Merck Mercuriadis writes:

2-J writes:
timjonze
Comment No. 813920
December 2 3:39
Bangkok/tha Oh dear. Right. I was in New York writing a piece on Morrissey. Morrissey WAS charming. I WAS a big Smiths fan. I WAS nervous before the interview. All true. Of course I needed guest list for the gigs, it was essential to the story. The gigs were also very good. Great, in fact. I wrote all this in the original piece. Maybe one day I'll be able to print what I wrote and you will see that. Who knows.

Now, if I'd come screaming out of the interview shouting "HE'S USING THE LANGUAGE OF THE BNP, I'M GOING TO TELL THE WORLD" then I'd never have got to see the gigs (essential part of my brief) and I'd have had pressure from management to swing the piece in their favour which, although it wouldn't have made a difference, I'd sooner not have to put up with. There's no obligation to tell management that you don't like their artist's comments. It's his own stupid fault for spouting all that drivel. By now, Morrissey should really know how interviews work. He doesn't deserve warnings and copy approval. Christ, he wasn't even ASKED about immigration.

Journalists can't strop off in disgust during an interview, just because they don't agree with their interviewee. Their sole purpose of being there is for the readers of the magazine, to get the story as accurate as possible.

Also, I didn't write this blog for publicity as some people have suggested (come on, I'm getting a right load of abuse here, it's not much fun!). I wrote it simply because the story in the press that Moz had been stiched up by NME and I was trying to cover up his comments was NOT TRUE. Honestly, that is all. If something's not true, why not put it right?

I have no problem with Moz saying he is "nostalgic for his working class background" as some people have suggested. Sadly, he didn't say this. For someone so good with words, he certainly can't find the right ones if this was what he meant. I also have no problem with him saying the country has changed, or that he is against immigration for sensible reasons. All fine if that's what he thinks. But his language is not fine. The language he used isn't helpful to anyone in a sensible discussion about immigration. Also, I didn't say he was like a member of the BNP, either. I said he was using the LANGUAGE of the BNP. This is true. Check out their website.

Do some of you not find it just a little bit desperate that Merck is posting all these private emails as some kind of proof that his artist is in the right? He's not tackling the issue at all, just trying to muddy it by printing my emails to him. Why doesn't Moz make a comment on race instead, as Love Music Hate Racism have called for in a very well worded press release? Presumably this is up online somewhere?

Tim

Ps Thanks to those of you who have posted reasonable comments on this, either for or against my blog. The discussion on this is very important and interesting. It's a shame there's so much nonsense drowning it out

An anonymous person writes:

An anonymous person sends the link:

Classic albums - The Smiths: The Queen Is Dead - Virgin Media

Top facts:

• There Is A Light That Never Goes Out wasn't ever released as a single until 1992, five years after the band split up.
  
  
• The album's cover image was designed by Morrissey himself and features French actor Alain Delon from the 1964 film L'Insoumis.
  
  
• The Boy With The Thorn In His Side was the very first Smiths single for which the band shot a video. Morrissey later revealed: "The thorn is the music industry and all those people who never believed anything I said".

vivamoz writes: