BBC: "Steve Wright: Radio 2 presenter dies aged 69" (February 13, 2024)

Steve Wright is dead.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68287707

Update:
Central now posts with a Morrissey statement:

• Morrissey Central: "STEVE WRIGHT, RIP" - February 13, 2024

---

Related items:

• Morrissey on the Steve Wright Show, BBC Radio 2 (Dec. 13, 2004) - reports
• [Morrissey Central] "BBC AXE STEVE WRIGHT" (July 5, 2022)

 

[BookishBoy]

Steve Wright is dead.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68287707
View attachment 101531

OMG genuinely shocked by this one, and sad. Whatever anyone thought of his radio DJ style and persona, he was a huge part of the fabric of UK pop culture for a long, long time. RIP. [Edit: and I really hope Morrissey doesn't say anything unkind, from wherever he's holed up...]

 

[ACTON]

Steve Wright is dead.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68287707
View attachment 101531

It is sad news. Sad too that a lot of people here will only know him from the Panic backstory:

 

[Famous when dead]

Morrissey 2022:

"Steve Wright … thank you for playing everything from 'Panic' to 'Wedding Bell Blues' … and, in between, Patti Smith, and also Grumpy And The Banshees. We heard. We listened. You did your best. Thank you!" -
Morrissey.

 

[BookishBoy]

Here's a lovely bit from Steve Wright interviewing Morrissey on his show, Dec 2004:

SW: And in the past 20 years, when folk have said, well Morrissey - he's depressed the whole time, he's suicidal, his songs are meaningless or too meaningful, you would laugh at that?

M: Well I wouldn't laugh, but I can analyze it as being what they're really saying is that he's actually a real person, he's not like all these synthetic pop people, he actually is a real, living, breathing person and he's telling the truth. So it's a compliment, believe me, it really is.

SW: I believe you.

M: You don't believe me.

SW: I DO believe you. I've got a new single to play.

M: You shouldn't play it.

SW: I knew you would say it.

M: Is it your new single?

SW: I know you've got all my singles. (laughs)

M: They make fantastic ashtrays. (laughs)

SW: I know they do. (laughs)

 

[Surface]

Sad to hear this, used to listen to him a lot back in the day.

 

[Nicky Domefur]

OMG genuinely shocked by this one, and sad. Whatever anyone thought of his radio DJ style and persona, he was a huge part of the fabric of UK pop culture for a long, long time. RIP. [Edit: and I really hope Morrissey doesn't say anything unkind, from wherever he's holed up...]

Actually he seemed to like him. https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/bbc-axe-steve-wright

 

[Young And Alive]

Whilst Morrissey may have felt playing “I’m Your Man” after news of the Chernobyl disaster was rather insensitive of Wright, I don’t think he held any ill will against him. The “Hang The DJ” t shirt was just pantomime really.

Wright played a lot of Morrissey’s singles and I think Morrissey really appreciated that, especially later on in his career and given the reach of Wright’s show.

RIP Wrighty. “Loved the show”

 

[Malarkey]

It might not have been Wright who played I'm Your Man. They might have picked him out because he would laugh about it rather than ban every Rough Trade record for the rest of eternity.

 

[Famous when dead]

"Steve Wright was reading out the showbiz news when he read an article about Morrissey making derogatory remarks about the North of England.
Wright then asked, jokingly, "Who was Morrissey singing about when sang 'Hang The DJ'?" His co-presenter Tim Smith then replied "Probably Mike Smith". Wright then carried on "(laughing)Yeah...Mike Smith. That'd be about right. Actually it's an open secret that 'Hang The DJ' was written about me. I was certainly a DJ at the time, and if he did write it about me then that's okay. I actually met Morrissey about three years ago when I was doing a piece for CNN. We had a chat, and we got on okay. I'd love to get him on the show, but my son Tommy saw him on Johnathon Ross's show and apparantely he wasn't very forthcoming with the answers".
Second co-presenter Janey Lee Grace then went on at length about how good Morrissey looks these days."

(Requiescant Inpacce - June 3, 2004)

 

[Famous when dead]

Now a Central post - separate as a statement features.

Morrissey Central - "STEVE WRIGHT, RIP" (February 13, 2024)

" Steve Wright, Annie Nightingale, Janice Long, John Peel … a generation gone. I once bumped into Steve outside Woolworths in Henley-on-Thames. He said "what the hell are YOU doing here?" and I replied "precisely." During an interview he edited out diarist when I mis-pronounced it as diary-ist …...

www.morrissey-solo.com

 

[gordyboy9]

doesnt matter how good you were years ago,most people at the bbc have a shelf life and it will eventually fall to the floor.another one gone.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Here's a lovely bit from Steve Wright interviewing Morrissey on his show, Dec 2004:

SW: And in the past 20 years, when folk have said, well Morrissey - he's depressed the whole time, he's suicidal, his songs are meaningless or too meaningful, you would laugh at that?

M: Well I wouldn't laugh, but I can analyze it as being what they're really saying is that he's actually a real person, he's not like all these synthetic pop people, he actually is a real, living, breathing person and he's telling the truth. So it's a compliment, believe me, it really is.

SW: I believe you.

M: You don't believe me.

SW: I DO believe you. I've got a new single to play.

M: You shouldn't play it.

SW: I knew you would say it.

M: Is it your new single?

SW: I know you've got all my singles. (laughs)

M: They make fantastic ashtrays. (laughs)

SW: I know they do. (laughs)

This is the kind of interviews we want.

All the best ones are dead…

 

[Anonymous]

remember the segment in his show where he would read out a sad letter,some were literally heartbreaking,this was in the mid 80s,bring tears to a glass eye.doesnt matter how good you were years ago,most people at the bbc have a shelf life and it will eventually fall to the floor.another one gone.

That was Simon Bates not Steve Wright

 

[gordyboy9]

That was Simon Bates not Steve Wright

think you might be right,yeah you are,i stand corrected,cheers.

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

That was Simon Bates not Steve Wright

Simon Bates’ “Our Tune”

 

[ACTON]

think you might be right,yeah you are,i stand corrected,cheers.

It's funny though. Simon Bates and Steve Wright often came across as mindless mainstream music morons when presenting Top Of The Pops. Living in Ireland, that was really the only way for me to see them. So I grew up thinking they were like so many other lumpenheaded lily-livered loudmouth radio DJs when of course the reality is far less simple than that. I'm sad to see that Steve is gone. Life is so short.

 

[Stephen Hofmann]

There's a lot of Kenny Everett and The Goons in this.