Bona drag, man, Morrissey and NME are in the midst of a scuffle. This week's issue of the magazine includes an interview with Moz in which statements he makes about immigration are characterized as racist. Viva hate! For his part, or at least his rep's part, Steven Patrick feels he's being misrepresented. Adding an interesting twist, the guy who wrote the article contacted M's peeps to say he was distancing himself from the piece, even asking to have his name removed from it, because the NME editors heavily rewrote the text and he didn't agree with the tenor of the shifts. November went and spawned a monster this time! The exchange between Morrissey's guy Merck Mercuriadis and NME editor Conor McNicholas conjures the start of a juicy epistolary novel ... or at least a tabloid-y epistolary short story. Via True To You:
Hi Merck.
I need to drop you a line about the Morrissey piece running in NME this week. It's going to be much stronger than we'd originally discussed.
Having lived with Morrissey's comments from the second interview and discussed with the editorial team we're running a piece where the comments aren't ducked and NME's position is made very clear.
While Morrissey is obviously entirely entitled to his point of view we're not beholden to re-print them without comment. And given that his views are not those that we'd normally expect to come from someone in the very liberal world of rock'n'roll, we're not able to either support them or print them without comment.
Obviously no-one is accusing Morrissey of racism - that would be mad given what Morrissey says - but we do say that the language Morrissey uses is very unhelpful at a time of great tensions. I am - as I say in the magazine - fully confident that Morrissey's comments are simply the result of a man in his 50s looking back nostalgically on the England of his youth, but his reasoning for that change is unreasonably skewed towards immigration and as a title we think that's wrong. I think he's simply naive and doesn't understand the atmosphere here. I don't think he wishes anyone any harm but I don't think he understand the climate or the possible interpretation of his comments either.
The feature is, I believe, a fair and balanced piece. It's not sensationalist but it doesn't ignore the story either. I have been particularly careful to include all the key moments where Morrissey mitigates his position or makes a strong commitment against racism. The reaction of both you and Morrissey has been very much on my mind when making decisions surrounding this piece.
As you know, I wish I'd never fond myself in this position making these very difficult decisions. I have, to be honest, found the whole experience very depressing. I don't have a reputation of running pieces such as this because it's not in my nature. I am also a huge Morrissey fan, my gold disc for 'You Are The Quarry' is still one of my proudest possessions and still takes pride of place in my living room. And while I'm sure Morrissey didn't sign off each of the discs and its recipient, I felt it was a measure of where I'd got the NME to with him. What I'm trying to make clear is that I never wanted to be in this place but as editor I've simply not had another option.
I'm not going to try and second-guess your reaction but I can imagine it won't be great - another depressing factor given how much I've genuinely enjoyed working with you over the last few weeks. During this whole difficult process you never been anything other than balanced and reasonable - far more than most other managers I've worked with! - and I've really appreciated that. I wanted you to get a heads-up in advance of publication. Hopefully we'll speak soon.
Conor."
Merk's two cents and one more bad Morrissey pun after the jump.
Nice headline.
Please note that Mr. McNicholas' email above was timed to arrive after his magazine was printed therefore preventing us from stopping the printing.
When / if you read the interview, please look at the credits which are unique:
Interview - Tim Jonze
Words - NMEWhen reading it we request that you think for yourself and consider what is question and answer and what is inflammatory editorial on the part of the NME which we assume can only be intended to create controversy to boost their circulation at the expense of Morrissey's integrity and for which no journalist is willing to be credited. It might as well say "anonymous."
There is virtually no other artist with a more meaningful following across the history of the NME and it would appear that Mr. McNicholas thought the "new" NME could gain some credibility at Morrissey's expense. The story reads like a cynical exercise by yet another NME editor trying to put his name in the history books via a poorly thought out and terribly executed attempt at character assassination.
As we all know, the NME does not speak for its readership, the artists do. Artists like Morrissey. The NME also does not speak for Morrissey. Anti-racist songs such as "Irish Blood, English Heart," "America Is Not The World" and "I Will See You In Far Off Places" tell you the true measure of the man.
Conor McNicholas made a decision for reasons known only to himself to betray our trust and make himself out to be a hero at Morrissey's expense.
As you can see from the legal letter below, we will be unrelenting in our quest to bring him / NME to justice.
By the way, the good news of the day is that Morrissey signed his new record deal with Polydor / Decca this afternoon! We will soon be scheduling new singles and albums for next year, but one thing you can count on not happening is a 7" cover mount on the eNeMEy!
Sincerely,
Merck Mercuriadis
28th November, 2007PS We are also delighted to announce that the six Roundhouse shows have all sold out. Thank you all for your support!
Gotta love that very managerial postscript ... dial-a-cliché. As for Moz's inflammatory quotes? BBC's got a couple:
"Although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears. So the price is enormous."
"If you travel to Germany, it's still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity. But travel to England and you have no idea where you are,"
In a follow-up interview to the piece, Morrissey clarified, saying: ""It could be construed that the reason I wouldn't wish to live in England is the immigration explosion. And that's not true at all. There are other reasons why I would find England very difficult, such as the expense and the pressure." Also M allegedly says he didn't think his comments were inflammatory, but rather a "statement of fact."
In other NME-reported news, Moz signed to Polydor/Decca, offering his thoughts on hooking up with the label instead of going DIY, mentioning In Rainbows in the process. Via NME:
If they (Radiohead) think that can work that that's a wonderful world. And yes, you can look at record companies and you can easily assess that they've been ripping people off for years and years and years. The whole process is a gigantic rip off. But then there are people like me who need to be institutionalised... and I don't mean in an asylum! ... Believing that several thousand people are working to get your music heard is more inspiring to me than anything else.
There's a best of forthcoming in 2008 as well as a record of all new material. Hopefully he covers G 'n' R's "One In A Million."
