Just finished watching "Young Guns Go For It" on BBC2. Apart from the lack of a new Morrissey interview, it contained interviews with most of the key players in the Smiths story - Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce, Joe Moss, Geoff Travis, Scott Piering, Jo Slee etc.

The first few minutes were a little on the dull side consisting mainly of (non-rare) old footage of The Smiths, old Morrissey interviews that many of us have seen a hundred times before and endless street scenes of Manchester, while even the new interviews seemed to be re-hashing the same old ground - Johnny Marr talking about how Leiber and Stoller (and then Moz and Marr) first started working together, Scott Piering describing how The Smiths wanted to be as big as The Beatles but maintain an attitude like The Sex Pistols etc etc. However, the show picked up considerably after this and we were actually treated to some less-well-known information, especially regarding the much-disputed royalty split. A few select quotes about the origins of the dispute:

Geoff Travis: When I went to Manchester with the Rough Trade contract, I was fully expecting it to be signed by all four members but, at the point of signature, in the clothing warehouse, Johnny and Morrissey signed it and gave it back to me and it became apparent in that second that there was a divide in terms of the way Johnny and Morrissey perceived the business aspects of the group.

Andy: There was only two spaces for the signatures...Geoff explained to us that there was only two signatures needed so the obvious ones would be Johnny and Morrissey but that it wouldn't affect us in any way. [laughs and makes a gesture of Geoff Travis's nose growing Pinocchio-style..]

Johnny: I certainly didn't instigate...I didn't make any phone call to Rough Trade, let's put it that way, and say, [whispers] 'Make sure there's only two names on the contract'. It wasn't in my sphere on consciousness. It's not, like, something I would have thought of.

Interviewer: Somebody did [make a phone call].

Johnny: Somebody did, yeah, and you'd have to, maybe, ask somebody else about that....

Hmmm... any idea who he had in mind? ;-)

And thanks to Johnny C (Bradford, England) for his:

I watched this documentary last night. It was a mixed affair...

There was some nice archive footage of Smiths TV and stage appearances, but the main topic of the programme was the way the group started and the group dynamics that followed - who was in charge, who decided what, and who got paid what percentages(!)

In fact, the division of money seemed to take up an inordinate amount of the program, and yes, Mike Joyce did seem a little bitter about it.

People interviewed included Marr, Joyce, Rourke and all the surrounding people - Rough Trade folks, Jo Slee, Grant Showbiz, etc. There was quite a lot of criticism of Morrissey's temperament and so on, but it was good to see the Johnny Marr didn't really allow himself to be drawn into doing the same; he dropped hints but mostly remained discreet.

It would have been interesting to see the angle the program makers would have taken had Morrissey agreed to contribute. As it was, I would summarise that it was worth seeing but Moz took 'a bit of a kicking'.

I would like to let all Moz/Smiths devotees out there to listen to a record that is sorely underexposed. The record is called "Dutch Mother" and comes from Southern Australia's, Sweet William. I have seen thousands of comparisons to the Smiths, and most of the time those ravings are not deserved. However, in this case, I believe they are. This is the closest to the Smiths I have ever heard!

I have a review of the Sweet William "Dutch Mother" 7" with a scan of the cover art at:

http://www.tweekitten.com/Reviews/19980809.html

Only 1000 of their debut 7" was pressed and I believe a few copies can still be purchased for only $3.50 ppd. from Matinee Records which can be reached at [email protected]. There is also real audio at www.tweekitten.com! Enjoy!

In some Italian cinemas before the film is showed a beer commercial with "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" as background music. The images have no connection with the music, they show ordinary life scenes, if I remember right. Anyway it's great to hear a Smiths song in a big and modern cinema... the sound is terrific.

In the February Issue of the German music magazine 'Musikexpress / Sounds' the title story is about the 80's and a possible revival of this music.

For 'a better understanding' of this decade, they list 12 Albums who are typical. One of those is The Queen Is Dead.

'Morrissey und seine Smiths preßten das Lebensgefühl der ewig Pubertierenden in knappe, unsterbliche Textzeilen: "And if a double-decker bus / crashes into us / to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die".

Nie war Larmoyanz gepflegter in den 80ern - und Zeilen wie diese und prägnante Analysen der Thatcher-Ära halfen einer ganzen Generation beim Erwachsenwerden.'