"Anyone checking the guest book entries recently will have noticed a small rash of notes left by irate Morrissey fans, responding somewhat belatedly to my 'Miserable Lie' article. Obviously it's up to people to respond to anything I might write in any way they see fit, it's just that it is somewhat depressingly irritating to realise there are still people who think that the fact that somehow, because Morrissey can sell out any number of shows anywhere in the world, including London, it makes any difference to my assertion that for some time he has seemed to me to be a rather vulgar and objectionable figure. I'm sure Travis sell more records in the UK than Morrissey does, so does that mean I'm not allowed to tell the world that I find them to be the worst kind of indie-bores imaginable? As for 'Any excuse to write more lies', well that one had me re-reading my article looking for glaring factual inaccuracies, and sad to say I couldn't find any. Everything that I assumed Smiths/Morrissey fans would take objection to were opinions and yes, opinions that were somewhat exaggerated to get across the point that the Smiths were, and continue to be, one of the most over-rated bands in the history of Pop. Which isn't to say that they could make an awesome noise and were, you know, culturally important, but fuck it, if people were too thick to read that in the article then saying it again here isn't going to help, is it? As for the crass suggestion that I die with all my hip hop records by my side, well that is frankly one of those comments which simply makes the impression that Morrissey and his fans are inherently racist characters with deep rooted xenophobia all the easier to believe."

• Related item: "'Miserable Lie' by Alistair Fitchett at Tangents.co.uk" - July 28, 2001