The Smiths by Alan Cross

Author:Alan Cross [Cross, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781927002131
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2011-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

Fast Facts

Peter Morrissey (Morrissey’s father) named his son after Patrick Steven Morrissey, a brother who died as an infant.

After leaving the Nosebleeds (a gig that lasted about seven weeks), Morrissey auditioned for Slaughter and the Dogs.

Along with being a rabid New York Dolls fan, Morrissey was so infatuated with James Dean that he wrote a book on him in the late ’70s. James Dean Is Not Dead was published by Manchester’s Babylon Books.

The first drummer for the Smiths was Simon Wolstencroft, a holdover from Johnny Marr’s old group, Freaky Party. Wolstencroft had already quit a band called English Rose—a group that eventually morphed into the Stone Roses. He quit the Smiths because he felt the band didn’t have what it took to make it big. Wolstencroft eventually found steady work with Mark E. Smith in the Fall.

The tradition of flowers (especially gladioli) at Smiths gigs was a nod to the horticultural preferences of Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), the flamboyant Irish novelist, poet and playwright who died in prison following a scandalous trial where he was prosecuted for his homosexuality.

The working title of the Smiths’ first album was The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Despite the praise that album received, Marr, Rourke and Joyce were only too aware of Morrissey’s limited vocal range. They forced him to take singing lessons.

The cover artwork of The Smiths is a still shot of actor Joe Dallesandro from an Andy Warhol film called Flesh. The cover of Hatful of Hollow features playwright Joe Orton. Meat Is Murder has another movie still, taken from a 1969 anti-Vietnam war movie entitled In the Year of the Pig. The original inscription on the soldier’s helmet (“Make Love Not War”) was erased and replaced with the title of the album. On the Queen Is Dead, we see French actor Alain Delon.

Like many artists of their era, the Smiths liked to etch cryptic messages into the run-off grooves of their vinyl releases. For example, the original seven-inch release of “This Charming Man” features this note: “Slap me on the patio.” Morrissey continued the tradition after going solo.

Johnny Marr married his girlfriend, Angela Brown, on June 20, 1985.

The Smiths often made strange demands on their contract riders. In 1985, one rider specified, “The Promoter shall provide onstage at no charge to the artiste a live tree with a minimum height of three feet and a maximum height of five feet, species and type to be agreed by the tour manager at least fifteen days before the performance.”

Morrissey’s anti-meat stance became the stuff of legends. While the group was together, he claimed that all the members were vegetarians. Although that wasn’t true, he decreed that no one in the band was ever to be photographed eating meat. Later, as a solo artist, Morrissey’s concert contracts stipulated that any venue in which he performed could not sell meat at the snack bars. Hot dogs, therefore, were banned from Morrissey shows. Imagine the embarrassment of a Scottish promoter who tried to make a little

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