Was Morrissey right to turn down the opportunity to reform the Smiths in 2008 (with Marr and Rourke)

Was Morrissey right to turn down the opportunity to reform the Smiths in 2008 (with Marr and Rourke)


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[QUOTE="Anonymous, post: 1986982136"
Morrissey: But then there’s something about the public always wanting a reformation here and there from such a body and such a band, just simply because they feel, “We’re the public and we can demand it.” And once it happens, nobody’s actually really interested. I mean, can you think of a reformation that continued to be fantastic after the first articles and the first concerts and so forth? After the reformation, six months later, all the musicians begin to feel how they always did about each other. And it rot

Moz in 2013:

"Well I think people become obsessed with things they can't really have, and then once they get it, they say, "really, well, it wasn't that good" and then they move on. Because every time groups reform, it's insane news for 2 weeks and then it's very ho hum, and it's very "uh, what's next?" I don't think any reformation has ever been incredible, I don't think it's made the world free or excited people beyond recognition. Can you think of one? It's fake, I don't get it, and also when bands reform I find they go straight into stadiums and they have big merchandising deals. But you never hear of a band reforming quietly, and rehearsing for a year, in the countryside, and playing together. They always reform and go straight for the money and straight for the stadiums. And it doesn't bode very, very well."[/QUOTE]

Except Blur made their comeback albun in silence. It's still fantastic after nearly two years on. So, there are exceptions.
 
Maybe but I think The Smiths are on a higher level than Blur, The Specials, or The Stone Roses. People are glad to see a band come back generally, and if you have a few drinks and listen to them play songs you loved when you were a teenager that is going to be okay for most people. But if you compared what The Smiths would look like now to how they looked then, and more importantly the fact that they had an air about them that they were taking over the world, that isn't going to be the same now. It was more than the songs.
For those other bands you mention that are still going, if The Cure had retired after Disintegration they would be much more iconic, and if the Rolling Stones had quit about 1980 people would wonder what they might have been able to achieve. Turns out they haven't had a song worth being excited about in decades and the show is popular because they made so many hit singles early in their career. Not knocking them for continuing but they are not relevant to anything except nostalgia. No one cares what they new Rolling Stones album is going to sound like.

Not sure about being on a higher level than the Stone Roses (although Morrissey is a far superior singer to Ian Brown) Last Year they sold out 4 Nights at Manchester City's football ground and played to 60K per night. This year they have sold out Wembley Stadium. Back in the day I think The Smiths biggest gig in the UK (apart from Glastonbury) was Brixton Academy which holds 5000, whereas The Stone Roses played Spike Island which was attended by 27K. Do you/Anyone think The Smiths would be that big? Personally I'm not sure.
 
Not sure about being on a higher level than the Stone Roses (although Morrissey is a far superior singer to Ian Brown) Last Year they sold out 4 Nights at Manchester City's football ground and played to 60K per night. This year they have sold out Wembley Stadium. Back in the day I think The Smiths biggest gig in the UK (apart from Glastonbury) was Brixton Academy which holds 5000, whereas The Stone Roses played Spike Island which was attended by 27K. Do you/Anyone think The Smiths would be that big? Personally I'm not sure.
60k X 4 would be hard to match. I think The Smiths are far more iconic in the US but it's possible that the numbers wouldn't back that up. The Smiths are one of those bands that a certain type of music fan would pay a lot of money to attend so that they could take a selfie there, and I think that's why they are offered millions to play Coachella. But when the tour got to Kansas I think Guns'N'Roses will be selling a lot more tickets.
 
[QUOTE="Anonymous, post: 1986982136"Moz in 2013:
"But you never hear of a band reforming quietly, and rehearsing for a year, in the countryside, and playing together. They always reform and go straight for the money and straight for the stadiums. And it doesn't bode very, very well."

Except Blur made their comeback albun in silence. It's still fantastic after nearly two years on. So, there are exceptions.[/QUOTE]

Who's Blur ?
 
I'm personally more excited by the album rather than the concerts. But if it doesn't happen then it preserves the mystique which I kinda like too.
 
There's more to this story than Johnny and Morrissey discussing reforming the Smiths and then Morrissey getting cold feet. Soon after, Morrissey was trying to get his lawyers to block the remasters release that Johnny had been working on. From which I think we can infer that they fell out big time.
 
There's more to this story than Johnny and Morrissey discussing reforming the Smiths and then Morrissey getting cold feet. Soon after, Morrissey was trying to get his lawyers to block the remasters release that Johnny had been working on. From which I think we can infer that they fell out big time.

Really? First I've heard. That would put a rather different light on things if true...
 
I think it's very interesting to hear Johnny's side of this story. I am one who would have completely supported a Smiths reunion. I do think he should have reformed The Smiths in 2008.
I wonder what caused the backtracking on Morrissey's part? It's not surprising at all that he didn't address this in any fashion in his Autobiography, considering how much he left out...
 
I think it's very interesting to hear Johnny's side of this story. I am one who would have completely supported a Smiths reunion. I do think he should have reformed The Smiths in 2008.
I wonder what caused the backtracking on Morrissey's part? It's not surprising at all that he didn't address this in any fashion in his Autobiography, considering how much he left out...

Johnny also left things out
 
Except Blur made their comeback albun in silence. It's still fantastic after nearly two years on. So, there are exceptions.

Who's Blur ?[/QUOTE]

Girls will be boys will be girls will be boys will be girls will be boys will be girls will be boys, etcetera, etcetera.
And
Park life !
Damon Alburn, Graham Coxon (hope I did spell that all right), you know very well you tease! :p
 
They should've played live as The Smiths. But released an album (with Andy) as Morrissey/Marr (that should've been their new band name), with Brian Eno as producer.

That way fans get the thrill of seeing them live again, and they don't tarnish their legacy on record.
 
Who's Blur ?

Girls will be boys will be girls will be boys will be girls will be boys will be girls will be boys, etcetera, etcetera.
And
Park life !
Damon Alburn, Graham Coxon (hope I did spell that all right), you know very well you tease! :p[/QUOTE]

There's WAY more to Blur than G&B and Parklife.
 
Girls will be boys will be girls will be boys will be girls will be boys will be girls will be boys, etcetera, etcetera.
And
Park life !
Damon Alburn, Graham Coxon (hope I did spell that all right), you know very well you tease! :p

crap band, brought nothing new to the table.
 
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There's more to this story than Johnny and Morrissey discussing reforming the Smiths and then Morrissey getting cold feet. Soon after, Morrissey was trying to get his lawyers to block the remasters release that Johnny had been working on. From which I think we can infer that they fell out big time.

infer? well we'd really need to know why he wanted to block the release of those remasters first. Since we're inferring here... Maybe that had more to do with Joyce ?
 
They should've played live as The Smiths. But released an album (with Andy) as Morrissey/Marr (that should've been their new band name), with Brian Eno as producer.

That way fans get the thrill of seeing them live again, and they don't tarnish their legacy on record.

people would still call it 'the new Smiths record'.
 
*Something* obviously happened to derail Morrissey & Marr's co-operation on the remasters. Volume 1 of the Singles boxset came out in December 2008, so only a couple of months after this friendly pub meeting and, crucially, Morrissey supplies some *brand new* Smiths cover artwork, so he's obviously 100% involved at this stage (I'm fairly sure he is also behind the choice of cover photos for the 'Sound of the Smiths' albums which come out the same month (interesting - deluxe edition - Morrissey, Marr & Rourke all with huge grins, Mike Joyce scowling in the background).

But the second volume of the Singles boxset never arrives, and the re-mastered albums get delayed until 2011. (Marr also states in an interview around this time, that he wanted to release some previously unreleased material, but 'one person' was blocking it).

Also the same month as the Moz/Mar pub meeting Morrissey blocks the 'Live at the Hollywood Bowl' DVD release. Both the Smiths catalogue and the Hollywood DVD are out via Warners (Rhino is a subsidiary of Warners, so I presume it's all linked), so it sure looks like there is some kind of dispute involved here. Possibly unpaid money owed to Joyce getting taken directly out of Morrissey's royalties for these projects?
 
*Something* obviously happened to derail Morrissey & Marr's co-operation on the remasters. Volume 1 of the Singles boxset came out in December 2008, so only a couple of months after this friendly pub meeting and, crucially, Morrissey supplies some *brand new* Smiths cover artwork, so he's obviously 100% involved at this stage (I'm fairly sure he is also behind the choice of cover photos for the 'Sound of the Smiths' albums which come out the same month (interesting - deluxe edition - Morrissey, Marr & Rourke all with huge grins, Mike Joyce scowling in the background).

But the second volume of the Singles boxset never arrives, and the re-mastered albums get delayed until 2011. (Marr also states in an interview around this time, that he wanted to release some previously unreleased material, but 'one person' was blocking it).

Also the same month as the Moz/Mar pub meeting Morrissey blocks the 'Live at the Hollywood Bowl' DVD release. Both the Smiths catalogue and the Hollywood DVD are out via Warners (Rhino is a subsidiary of Warners, so I presume it's all linked), so it sure looks like there is some kind of dispute involved here. Possibly unpaid money owed to Joyce getting taken directly out of Morrissey's royalties for these projects?

Could still be the meeting itself. If something is released a couple of months after there meeting date then it's obviously been in production before then. Might not have been able to stop or try to stop volume one even if he wanted to
 
Girls will be boys will be girls will be boys will be girls will be boys will be girls will be boys, etcetera, etcetera.
And
Park life !
Damon Alburn, Graham Coxon (hope I did spell that all right), you know very well you tease! :p

There's WAY more to Blur than G&B and Parklife.[/QUOTE]

Of course, Musician, I was sort of teasing her.
I always like Blur.
And Damon Alburn has made some very good music after The Gorrilaz project.
Like Graham Coxons music too.
Don't know enough about them yet.
I think it is hilarious Ketamine Sun getting all nuts about The Fall and calling Blur crap, ha.
Well, each to their own!
Cheers
 
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