkward bitterbrashness of 'Brewing Up' to general observation, an amplification of feeling - no less pointed, with those slices of detail more assured. Not just one man and his guitar, friends, including Johnny Marr and Kirsty MacColl, are enlisted to give wider range and a touch of frivolity, as on the madly urgent version of The Count Bishops' 'Train Train'. Ms MacColl adds muted, pleasant harmonies to the opening track 'Greeting...