My sister bought one outside the now infamous UCLA/Pauly Pavilion gig in 1991. It was a light blue card stock type cover with several white photocopied pages with the typings on a dodgy typewriter. I LOVED it. I decided to subscribe and can recall how much I would badger my mother or mailman, quizzing them for the whereabouts of my quarterly MorriZines. Every issue was a big event. I could not read it with a lot of commotion going on around the house during the day, siblings were doing homework, mom was cooking dinner with the blender and TV going on at full blast. My dad having full command of the remote control he'd flip through channels all the time! No, a Zine reading had to take place when the house is quite, when all are in bed fast asleep. when my dad could be heard lowly snoring in bedroom right across my room. By then I had recently been gifted with a brand new Sony Discman, and snap on my headphones, I would play my Moz at KROQ ep on repeat along with newly acquired cds of the queen is dead and their debut. Kill Uncle and Your Arsenal reigned supreme though. as I flipped through the pages, this outside world of Morrissey would come to life with all the incredible stories the Zine produced. Reading fan accounts of gigs in the UK, hysteria sweeping through Japan, filled my arms with goosebumps, leaving me full of joy that there were OTHER fans, that felt JUST LIKE ME somewhere in the world.
i wasn't alone.
EVERY zine would receive at the very least 3-4 full readings.
how many fans got to meet Morrissey, and how random it seemed, I wished I would someday be so lucky. My wish first came true at the Johnny Rogan's BookSoup signing of "The Severed Alliance" in 93. I'll never forget that moment when I first laid eyes on him. From a personal standpoint, I feel those years 88-96 were my most memorable and most cherished years as a Moz/Smiths fan. And as I reflect back now, those Zines, SYL, Darkened Underpass, Charming, A Chance to Shine, MorriZine and several others, were a massively internal part of my addiction to all things Morrissey/Smiths....Thank you to all the ppl who contributed their stories and experiences.
Oh, oh, truly I love you
Oh, wherever you are
Wherever you are
Wherever you are
I hope you're singing now
Oh, I do hope
I hope we are all singing now