Images of JOY DIVISION's Ian Curtis, Blur, The Smiths, Pulp, Stone Roses and Oasis feature in Icons Of Pop, an exhibition of 50 British pop stars photographed by British photographers.

Many of the photos have previously appeared in NME and many of the photographers - such as Pennie Smith, Hamish Brown, Steve Gullick and Kevin Cummins - are presently or formerly NME freelancers.

The exhibition spans half a century of pop culture, with 50s images of Cliff Richard, Billy Fury and Adam Faith as well as 60s images of The Beatles, Stones and The Who, glam, punk and after.

The National Portrait Gallery is in St Martin's Place W1 (nearest tube Charing Cross) and admission to the exhibition in the Photography Gallery is free.

The exhibition can also be seen on tour at the Canterbury Royal Museum & Art Gallery (February 18 - April 9 2000) and Exeter Royal Albert Memorial (April 15 - June 10 2000).

In the Belgian newspaper "Het Nieuwsblad" (June 3, 1999) Johnny Marr is interviewed. He talks about Electronic, Oasis and the split of The Smiths.

Apparently Johnny Marr is in a very talkative mood and says to the journalist: "I’ve never felt better. You can ask me anything".

And he does: "So why did you leave The Smiths?"

"I left because I was drinking myself to death. Everybody thinks that Morrissey was the shy guy sitting in the library all of the time and loathing the whole popcircus. But in reality I was that person. Morrissey was the one who kept on motivating us, who constantly pushed us and drove us into the van. Morrissey was Elvis. And me, I was much too young and was so frightened that I had to drink a bottle of cognac before each gig.

That’s why The Smiths eventually split. It was just me, little Johnny, who couldn’t handle the prospect of touring and promoting the records, because I knew how many bottles I would have to drink."

"Reel Around The Fountain" - green label test pressing is currently for sale at ebay (item 114345729) for the next seven days.

Reel around the fountain 7" UK white label test pressing RT136. Please note release was cancelled in favour of This Charming Man and subsequently only 20 copies were ever pressed!

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On 06/07/99 at 14:29:29 PDT, seller added the following information:

A "Record Collector" magazine SMITHS article notes of only knowing of two copies to ever appear for sale. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for SMITHS fans to own the Ultimate SMITHS collectable. A GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY.

These pictures are from a Johns Children concert in London at the end of March. The show was great. I was really surprised to see that Gary was in the band. They put on a good show, and both Boz and Gary were very nice when I asked for autographs and pictures.

(click to enlarge)

For several months I've been working with Spider Stacy (formerly of the Pogues) on a web site for his new band, Wisemen. The band just recently recorded ten demo tracks at the House of Boz on April 20-22 and May 11-13, with Boz Boorer engineering.

Sound clips are available at the Wisemen page, at http://www.sanction.org/wisemen/. The production quality is excellent!

...Moz got a mention in the programme 'Stars in their eyes'. It's basically a souped up version of Karaoke, where people come on and have to imitate the voice of their chosen singer.

The competition was coming to an end, and the host was mentioning how serious the competition was (or something), and declared it 'more serious than Morrissey on a serious day', which got a laugh. It annually gets one of the highest TV ratings in Britain so I'd be surprised if someone else hadn't already brought it to your attention.

Incidentally, Moz mentioned the programme in an interview in the September '95 edition of Q when he was asked to comment about Martin Rossiter of Gene...

News from Italy, I don't know how much it will interest you, but on this week's issue of "Musica", an Italian magazine, I read that Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti (which means Three Happy Dead Boys) have covered "Ask" in Italian in their new cd. I've heard their version and I must admit it is not well done, notwithstanding Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti are a good band and their sound recalls often The Smiths' atmosphere. The journalist wrote instead that they covered it with a "high school pupils' verve" ( I hope you get the general idea!), but the lyrics have completely changed and the chorus goes on like "Dimmi, dimmi" = "say me, say me"...