Morrissey Central Janice. (December 26, 2021)

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"We are all such hopeless creatures, aren't we? We must wait until someone dies in order to tell them how much we loved them. Am I even writing this, now, about the death of Janice Long? Gone, as everyone in the UK now seems to, after 'a short illness'. What IS a short illness? Interpret as you will…

Janice was immediately in my life during the days of Rough Trade Records … all those tears ago. I would sit very still waiting for "Hand In Glove" to be played on her radio show - and it always was.
Suddenly I was a someone. Janice remained loyal to me, even allowing radio sessions during barren times when I was considered far too exciting to be signed by a record label.
Such things didn't matter to Janice.
Decades later, when thinking became banned in the UK, Janice invited me onto her show … letting me know that I was valued, letting me know that the press vendetta against me hadn't fooled those who really count in the end.
In what might be termed her heyday, Janice - along with John Walters - had an energy that chased music; Janice turned up everywhere, never defeated, helping the newly-signed, she would drive 250 miles to see a band … never losing the necessity of immediate action, yet all the credit for nighttime music mysteriously went to John Peel.
Janice was also the first female to present 'Top of the Pops', and as young and lively as she was, she wanted legitimate association with quality music - not with sexuality.
She was not a costume.
Her will was determined, and even on the few occasions that she criticized me I knew she was right, and nothing could dent our friendship. It was difficult back then (and impossible now) to present individuality in pop music.
In modern times, no one will risk being honest.
Inevitably militant ageist manifestos reduced Janice from her reverential Radio
2 slot, a position that she alone had built brick by brick, but … she had achieved her intentions … she had done the impossible very, very well … and her career, now closed, is a lifetime of gains without losses, and she didn't ever once belabor the price
of being female in a world that was for a long time sewn-together by and for men. She proved what could be done.
She took risks by playing independent music during the years when independent music was refused access to daytime radio.
Janice gave airtime to such as Ludus and Raymonde, and even played all six minutes of the Dolls' 'Frankenstein' uninterrupted. Even modern DJs dare not risk such imagination.

The choking sorrow at the announcement of someone's death is full equation of their success. Only then do we say what would be a queasy revelation during the person's lifetime. How can love be talked about? It can't. Possibly the only time Janice went on a gym treadmill she found herself jogging alongside Peter Wyngarde. I laughed for hours trying to conjour up such a picture. She then said:
"and then Ray Davies walked in carrying a plastic shopping-bag." My head hurt.

Even if, at age 66, Janice would be termed 'the older generation', it must be remembered that a great deal is lost in the passing of that generation.
Memory is our strength. Thank you, Janice. Your soul is liberated from this increasingly ridiculous world."

MORRISSEY, 26 December 2021.

(Quoted text formatting edited slightly as not very fluid on mobile)

Regards,
FWD.


Related item:
 
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kind words from M,her brother keith going at 60 and now janice at 66,thanks for the memories.
 
Them Janice and Moz sessions are great to listen to.
She seemed very joyful and had great taste in music.

"even on the few occasions that she criticized me I knew
she was right, and nothing could dent our friendship"
Moz liked Janice

 
Very moving words for a dear friend. Her interviews with Morrissey going back to The Smiths were always fun, insightful and she would take him to task from time to time (in a playful way). In tribute, I think I'm going to go back and listen to all of them now...
 
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When did she criticise Morrissey?
Not doubting that she did. I’m sure she (rightly) did, and that I (drunkenly) listened to it when she did.. but it has slipped my increasingly greased-up memory.

Please, (re)initiate me.
 
When did she criticise Morrissey?
Not doubting that she did. I’m sure she (rightly) did, and that I (drunkenly) listened to it when she did.. but it has slipped my increasingly greased-up memory.

Please, (re)initiate me.
If you’re listening for your own songs on the radio and the host says something the slightest bit left-of-praise, you’re going to remember that and feel dejected forever. I don’t reckon she intentionally said anything she’d regard as criticism. I think she may have maybe just been a bit off the cuff maybe.
 
When did she criticise Morrissey?
Not doubting that she did. I’m sure she (rightly) did, and that I (drunkenly) listened to it when she did.. but it has slipped my increasingly greased-up memory.

Please, (re)initiate me.
In the linked interview she calls him out on his support for the animal rights activists who inject contaminants into Mars bars.
 
When did she criticise Morrissey?
Not doubting that she did. I’m sure she (rightly) did, and that I (drunkenly) listened to it when she did.. but it has slipped my increasingly greased-up memory.

Please, (re)initiate me.
Nothing like that... because she knew him so well she would rib him in a playful way... their banter was very unique and I can't think of many others he had that with... that's what I meant.
 
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"We are all such hopeless creatures, aren't we? We must wait until someone dies in order to tell them how much we loved them. Am I even writing this, now, about the death of Janice Long? Gone, as everyone in the UK now seems to, after 'a short illness'. What IS a short illness? Interpret as you will…

Janice was immediately in my life during the days of Rough Trade Records … all those tears ago. I would sit very still waiting for "Hand In Glove" to be played on her radio show - and it always was.
Suddenly I was a someone. Janice remained loyal to me, even allowing radio sessions during barren times when I was considered far too exciting to be signed by a record label.
Such things didn't matter to Janice.
Decades later, when thinking became banned in the UK, Janice invited me onto her show … letting me know that I was valued, letting me know that the press vendetta against me hadn't fooled those who really count in the end.
In what might be termed her heyday, Janice - along with John Walters - had an energy that chased music; Janice turned up everywhere, never defeated, helping the newly-signed, she would drive 250 miles to see a band … never losing the necessity of immediate action, yet all the credit for nighttime music mysteriously went to John Peel.
Janice was also the first female to present 'Top of the Pops', and as young and lively as she was, she wanted legitimate association with quality music - not with sexuality.
She was not a costume.
Her will was determined, and even on the few occasions that she criticized me I knew she was right, and nothing could dent our friendship. It was difficult back then (and impossible now) to present individuality in pop music.
In modern times, no one will risk being honest.
Inevitably militant ageist manifestos reduced Janice from her reverential Radio
2 slot, a position that she alone had built brick by brick, but … she had achieved her intentions … she had done the impossible very, very well … and her career, now closed, is a lifetime of gains without losses, and she didn't ever once belabor the price
of being female in a world that was for a long time sewn-together by and for men. She proved what could be done.
She took risks by playing independent music during the years when independent music was refused access to daytime radio.
Janice gave airtime to such as Ludus and Raymonde, and even played all six minutes of the Dolls' 'Frankenstein' uninterrupted. Even modern DJs dare not risk such imagination.

The choking sorrow at the announcement of someone's death is full equation of their success. Only then do we say what would be a queasy revelation during the person's lifetime. How can love be talked about? It can't. Possibly the only time Janice went on a gym treadmill she found herself jogging alongside Peter Wyngarde. I laughed for hours trying to conjour up such a picture. She then said:
"and then Ray Davies walked in carrying a plastic shopping-bag." My head hurt.

Even if, at age 66, Janice would be termed 'the older generation', it must be remembered that a great deal is lost in the passing of that generation.
Memory is our strength. Thank you, Janice. Your soul is liberated from this increasingly ridiculous world."

MORRISSEY, 26 December 2021.

(Quoted text formatting edited slightly as not very fluid on mobile)

Regards,
FWD.


Related item:
Wow. I didn’t know. Hadn’t heard. I’m so sad to see this today.
 
I was so sad to read this today.
 
Janice became a BBC Musical Superstar From 1983 she arrived on BBC Radio and made her mark with steel which still glistens today, the mark of a true legend.
For introducing The Smiths, Fatal Charm, Brix Smith in The Adult Net, Strawberry Switchblade and many others, Janice stuck to her guns and told it - and played it - like it was. For many years Janice Long, John Walters and John Peel played music from 'independent labels' that were not allowed to be played on mainstream Radio, to the dismay of Music Lovers across the UK.
She had such a wonderful sense of humour. Towards the end, Janice worked on BBC Radio Wales and was equally as fantastic on the Radio in Wales as she was back in 1983. I recall Janice Long got me through some very tense teenage years, several girlfriends and some important exams in the dark days of 1986.

RIP x

Hazard.
 
What a wonderful woman she was. It was such a joy listening to her evening show on Radio 1 in the 80s and I still remember sitting on the bed in my little room when she played "The Queen Is Dead" for the first time, the week before the album came out, utterly spellbound.
 
Interesting how he makes the death of a friend all about him and how persecuted he feels. Interesting, yet depressingly predictable.

Sometimes, Moz love, it ain't about you.

RIP JL, a true pioneer and inspiration for a generation of women who loved and lived music.
 
He's straight in there using her death to write about himself.
What a self centred person. Always looking for publicity. Me, me, me.
What a warped blinkered outlook too, generalizing all people in his opening sentence. He hasn't a clue about love.
Only the love of self, clearly.
 
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