Manchester Evening News article

WhalleyRange

Active Member
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereve...motta-time-for-city-to-give-morrissey-his-due

June 23, 2011



This month marks the 25th anniversary of The Queen Is Dead, but don’t expect Morrissey to celebrate the release of the album despite the indie music intelligentsia (and David Cameron) hailing it as the best album of all time.

Is it the best album of all time? ‘Who cares?’ Morrissey would say as he has no time for the obsession with that era, immortalized in the iconic image taken outside Salford Lads’ Club.

When he appeared on Desert Island Discs, somewhat incongruously, almost as incongruous as him popping up on The One Show, he was quizzed by Kirsty Young. Young’s trademark cool as a cucumber interview technique descended into girly giggles as Mozzer flirted with her.

When not reducing the ice queen to the status of a breathless teenage fan, he spoke of his irritation at the preoccupation with his four recording years in The Smiths and his wish that we’d just move on. Since The Smiths went their separate ways – in the manner of all great bands, mired in acrimony and bitterness – Morrissey has made a string of solo albums. He’d rather stick pins in his eyes than join fellow 1980s bands on the Here And Now reunion trail.

His desire to swerve normality and his abhorrence of conformity – summed up in his eyes by the clichéd photograph of the happy couple on the mantlepiece – is as undimmed as our fixation with that early part of his musical career.

And there’s as much chance of this passionate vegetarian tucking into a full English as there would be of him hooking up with his former bandmates and doing a Robbie Williams. But the 52-year-old indulges the diehards with a smattering of those tracks when on tour, as he is now. The man who sold out the Hollywood Bowl faster than The Beatles is currently pleasing crowds in the likes of Grimsby and Inverness singing a bit of There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, from The Queen Is Dead. Those lyrics spoke for a generation now in their 40s and 50s and hearing them again is like revisiting our youth – before staidness, stoicism and spare tyres set in.

‘So what?’ That would be Morrissey’s perspective on such cloying nostalgia.

Millions love his uncompromising stance, the surprises he throws up – including plans to hook up with shamed former Manchester City star Joey Barton at Glastonbury. Never one to be one of the crowd, he is the outsider’s outsider.

And yet the boy has a thorn in his side. Despite being anti establishment, anti nostalgia, anti sentiment, he is annoyed by the lack of official recognition for his contribution to the cultural landscape.

So he should be. That recognition should start here in his home town by giving him the freedom of the city. When are we going to crown the most deserving musical son of modern times? Perhaps it’s a matter of parochial geography? Born and raised in Davyhulme and Stretford, Tory-run Trafford can lay most claim to him, but given his horror at ‘Call Me Dave’ Cameron’s love of The Smiths it would be better for Labour-run Manchester council to take up the cudgels. The Victorian gothic splendour of its headquarters would be a great location for a bit of a do. It won’t cost that much – a cuppa and a few Rich Tea biscuits would amuse him and the publicity it would generate would bring much-needed revenue into the city coffers. Come on councillors, give him his due. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. No other musical son has achieved as much over the past three decades as our Morrissey.
 
"Born and raised in Davyhulme and Stretford, Tory-run Trafford can lay most claim to him"

Born, educated and still returns to Trafford... of course we will claim him. I'm going to fire off an email to the council... wish me luck

Dave
 
In the actual paper? I would suppose so.
 
that would be brilliant if he was given the freedom of Manchester, a nice touch.

Thousands would also turn out in celebration, but whether Moz himself would turn out is questionable
 
"Born and raised in Davyhulme and Stretford, Tory-run Trafford can lay most claim to him"

Born, educated and still returns to Trafford... of course we will claim him. I'm going to fire off an email to the council... wish me luck

Dave

That's stretching it a bit - Trafford has only existed since 1974!
 
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