Morrissey and Britpop

No matter what anyone says, I still think Suede were one of the best bands of the 90's. I lost interest in them for a while back then, but when all is said and done, they did make some amazing songs. I was lucky enough to hang out with them for a bit during their first US tour for the debut album when they stayed at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel for several days. They were super nice guys as well, albeit Brett, who was just generally weird and mumbled a lot. IMO, Animal Nitrate was one of the best singles of the 90's, and Dog man Star, and Coming Up were also incredible albums. 1994 was a great year indeed: Dog Man Star, Parklife, Vauxhall and I, His N' Hers, etc.
 
The reason Britpop bands didn't give Morrissey any credit is because it was bad for their careers to do so.

Apparently the members of Blur were all regulars at Smiths gigs but in the nineties it wasn't fashionable for them to say so. They would have had to let go of a hell of a lot of crucial music press support if they had said nice things about Morrissey.

Even Noel Gallagher spent the nineties praising Johnny Marr to the skies, only really remembering he was also a fan of Morrissey towards the end of the decade.
 
Sharron Needles said:
No matter what anyone says, I still think Suede were one of the best bands of the 90's. I lost interest in them for a while back then, but when all is said and done, they did make some amazing songs. I was lucky enough to hang out with them for a bit during their first US tour for the debut album when they stayed at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel for several days. They were super nice guys as well, albeit Brett, who was just generally weird and mumbled a lot. IMO, Animal Nitrate was one of the best singles of the 90's, and Dog man Star, and Coming Up were also incredible albums. 1994 was a great year indeed: Dog Man Star, Parklife, Vauxhall and I, His N' Hers, etc.
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Suede's "Coming Up" was the soundtrack to my life at the time. They were unstoppable. Fab times.
 
Danny_ said:
The reason Britpop bands didn't give Morrissey any credit is because it was bad for their careers to do so.

Apparently the members of Blur were all regulars at Smiths gigs but in the nineties it wasn't fashionable for them to say so. They would have had to let go of a hell of a lot of crucial music press support if they had said nice things about Morrissey.

Even Noel Gallagher spent the nineties praising Johnny Marr to the skies, only really remembering he was also a fan of Morrissey towards the end of the decade.
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true,I used to read alot of Noel's interviews but I also think that Noel's is a very strong character and the interviews where probably edited to exclude Morrissey (you remember how these so called mags chose Johnny over Morrissey).
There's no shutting Noel up or censoring him, plus he was doing alot of coke so I doubt he had the frame of mind to be diplomatic. however he was shaing his coke with the journos (unforgivable)
 
Worm said:
The double standard with the Union Jack is easily explained. Britpop was a superficial nostalgic trip. Morrissey's love of England was genuine and deep, however fraught with problems it was. The message was simple. "Wave a flag, but whatever you do, don't mean it!" Britpop wasn't about England. Britpop was a shopping model testing the U.K.'s marketability as an iconic global fashion brand.

Not only does this explain why Morrissey was criticized while the others weren't, it also neatly encapsulates the difference in artistic integrity between Morrissey and the Britpoppers. Britpop seemed about as "English" as Terminal 2 at Heathrow.
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if only it was that simple but I'm afraid it isn't. I remember reading the 1992 NME Madstock issue and they had tons of Morrissey quotes (recent and Smiths era) that painted a slightly queasy picture about his attitude to patriotism/nationalism and immigration.
the stuff he said in the most recent NME furore was pretty incriminating too. even though they stitched him up, they were all his quotes. phrases like "the floodgates have opened" could have been lyrics in The National Front Disco but they were actually Morrissey's owned beliefs.
it was a shabby bit of journalism but if you think Morrissey was totally blameless than you're kidding yourself on...
 
Danny_ said:
The reason Britpop bands didn't give Morrissey any credit is because it was bad for their careers to do so.

Apparently the members of Blur were all regulars at Smiths gigs but in the nineties it wasn't fashionable for them to say so. They would have had to let go of a hell of a lot of crucial music press support if they had said nice things about Morrissey.
Even Noel Gallagher spent the nineties praising Johnny Marr to the skies, only really remembering he was also a fan of Morrissey towards the end of the decade.
Click to expand...

err, that's not really true. I'm a big Blur fan so I always used to read their interviews. they frequently mentioned that they loved the Smiths. they just didn'tt think much of solo Moz. I remember Albarn singling out Hated for Loving as a song where Moz was singing off key. I think Stephen Street took them to the Kill Uncle tour back in 91 and they weren't very impressed. but they never hid their love of the Smiths...
 
True. You mean the photo with the British bulldog? Damon dressed like a skinhead, without the haircut, for a brief time (captured in the painted image found in Modern Life... among other places) but they never got full stick for it as the lyrics weren't anything risky like NFD or We'll Let You Know...

After Britpop had died I remember some raised eyebrows and answers demanded over the album cover (or maybe single cover) and meaning behind The Bluetones' Keep The Home Fires Burning, with its growling bear in front of a halal shop. Can't find any mention of this controversy on the interweb now.



Emotional Guide Dog said:
One of the things that no-one ever seems to mention is that Blur got caught up in all the 1992 Union Jack bollocks too. They got no end of grief for a photo entitled 'British Image Number One' (maybe someone could post it for me) & yet more still when their 1993 single For Tomorrow had spitfires on the cover. Of course, when Cobain died, the NME suddenly decided the Union Jack was alright & Britpop was born!
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King Leer said:
True. You mean the photo with the British bulldog? Damon dressed like a skinhead, without the haircut, for a brief time (captured in the painted image found in Modern Life... among other places) but they never got full stick for it as the lyrics weren't anything risky like NFD or We'll Let You Know...

After Britpop had died I remember some raised eyebrows and answers demanded over the album cover (or maybe single cover) and meaning behind The Bluetones' Keep The Home Fires Burning, with its growling bear in front of a halal shop. Can't find any mention of this controversy on the interweb now.
Click to expand...

To be honest Blur and The Bluetones are nowhere near as important or good as Morrissey.
Blur got a great deal of hype (a band who wined and dined journos)
they changed there image to suit TheMadchester years, then changed to suit ..... what it is to be working class.(as if they knew!!!!)
There really where so..... pretentious and still are.
I like The Bluetones.
I blame Blur for alot of the hate directed at Morrissey, they became mates with journalists and these friendship bought them hype, good reviews and they 'top lads,' comments everyweek in the NME and Melody Maker.
I have no respect for them, they made sucking up exceptable and have effectively ruined it for other bands who refused to do favours for the press.
rant over........ do you think Stepten Street speaks kindly of Morrissey?
 
lainey said:
To be honest Blur and The Bluetones are nowhere near as important or good as Morrissey.
Blur got a great deal of hype (a band who wined and dined journos)
they changed there image to suit TheMadchester years, then changed to suit ..... what it is to be working class.(as if they knew!!!!)
There really where so..... pretentious and still are.
I like The Bluetones. I blame Blur for alot of the hate directed at Morrissey, they became mates with journalists and these friendship bought them hype, good reviews and they 'top lads,' comments everyweek in the NME and Melody Maker. I have no respect for them, they made sucking up exceptable and have effectively ruined it for other bands who refused to do favours for the press.
rant over........ do you think Stepten Street speaks kindly of Morrissey?
Click to expand...

The Bluetones were a tiny footnote in Britpop history. One vaguely successful album and a couple of catchy pop songs but they never really escaped the 'Hounslow Stone Roses' tag, except they were nowhere near as good as the real thing.
Blur were not as influential as The Smiths but they had much more critical success (and massively more commercial success) than solo Morrissey. The quality of most of their songs was simply a lot better than Morrissey's patchy indie pop/rock.
Blur were also quite brave. They initially sounded like the Madchester bands but they brought out the symphony pop of 'For Tomorrow' when grunge was at its peak; an extremely risky move which arguably kickstarted the whole Britpop thing and made it acceptable for British bands to not have to pretend to be American.
You don't like Blur, that's fair enough. But it can't be denied that they were one of (if not the most) commercially and critically successful bands of the 1990's. I can't stand Radiohead. But I would never deny that they've been a massively successful and influential band. Yes, Street speaks moderately kindly of Moz. Never gushing but generally polite.
 
Maurice E said:
if only it was that simple but I'm afraid it isn't. I remember reading the 1992 NME Madstock issue and they had tons of Morrissey quotes (recent and Smiths era) that painted a slightly queasy picture about his attitude to patriotism/nationalism and immigration.
the stuff he said in the most recent NME furore was pretty incriminating too. even though they stitched him up, they were all his quotes. phrases like "the floodgates have opened" could have been lyrics in The National Front Disco but they were actually Morrissey's owned beliefs.
it was a shabby bit of journalism but if you think Morrissey was totally blameless than you're kidding yourself on...
Click to expand...

But I didn't say Morrissey's love of England was simple. I said, "Morrissey's love of England was genuine and deep, however fraught with problems it was". I agree that Morrissey's lyrics and public remarks paint a "queasy picture". My point was that his love of England was real. For most others it was superficial.
 
Blur were pretentious at times and certainly very fond of showing off how clever they were. To me that was the point of the band, though. They were not terribly sincere about anything. Damon Albarn liked playing up multiple styles in multiple voices (as is especially evident in his post-Blur output). The fact that they changed to suit Madchester, then Britpop, then that weird faux-grunge/low-fi period, is to their credit. They're all about creating ironic distance between the songs and the subject matter. They're postmodernists. I completely understand how that would turn some people off their music. However, I think it's worth pointing out that changing up their style isn't a sign of weakness. It's what makes them Blur. I'd rate them right up there with the best bands of the Nineties.

As for Morrissey, yes, they might not have been too vocal about liking The Smiths, but I recall Damon saying (circa the debut album) that he was massively influenced by Morrissey's lyrics. He explained that he wanted to go in a new direction, find a different voice for a different time, and to that extent he succeeded. "There's No Other Way", for example, is a lot more in tune with 1990 than anything Morrissey wrote at the time.
 
I don't think Blur were postmodernists, I think they were careerists. I think there's a difference.
 
Jones said:
I don't think Blur were postmodernists, I think they were careerists. I think there's a difference.
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I think they were both! Albarn is a master of jumping into any bandwagon going. You could call it "genious" or a twat.
 
King Leer said:
After Britpop had died I remember some raised eyebrows and answers demanded over the album cover (or maybe single cover) and meaning behind The Bluetones' Keep The Home Fires Burning, with its growling bear in front of a halal shop. Can't find any mention of this controversy on the interweb now.
Click to expand...

I think by the time Keep The Home Fires Burning (cracking tune by the way) came out, no-one gave a shit about The Bluetones anymore.
 
lainey said:
To be honest Blur and The Bluetones are nowhere near as important or good as Morrissey.
Blur got a great deal of hype (a band who wined and dined journos)
they changed there image to suit TheMadchester years, then changed to suit ..... what it is to be working class.(as if they knew!!!!)
There really where so..... pretentious and still are.
I like The Bluetones.
I blame Blur for alot of the hate directed at Morrissey, they became mates with journalists and these friendship bought them hype, good reviews and they 'top lads,' comments everyweek in the NME and Melody Maker.
I have no respect for them, they made sucking up exceptable and have effectively ruined it for other bands who refused to do favours for the press.
rant over........ do you think Stepten Street speaks kindly of Morrissey?
Click to expand...


I call bullshit! The debut album sounds 'Madchester' on three songs at the most.
The press in 1992 hated Blur & Morrissey almost equally. Suede were the only British band that mattered & everyone else who wasn't grunge could sod off.

Not being funny, but you're REALLY Northern aren't you?
 
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