Sir Alf writes:

A friend of mine who reviews music for the BBC received this short message from his contact at Sanctuary Records. Shame about the DVD, that would've been great. And has there been some faltering on what the new single should be..?

"There are no plans for a full DVD of the Manchester Arena gig, but personally I'd love to see that happen. Contrary to various reports the next single is actually still TBC, but it does have a provisional release date of Sept 20th."
---
Related items:

• "Let Me Kiss You" next single, tentative release date Sep. 20 - July 19, 2004
• Manchester M.E.N. DVD confirmed on Boz Boorer site - June 9, 2004

Sean O'Callaghan writes:

The guitarist playing with Morrissey on the Kilborn show is Jesse Tobias. He is quite well known for playing with Alanis Morissette for several years.

It was while he was touring with Alanis that he met his wife, Angie Hart, the lead singer of Frente. They were supporting Alanis throughout Australia. Jesse and Angie now have their own band called Splendid. They live in Los Angeles and play on a regular basis. You can visit the Splendid site via this link:

http://www.splendidtheband.com/

This small item is listed on the Splendid site:

"July 20th 2004
Jesse Plays Guitar!
Well, you probably knew that already. But what you probably didn't know is that he's currently playing guitar for Morrissey. Morrissey's standard guitar man is unwell; while we're not sure how long Jesse will be filling this gig, we do know that he will appear with the band on the Craig Kilbourne Show this Thursday, July 22."

Mark Nicholson writes:

David Bret has asked me to spread the word that his forthcoming Morrissey book Scandal And Passion will be published in the UK by Robson books five weeks earlier than planned on August 23rd 2004. He would also like to thank the fans who have donated photographs for use in the book...
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Related items:

• David Bret "warts-and-all" book on Morrissey due soon - May 25, 2004
• "Morrissey - Scandal And Passion" by David Bret out Sept. 15, 2004, looking for photos - Mar. 10, 2004

Guillaume Métayer writes:

If you go to this site:

http://www.syxy.com/tonmobile/

you will be able to download the FOTGTD ringtone for your cellular phone. Select "polyphonic ringtones" and write "morrissey" in "search".

sirgordonzola writes:

"You are the quarry" has moved back into the Top 20 of the British Album Charts. It climbed from Number 23 into Number 18 (i bought it on vinyl this week, is it that easy, i'll buy 18 next week)

Although "First of the gang" is on its expected slide, dropping to Number 12 on the British Single Charts from last weeks Number 6.
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An anonymous person writes:

This week, 26.07.04, Morrissey scores a joint number one hold on the UK Indie charts with FOTGTD remaining at No1 on the singles chart while YATQ jumps from No.4 to top the album charts. Not quite The Streets but worth a mention...

An anonymous person writes:

While waiting for someone in town yesterday I was browsing through 'Rock Sound' (not a mag I buy but was reading just to kill time) when I chanced upon a review of 'First Of The Gang....' - surprising when you'd consider that this magazine is aimed at those who like "heavy rock" and reviews albums under such sub-section headings as "emo", "thrash metal" and "death metal". But, nevertheless, from memory, here's what they said:

1. FOTG is another catchy indie single from "the Mozster" as they called him (it's made fairly plain elsewhere that 'indie' isn't usually their cup of tea).

2. They say it has quirky lyrics, deals with the criminal underworld and the lovelorn.

3. But then the say that every other Moz/Smiths song for the past twenty years has been like this - they kind of imply it's old hat.

4. 'My Life Is A Succession......' is then, somewhat peculiarly given that the reviewer obviously likes heavier stuff, described as being "far more interesting" than FOTGTD - yes, I always thought of it as being a thrash metal track myself...

Torr sends the link:

Morrissey + The Beta Band + The Ordinary Boys - Drowned in Sound
The venue: Manchester L.C.C.C
The date: 11th July 2004

An anonymous person writes:

Not sure if this will be posted up in time, but sod it, I'll give it a go anyway. Tonight, the focus of Stuart Maconie's 'Critical List', which offers "tips for a stereo collection" will be 'Viva Hate'. The show will air on BBC Radio 2 at 8pm, TONIGHT (Saturday 24th July). It is an hour long. The focus will be an analysis of 'Viva Hate'. We can assume that Maconie likes the album because the whole point of the show is to offer tips for a CD collection. Besides that, no idea what he or his guests might say. Presumably, at least one or two tracks from 'Viva Hate' will be played. Cheers.
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Belligerent Ghoul sends the link to the BBC 2 site with info and stream to archived show:

Stuart Maconie's Critical List - Viva Hate, featured album 23/07/04

Rob writes:

I've just seen a different release of the FOTGTD single. It's a Dutch 4 track single, containing all 3 b-sides. Artwork is the same as the UK release, but there's a difference: catalogue number is ATKXD004 (instead of 003...).

The CD-single is given away for free when you buy the album (in some stores, such as Plato), but can also be purchased for only 4 Euros...

djcharlesbronson writes:

In the latest issue (August 2004, Angelina Jolie on the cover) of the swedish edition of COSMOPOLITAN there is a short article entitled "In every woman's home". It reads "There are things that quite frankly makes a difference. That transforms your home from an ordinary place till a place where everybody - not at least you - wants to be."

Among other things that are recommended are "A decent cd-collection", a 4 item list which includes Morrissey's "VAUXHALL & I"! (The other 3 are Nick Drake's "Five leaves left", Leroy Burgess "An anthology" & R Kelly's "The R. in the r'n'b collection vol. 1"...

It does, however say that these are records that "guarantees pluspoints from the opposite sex", but I find it very interesting that the same man that the other year declared he had written a song called "Women don't seem to like me" now is a must-have according to a women's lifestyle bible...

Belligerent Ghoul writes:

Time to go preppy again, by Josh Sims, Financial Times

"Wear it top-to-toe and you look like a fashion victim," agrees Richard Gray, spokesperson for Harvey Nichols, which has sold preppy-style pieces by the likes of Dries Van Noten and Martin Margiela. "But pick bits and you can get away with it. It works somehow - which is why a lot of style tribes, from Mod to Morrissey and his fans, have dipped into it and made it work for them.

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Jose M. writes:

Morrissey/The Smiths tribute band Sweet and Tender Hooligans will be highlighting yet another album. This time, from Morrissey's solo career.

SATURDAY JULY 31
SWEET AND TENDER HOOLIGANS
performing "Your Arsenal" in its entirety
SPACELAND
1717 Silverlake Blvd.
Silverlake, Los Angeles

Advance tickets available at http://www.ticketweb.com
This venue is 21 and over

Produced by the late Mick Ronson, "Your Arsenal" also marked Morrissey's first collaboration with guitarist Alain Whyte (sadly missing in action). Sweet and Tender Hooligans will perform all songs from this Grammy-nominated album including the hits "We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful", "Certain People I Know", and "Tomorrow". A full set of Morrissey/The Smiths material will follow including maybe even a b-side or two from the "Your Arsenal" sessions.

Also appearing that night is The CurSe, a great tribute band covering the music of The Cure.

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