Recent content by Mike Rourke

Can anyone confirm the following rumour about why he keeps wearing flares? He's seen Shaun Ryder's recent state of ill-health and reckons the Happy Mondays might soon be looking for a new lead singer, and has therefore adjusted his dress sense accordingly?

Interesting to hear Alain sent him tons of stuff. Looks like just four of the songs made it on to Without Music... Do you know if they recorded any more of his? Thanks.

Marking the anniversary of a release of a live album is just bonkers. But if it's the catalyst that gets some new 2024 touring (and other) activity off the ground, fair enough.

Love the lyric, 'the news contrives to frighten you'. It's beautifully expressed and so true. It's not a favourite Morrissey song of mine but I was pleased to hear it do so well at the time. It's also nice to hear a relatively modern Morrissey song being covered, and not just another version of...

Not a favourite of mine but one of his most successful ever from an airplay point of view. Only First of the Gang got as much airplay. It provided impressive first week sales for Low in High School (despite awful reviews) and powered the ticket sales for his biggest ever UK solo tour in early...

Yep, that was the start of it all. The start of the bleakest 18 month period in Morrissey's several decades of fame. The only positive is that it did at least end in spring 2019 - there's been nothing to add to it all since. It's almost as if Morrissey was set a task in the summer of 2017 to...

Unfortunately, on top of his unambiguous support for the For Britain party, he's expressed sympathy for Tommy Robinson, declared Marine Le Pen the winner of a particular debate, and repeatedly enthused about Farage and (I think?) said he was tempted by UKIP. A key problem here is that I'm not...

You're right the reviews were super positive. I thought we were in for an absolute treat. Beautiful orchestral arrangements, an absolutely legendary producer (T Visconti), a brand new songwriter composing a large chunk of the albums compositions (for the first time in 15 years). And yet we...

Dude, have you completely lost the plot? It's meat and potatoes indie filler at best. Thank heavens he discovered the colourful, inventive Hispanic sounds on the subsequent albums. Ringleader is just awful. It's no co-incidence that he's virtually never played anything off it in the last 10...

Yep, a misunderstanding. He's just expressing sympathy that he (Neil Morrissey) managed to get a number 1 single before Morrissey did. Also, no attempt to criticise Morrissey for his views as all others do by default these days. And his comment that 'Morrissey is still making music' shows that...

In a Guardian interview out today (I think), Neil Morrissey is asked 'Do you find it gratifying that you have had two UK No 1 singles, while Morrissey has had none?' He replies: 'Poor bloke. I do actually feel gratified. It was a turn in my career I never expected. I ended up vicariously on Top...

Interesting one. It came out in 2019. Radio 2 were still on board for California Son but all the other previously Morrissey-friendly stations had stopped playing him by then. So, it did massively worse than 2017's Low in High School but slightly better than 2020's Dog on a Chain.

Thanks @BookishBoy , I know I go on about airplay a lot - I'm fascinated by its effect not just on Morrissey's fortunes but on many other acts too. It wasn't just Radio 2 that refused to play his stuff after 2019 - it was also Radio X, 6 Music and Absolute all of whom had given considerable...

2017, autumn. And it was a big airplay hit (for Morrissey - possibly his biggest ever) but that's all you need to shift albums. No-one does well in the singles chart these days unless most of their fans are school children glued to streaming sites

It was his best album in years - massively better than High School yet High School sold 25,000 in week 1 compared with Dog;s 6,000. Why? Spent the Day in Bed received airplay from all the indie radio stations - none of them went anywhere near the Dog songs. On the rare occasion that they gave a...