h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Morrissey - The Singer - A54597135
Author: Opticalillusion- media mynx life would be boring without hiccups - U231227

here goes nothing

Original Entry: A10768809 Morrissey - The Singer
Author: Mozz Kitten U3602920
Flea Market Conversation: F74125?thread=4468933
Original Writing Workshop Thread: F4023696?thread=2806453

Hi Opti, good rescue

A couple of points:

<>
I'm not too sure that looks right, perhaps:
"Morrissey lost the fight and &pound;1.27m was handed..."


<><--- should be in italics not single quotes


<> I have no idea what that means, could you elaborate?


I saw Morrissey on "The One Show" not long ago and a multitude of BBC staff turned up in the studio just to see him, he was quite embarrassed by this, they treated him almost like a god. Perhaps you could add a little about how fans feel about him, even when he's not around he's not forgotten, which is unusual with many of today's "celebrities"

Opti, well done

GB

he attended a "sink secondary modern" -- what is that? Anything to do with sinks?

his only escapement -- an escapement is a part of the mechanism in a wind-up clock.

"As a youngster Morrissey was inspired by Oscar Wilde's written work, the New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Sixties girl groups, Elvis Presley and Johann Wolfgang Goethe, By his 20s Morrissey had also had written work published himself in the form of a biography on James Dean entitled James Dean Is Not Dead. "

You did not intend that to be all one sentence.

"a biography on James Dean" -- on?

As a youngster, Morrissey had a website devoted to the New York Dolls. What, in the early 1970s? I though the web was only invented in the late 80s.

"Morrissey came to be simply known for his surname " -- for?

"Morrissey has always been an advocate for the Animals" -- they did a version of "THe House of the Rising SUn", didn't they?

"The Smiths fell apart spouting the fact..." -- ignorant windbags, they shouldn't be allowed out

"With his somewhat overly political songs that take the sort of tongue in cheek jabs at numerous heads in politics, Such as: 'Margaret on the guillotine', 'America is not the World', 'The Queen is Dead' and 'I will see you in far off places'." -- this sentence no verb

"Morrissey appeared on stage supporting Madness in front of a backdrop that showed a skinhead, while he was draped in a Union flag at Finsbury Park in London."

-- it was quite a skill to appear on stage in one place while draped in a flag in another place.

"was a great success as was his next Ringleader of the Tormentors" -- how many Ringleaders of the Tormentors did he produce?

didn't appear to be destined for a life as a singer... the core of the band The Smiths was created -- if he didn't sing, what part did he play in the band?

Can we have an introduction other than "he was born"? So were most people It doesn't actually tell us why we should bother reading about him - this way, it'll be of interest to exactly those people who are interested in him anyway.

Right I feel that I've sorted those out except for how fellow celebrities see the star.

Was that my comment? If it was, I didn't mean how other celebrities see him, I said <> BBC staff as in the people who were working behind the scenes, camera crew and make-up ladies, etc., not the celebrities who front the show (although they were all over him as well)

trust me to get the rock end of the stick

Opti, did you see my post 4?

The original entry at least had *something* there...

Why do you call The Smiths a severed alliance. What was cut?

Updated

Since the original entry was written, Morrissey has released another album called Years of Refusal.

I'm slightly confused by the sentence: "If it isn't Margaret Thatcher who he sang overly political songs about such as 'Margaret on the guillotine', 'America is not the World', 'The Queen is Dead' and 'I will see you in far off places', then then it's the press." Do you mean that all of these songs are about her, or that they are all political? The first certainly is about Margaret Thatcher, but the other three (as far as I know) are not.

And did you mean overly political or did you mean overtly political?

You are quite correct and thus I have chosen to change that sentence and I've changed overly to overtly.

There's a lot of stuff that's wrong in this:

'Despite being intelligent he attended a state school...' - what? Are people who go to state schools generally stupid?

'...and later a website devoted to them too' - Did he write a website about the NYDs? That would surprise me. He used to run their fan club and I think he had a hand in their comeback tour a few years ago, but you'd have to check that.

'For a short time Morrissey was the front man of a band called Ed Banger and The Nosebleeds'. Almost, but not quite. The front man was known as Ed Banger, and when he left Moz replaced him. Without Ed Banger, though, the band were known simply as The Nosebleeds.

'The Smiths took the World by shock and awe and inspired the likes of REM, OutKast and Oasis to take on the music scene...' - OutKast? The American hip-hop duo? Are you sure about this?

'In 1987 The Smiths disbanded spouting the fact that Marr and Morrissey no longer had the same tastes in music as one reason and Marr claiming that the stresses of The Smiths' situation were threatening his sanity as the other.' - What 'stresses'? You haven't said anything about problems within the band at this point. Marr and Morrissey simply couldn't work together any more. Marr couldn't stand Moz's obsession with 60s pop (even saying 'I didn't form a band to cover Cilla Black songs') and Moz hated Marr working with other musicians.

'This meant that all band members were free to pursue different things and as Marr created a new band called Johnny Marr's Healers, Morrissey started paving a solo career in singing and making a name for himself in America.' Marr didn't start the Healers until 2000.

'...he was keen to restore the band The Smiths, but although his dream came true it didn't last longer than their reunion at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall on 22 December, 1988.' - This isn't true. The split was acrimonious and both Marr and Moz have said over and over again that The Smiths would never play again together. Morrissey's first solo gig was at the venue and date you mention, and it certainly wasn't a reunion.


I think you need to go through and check this whole article - I'm not a fan, but all those errors leapt out at me, and I haven't even read the final section. Anybody who really likes him will probably find more, and you need to be sure of every fact before this goes on. I appreciate that you didn't write the original entry, but mozzkitten seems to have got an awful lot wrong

What's happening here Opti?

It appears to have been removed from PR

I don't recall seeing Opti online for a while. I will check her PS

Oh dear. Opti hasn't been online for five weeks

But she posted a journal 3 weeks ago, so that can't be right