Starring :
Cola Boyy, Cold Wave Compilation (Various), Conny Frischauf, Gary Numan, Gruff Rhys, James Yorkston, John Foxx and the Maths, June Jones, Kings of Convenience, Kitten Pyramid, Manchester Orchestra, Scott Matthews, The Skids, The Smiths
This Week's Music
After a short hiatus, Pop In The Real World returns with 14(!) reviews in a bumper edition. I haven't been so excited since I last attended a wedding.There's something old (The Smiths and others)), something new (Kitten Pyramid and more), something borrowed (The Skids) and something blue ( one of the shirts on the Kings of Convenience album cover)
Hopefully there's something here for you that will feel like a marriage made in Heaven.
As ever this week's Taster Track playlists can be accessed at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cSveL7NpVp1xgrKxPe4av?si=SkFlSnvySeuYFpgG0WJFmA or via the Spotify link on the Home Page. The link to the Youtube playlist is https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV-OogHy7Eh_sy55y6i18Qj7w_Z3CQft
The Shadowplay playlists are at: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/01iU7Jy80SMvJO5QBF7Oux?si=00d9d1fb8b2f4baa and https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV-OogHy7EjsaT8idWnNv42LqIGEGSmH&feature=share
Highly Recommended
Die Drift : Conny Frischauf
Conny Frischauf’s collection of German synth pop is a joy, warm and human rather than sterile and clinical.
German electronic music can be a difficult listen but the best point of reference for this record is the German version of Nena’s 99 Red Balloons. That’s not in the sense that these are out and out pop songs, but they are accessible, melodic and move with a groove. It’s one of those records that sounds better and more rhythmic in German than in English - ‘Der Fußball Kommt Nach Hause’ rather than ‘Football’s Coming Home’.
Conny Frischauf has created a record that sounds like the tentative steps of a new life. There’s a sense of wonder, of possibility and trying things out successfully in tracks such as ‘Rauf’ and ‘Parapiri’. There’s a sense coming through in a track such as ‘Zeit Verdehen’ of it being made secretly after dark in an empty studio.
I can imagine a Pixar blockbuster here. Talented but impoverished young musician can’t afford to make a record to win the competition prize that will allow her to rescue grandfather’s traditional music shop, but is rescued by the lovable and spritely synthesisers in the studio she guards at night. If that sounds fanciful it’s just a way of saying that good music and pop songs are a joy irrespective of how they are made.
‘Auf Wiedersehn’ has a groove and warmth that, weirdly, reminded of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Master Blaster (Jammin’)’ but in a gentler way. The feeling of being linked to a long musical heritage is reinforced by the jazz double bass feel to ‘Eingaben Und Ausnahmen’. There are shades of the 70s / 80s sound beloved of John Peel in ‘Private Geheimsache’ And all the tracks are enhanced by her warm and very human voice that nicely offsets the electronics elements.
The more I think about this record, the more I like it. It’s an accessible, but not frivolous, sound that could and should be much loved.
Taster Track : Rauf
Seeking New Gods : Gruff Rhys
This is a slice of sunshine psychedelia and exhibit number one in the case for giving psychedelia a listen.
Full disclosure - I first listened to this undisturbed, on a bench in the sunshine to the sound of lapping waves on holiday in Deal. I suspect it’s impossible to dislike any music heard in those circumstances.
Gruff Rhys’ solo work has evaded me for a little while. I’ve followed him as part of the Britpop explosion with The Super Furry Animals in the 1990s, although they were never seeking common ground with the likes of Oasis. I’ve welcomed and enjoyed his contribution to Welsh pop over the years too. But something has held me back from exploring his music further.
It took seconds of the opening track ‘Mausoleum Of My Former Self’ to convert me, and the trick is that this is piano led rather than guitar led. It transforms the tone completely into something lighter, more enjoyable. And that’s before the ecstatic brass makes an appearance. Compare the sound of this to the much rockier, guitar driven ‘Hiking In Lightning’ and you’ll hear what I mean. And just as the piano chords threaten to become a bit of a formula, they’re softened to rescue a track such as ‘The Keep’.
It’s a light, sunny and supremely positive sound, full of hope backed by singalong moments. ‘Loan Your Loneliness’ captures the flavour best. It’s soaring psychedelia played in a west coast style. In ice cream terms it’s multi flavoured, neapolitan rather than vanilla or raspberry ripple.
I’m sure that you can dig for deep meaning in these songs. For me it was enough that it transported me away from everyday cares to a glorious pop Heaven.
Paul Weller has a rival for the title Renaissance Man of Pop.
Taster Track : Loan Your Loneliness
Interplay : John Foxx and the Maths
This 2011 album successfully combines the clinical sound and emotional beauty of the best in electronic synth music.
John Foxx is one of electronic music’s underappreciated giants. His contribution to early synth pop was immense, establishing the clean, clinical sound adopted by others through the 80s. Ultravox were a much better proposition when he was in their ranks and quickly tailed off into a bloated, prog sounding band after he left.
With John Foxx there’s always a science fiction feel to his music, but it’s science fiction with a human element. These songs contain reflections, and a look back on life as lived by Dr Frankenstein. Imagine a sadder, lonelier C-3PO reminiscing on his/her life. You can hear it in a song such as ‘A Falling Star’.
For all the soundtracks to a sinister,dystopian world such as that portrayed in ‘Shatterproof’, there’s a song such as ‘Evergreen’ or ‘Summerland’ that has emotional beauty. The outro to ‘The Running Man’ anticipates later dance music before it went over the top, complete with a climactic drop. And ‘Catwalk’ reminds us that he could write a pop song as catchy as anything Depeche Mode achieved in their early days.
If you like electronic music or synth pop, this album has something for you.
Taster Track : Catwalk
Peace Or Love : Kings Of Convenience
This lovely collection of songs from Kings Of Convenience is long overdue, and a reminder that sometimes less can amount to a lot more.
Back in 2004, a compilation emerged called ‘Quiet Is The New Loud’. It introduced a number of acts who became indie folk / alt folk staples in the following decade and Kings of Convenience embodied that sound.
Their sound is gentle, almost to a fault. There’s no percussion here, it’s all quietly strummed guitars. It means that when occasional string flourishes add a bit of colour, such as on ‘Rocky Trail’ it transforms their sound.
It’s appropriate that the songs are inward looking. There’s gorgeous harmonising throughout, but when ‘Love Is A Lonely Thing’ and ‘Catholic Country’ open into a duet with Feist it comes as a shock to realise that we’re not just listening to one person’s internal world.
The songs, in fact the whole album, are carefully arranged, from the cover showing clean shapes and pastel colours to the songs which are fragile and transient like a spider’s web or a floating bubble. There’s a sense of distance, of being apart.
Careful. Subdued. Transient. None of these are words commonly used to describe music. Without strong, gorgeous melodies these songs would amount to very little. Thankfully they deliver fully on that score too.
Kings Of Convenience have been around since 2004, but it’s 12 years since their last album. This isn’t just a welcome return, or a return to form. It’s quite possibly their career best.
Taster Track : Rumours
Cold Wave : Various
(This isn't the actual image, which is a purple cover, with their title in orange and blurry notes drifting by in the background. It's on Spotify but i couldn't find the same image on Google. sorry for the confusion!)
This collection of cold wave music introduced me to a new genre of electronic music. It’s accessible music, worthy of attention.
I’ve stopped reviewing compilations even though I still take a lot of pleasure from them. A good compilation is full of promise. If one track isn’t to your liking, the next may blow you away. That’s how they differ from mood based, algorithm driven playlists which tell you that if you didn’t like this tearful bedsit based troubadour, maybe this other tearful bedsit based troubadour will be more to your liking.
I found though that how you felt about the music on compilations was too often determined about how you felt about the link that draws them together. I’ve made an exception for this Cold Wave compilation partly because it was a genre that was new to me but also because it doesn’t fit the explanation of cold wave that you find on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia describes cold wave : a loose music genre that emerged in Europe in the late 1970s, characterized by its detached lyrical tone, use of early electronic music instruments and a minimalist approach and style.
(It’s a contentious subject apparently so you can read more about it at Cold Wave)
This compilation shows it in a different light. A roster of the band names I recognised - Joy Division, New Order, Sisters Of Mercy, Telex, Echo and the Bunnymen, Alphaville, B Movie, Classix Nouveau, Devo and Re-Flex - aren’t particularly minimalist or detached. The bands I didn’t recognise are European,and that’s where cold wave really made an impact. You can see a clear link between these European songs and the synth pop that has emerged on the continent in the 21st century.
Here, Joy Division with ‘Interzone’ have never sounded more like a fully fledged rock band. Aviador Dro’s ‘Le Ciudad En Movimiento’ features synth horns - probably the first element you’d throw overboard if you were aiming for minimalism.
It doesn’t showcase cold and gloomy music either. Scala and Kolacny Brothers' take on Kraftwerk’s ‘Das Model’ brought a smile to my face. There’s a clean synthetic sound as if a number of music loving robots and computers had collaborated to show what they thought good music should sound like.
These are proper songs, not mood pieces. They’re the sound of a club for students who love music but can’t dance - the likes of me in other words.
Taster Track : Aprenda Aleman en 7 Dias - Derribos Arias
And All The Rest
Prosthetic Boombox : Cola Boyy
This loving tribute to 80s disco is cheesy and life affirming - and a lot cleverer than it first appears.
Think back to the 80s - a bright, technicolour decade of fun and sunshine but also an era of AIDS, poverty and intolerance. That's not a million miles from today if you ignore the bright technicolour dimension and substitute COVID-19 for AIDS. I think there’s something clever going on here using the sounds and lifestyle of the 80s as a prism to view the 2020s.
This is more than a retro album. It's a recreation of the sounds, style and lifestyle of a decade that’s now remembered through MTV as a period of over the top hedonism. The sting here is the Cola Boyy has spina bifida and neither the voice nor image to have been part of that scene. He’s a superfan for an unachievable dream. It’s a deeply nostalgic record in style and tone, a goodbye to something that’s over. It’s the soundtrack to a very intense and happy dream and it captures the realisation at the point of waking that that's all it was.
That may be overthinking things a lot. Musically you can hear this as a joyous recreation of 80s good time music complete with 80s synth, vocoder, thinned out edgy guitar and Prince style pop funk. It’s a highly enjoyable record. If we ever return to a form of lockdown, this would be an excellent starting point for your kitchen disco. The stand out track is ‘Don’t Forget Your Neighbourhood’ which is as catchy as a cricket ball coated in superglue!.
There are ten tracks on this album. The first nine follow the template described above. The tenth, ‘Kid Born In Space’, is an acknowledgement of reality. It’s a personal testimony of how it has felt to be Cola Boyy in the past, but it’s full of life affirming positivity.
I hope lots of people listen to this record and take from it joy, a few things to think about and a bucketful of fun.
Taster Track : Don't Forget Your Neighbourhood
Intruder : Gary Numan
In places Gary Numan’s latest may sound as harrowing and bleak as ever, but closer inspection reveals a human heart and a welcome softening of melody.
There are some acts that can’t help but be intimidating. The first, and I think only, time I listened to Slipknot I retreated from the speakers as I would from an unmuzzled dog poised to strike.
Gary Numan has, until now, occupied a similar space. Let’s not forget that as synth pop goes ‘Are Friends Electric’ was truly groundbreaking although as it turned out in the longer term it was very much at the softer end of his repertoire. Since then his records have had more anguish, more pain, more darkness than anyone should have to sing about. More fear too. Look at the cover. His pale face is streaked with blood. He’s dressed in a deep and heavy black and he looks sick and frightened.
But get to know this record and there’s still a dash of humanity that creeps in. It’s insecure and there’s more than a touch of despair but it’s human nonetheless. There’s no getting away from the fact that this is a soundtrack to an alienated, lonely and unhappy world but it doesn’t feel as if all hope has gone.
There are songs that sound as industrial and robotic as you would expect. Try ‘The Gift’, ‘The Chosen’ and ‘Is The World Not Enough?’ for that. But ‘When You Fall’ has a vocal melody that is more than a howl and ‘I Am Screaming’ has, whisper it softly, chart potential. ‘Now and Forever’ sounds like a threat as he sings it, but it has a human heart even if it’s a touch creepy in the same way as The Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take.’
For all the dystopian content and the sense of an actual and emotional post apocalyptic wasteland, it’s not a million miles from the journey taken by Depeche Mode from Top 10 pop ditties to something deeper and darker. It’s just that he’s gone deeper and darker for longer before surfacing into music that has at its heart good songs.
If not a revelation, this is definitely a pleasant surprise.
Taster Track : Now And Forever
The Wide Wide River : James Yorkston
James Yorkston’s take on Scottish folk is made less niche, but no less potent, by his collaboration with Sweden’s The Second Hand Orchestra.
Do you remember the early Windows computer game ‘Minesweeper’? How one judicious click would open up swathes of the board? Something similar is going on here, revealing a family tree of connections and new avenues to explore in music and in writing. Yorkston’s collaborators, The Second Hand Orchestra, have released a record in their own name which, on the basis of their contribution here, is well worth a listen. The leading light is the Peter, from Peter, Bjorn and John who had a ubiquitous hit with ‘Young Folk’ a few years ago. It also seems that Yorkston has written a book of his touring life which has been well reviewed. Finding that led me to another book about the Fife music scene covering Yorkston, King Creosote, KT Tunstall, the Beta Band and others. And all this is revealed before a note has been played.
As for the record itself, it has a richer sonic palette than on some of his previous records. That’s thanks to the Second Hand Orchestra who provide a ticking clock of an accompaniment. ‘Ella May Leather, allies Yorkston’s storytelling and way with words to an urgency provided by the piano and string notes of the orchestra. It’s a wash of music that softens and elevates the occasionally raw folk of Yorkston’s past. In fact this doesn’t sound like an out and out folk record at all. ‘To Sooth Her Wee Bit Sorrows’ might suggest otherwise with its title, but it flows as well as any electronic record thanks to its persistent and insistent bass.
James Yorkston’s take on folk has always offered more by way of storytelling, melody and invention. He has an attractive, familiar singing voice that’s hard to place, like a consistently good supporting actor who’s been in a number of your favourite films, delivering quality without hogging the limelight. Maybe it’s the accent shared with the Fife musical collective. Or maybe it’s a reminder of his own voice from years ago, and that’s testimony to how far his music has come.
For me, pure folk music requires commitment from the listener. There are barriers to overcome before you can taste the riches within. Here, Yorkston reduces the effort required without diminishing the rewards.
Taster Track : Choices Like Wide Rivers
Leafcutter : June Jones
This distinctive record lays bare the jumbled workings of the mind in a way that is both compelling and alienating.
The first thing that hits you in this record is the voice. Listen to it without knowing who you’re listening to, and you’ll be hard pressed to say if it belongs to a man or woman. It’s a deep voice with a masculine tone. This obsessed me briefly, so I did some detailed academic research for five minutes on Google. The lowest female voice is the contralto, and contralto singers include Annie Lennox, Cher and Amy Winehouse. She sounds deeper than any of those.
To put it mildly, this is a distinctive record. The voice asks you to recalibrate your expectations, and as a result you hear the songs as something new. It’s like those food tests and haute cuisine that offer something that looks like a hot dog but tastes like a banana.
It’s also a messed up and chaotic personal record, filled with scattergun memories tumbling out to be organised into something that makes sense. She sings on ‘Remember’ that “My mind is like a shopping mall food court.” and that’s an excellent way to describe the record. It makes sense if you spend time with it.
Another image that came to mind while listening to this is of a medical diagram showing the position of internal body parts. Those of a squeamish disposition, look away now.
It’s brutal but artistic, serving a functional purpose but also a work of art, compelling but alienating at the same time.
What we take away is the sound of a mind that’s been exposed. It’s a little too much at times. Sometimes a different point of view would be welcome to break the immediate intimacy.
It’s quite a lo fi record with a simple but effective synth and percussion backing. Again though, that draws you back to the lyrics and the voice. There’s no escaping those. You have to work hard to penetrate the songs but once you do there are lighter melodic touches to cling to.
Some records serve as therapy for the artist. This sounds like one of those. It’s challenging for the casual listener, but also interesting to hear the inner workings of one person’s attempt to make sense of it all.
Taster Track : Echo
Koozy !! : Kitten Pyramid
Kitty Pyramid can be best described as prog pop but that doesn’t fully capture its sense of down to earth fun.
Let’s deal with the prog pop label first. In bald terms, several of the songs, including ‘Aunty Mabel’ and ‘Leggy Friend’ are multi part songs. Their sound captures the epic in everyday life, in a down to earth kind of way.
In a way prog pop is a true description of the music, just as a true description of Charles Dickens is that he wrote long novels. What it doesn’t convey is the sheer joyous sense of life that bursts forth from every song. It starts as it means to go on. ‘Koozy’ is a sonic explosion of fun, all pounding drums and soaring brass. ‘Doughnuts’ is the album in a nutshell. It takes the everyday and the mundane, transforming them into a glorious uprising in primary colours.
There’s a sense of humour throughout. The cover is a 3D diagram of a kangaroo playing air guitar. And who has the wit to call their final song ‘Swan Song’? Kitten Pyramid, that’s who!
This is an original and welcome contribution to the current music scene with ear worms galore.
Taster Track : Doughnuts.
The Million Masks Of God : Manchester Orchestra
There are likeable elements in this collection of stadium ready, indie rock songs, but they’re in danger of being lost in the search for loud and epic grandeur.
Let’s make one thing clear upfront. They’re not an orchestra and they’re not from Manchester. If they were either of these things - and I know how large an orchestra can be - they’d likely have a more grippable sound. As it is, what they produce is less a spectacular firework display, and more akin to an explosion in a firework factory.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. There’s a lot going on that’s likeable. There’s a sweeping grandeur to some of the tracks, starting with ‘Inaudible’ that sets the template. Andy Hull’s vocals are particularly well suited to quieter emotional moments, and there’s some nice rhythmic work going on in ‘Let It Storm’.
It’s a personal record with its origins in the loss of a father, but it doesn’t sound personal. It sounds as if it’s made for stadium crowds. They’ve demonstrated on previous records that they can dial it down to good emotional effect. Here they don’t do so for more than a few bars.
For that reason I worry that it’s a tad overinflated. It’s impressive sounding but with too little substance, and loud but unobtrusive. There’s nothing wrong with it, I just hoped for more. They have the talent and the ideas to be more adventurous and varied. They should be the main event, but at the moment they sound like the soundtrack to the main event.
Dare I say it, but it sounds as if they have more than half an ear on the playlist market - understandable in this day and age, but disappointing when you sense that they have within them a truly classic record.
Taster Track : Manchester Orchestra
New Skin : Scott Matthews
Quality songwriting abounds on this album, which contains grown up songs created with TLC.
Who is Scott Matthews? Well, he’s an English singer songwriter from Wolverhampton, and this is his eighth record since 2004. I’d bet that despite radio airplay on Radio 2 and Radio 6 over the years, he’s not as well known as he could be. I don’t recall seeing more than the occasional review in the music press.
That’s a shame, because Scott provides grown up music that has had time, effort and probably money thrown at it over the years, and to lovely effect. There isn’t a filler or throwaway song on ‘New Skin’, and the songs certainly weren’t written in the back of the tour bus between gigs. He avoids easy choruses, and the effects and string arrangements are carefully handled and positioned.
That striving for perfection could become oppressive and overthought, but there are enough variations here to keep it interesting rather than obsessive. The way the pace picks up on ‘Our Time’ is one example. The eerie Christmas feel to ‘Morning’, arising from the anticipation in the lilt of the music is another.
He reminds me of Patrick Watson, a less highly dramatic Rufus Wainwright or a more luscious Damien Rice. (I try not to compare to other artists it’s likely people haven’t heard, but this is a good opportunity to flag the Pop In The Real World Shadowplay playlist where you can find examples of each artist.)
These songs are dreamlike and genuine. The vocals are almost tremulous, hinting at vulnerability, loss and regret. What you hope for in songs such as these is something that is momentous, yearning, emotional and full of melodies that make the hairs on your arms and the back of your neck stand up. It only needs one such song to make an album special and on this album that song is ‘Wait In The Car’.
At a time when songs, and even albums, are aimed at the same sounding playlists it’s a pleasure to hear something that is more concerned with delivering the best possible song. This album falls in that category.
Taster Track : Wait In The Car
Songs From A Haunted Ballroom : The Skids
This collection of covers from The Skids is fun and shows impeccable musical taste, but for the most it remains too faithful to the originals to offer anything new.
Lockdown seems to have triggered a number of covers albums and, for each of them, we need to decide if we’re being asked to admire their taste in songs, or their execution. Has the band added something of their own to the originals?
These are undeniably good songs. ‘Young Savage’, ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’, ‘Heart of the City’, The Light Pours Out Of Me’ - the list goes on and on. They’re a love letter to an era and an excellent primer for younger listeners. But if they’re not properly owned by the band, they’re little more than high quality karaoke or a tribute act. You might as well make a playlist of the originals.
It’s two of the earlier songs that fare best. ‘New York Groove’ is a little faster but loses the distinctiveness of Hello’s version. The cover of David Essex’s ‘Rock On’ truly breaks the mould of the rest of the album. It’s a rockier take on his version and what it loses in atmosphere it makes up for with being a vehicle for more personal memories and spoken reminiscences.
They’ve covered two of their own songs too. ‘The Saints Are Coming’ sounds as good as ever, but is so similar to the original to raise the question “Why bother?” And ‘Into The Valley’ sounds faster but they’ve lost the adrenaline thrill when the drums arrive after 14 seconds and that’s a shame.
In a nutshell, this collection can’t help but cheer you up while you’re pottering around the kitchen. It may remind you of songs that changed your life but it’s just a small step to listen to the actual songs. Why settle for copies when you can have the originals?
Taster Track : Rock On
Meat Is Murder : The Smiths
A few weeks ago I mentioned that there were a number of very big bands and performers that had completely passed me by. One of those bands was The Smiths. I’d never heard a full album by them, and I’d only picked up on a handful of songs on the radio. Had I had a lucky escape, or had I missed out on an indie music gem? One of our members, John Takacs, recommended ‘Meat As Murder’ as away of finding out.
It has always bemused that they didn’t cross my radar. On the face of it, they were the saviours of guitar based indie at a time when Duran Duran and their ilk were showing exactly what could be done with a mega budget, a screaming fanbase of millions, a proto Trip Advisor account set as far from suburbia as it was possible to get, and no good songs. The thing was though that they were active from 1982 - 1987, the period between my leaving university and the birth of our second child. The period that is of low paid work, wedding expenses, new mortgages and expensive baby equipment. Add to that a wife whose almost infinite charms stopped short of a shared musical taste and stalled at a shared collection of Now compilations and the Les Miserables OST. All good stuff but narrow in scope.
By the mid 90s, music was back in the family budget but by then Morrissey was a thing. A thing, that is, that seemed arrogant, outspoken, held dubious views and acted as though these were more important than the music. He referred to himself as Morrissey, and expected everyone to call him that rather than by his Christian name, the rather out of this world Steven. And by the 90s, even Johnny Marr seemed on the slide - a journeyman gun for hire, and a solo performer who was ok but not outstanding.
So, what about Meat Is Murder as an album? It was The Smiths second album and their only number one. Neither of its singles 'Barbarism Begins At Home’ and ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Any More’ made the Top 20.
From the outset there seems to be a massive tension at the heart of this record. Johnny Marr’s indie sensitivities are constantly battling with, and trying to tether Morrissey’s flamboyant vocals. It’s like going out to fly a kite and being given a string attached to a Zeppelin. Where Johnny Marr’s confident mastery of musical styles - indie jangle, rockabilly and whatever genre covers ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore ' - holds sway I can see how they might have been perceived as the almost perfect indie band. I wasn’t prepared for the variety of musical styles. It’s their greatest strength in my opinion. In the spirit of the times, it’s a bold move to end ‘Barbarism Begins at Home’ with a disco fade out. But where Morrissey’s vocals disconnect from the rest of the song, are sung at different pace and give full rein to his vocal tics and mannerisms my main reaction is irritation.
Without Morrissey, The Smiths could still have been huge. Without Johnny Marr I’m not sure they could have been. It’s Morrissey’s tragedy that he ruined The Smiths. It’s Johnny Marr’s tragedy he was never as good again.
(I thought it fair to ask John Takacs, who recommended the album, to comment. He writes:)
“IMHO, this is their most satisfying album and I like the variation across the tracks. Interesting what you said about the tension. I get that, but funnily enough also I thought this album was the one where all four band members came together most effectively - Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke make a really good contribution here and prove you need a good drummer and bassist to bind things together. I think they still needed Morrissey, but it is definitely Marr that makes them. And Marr hasn't turned into a bitter and twisted old tosser like Morrissey has.”
All views in this extract are John’s own. I’ve never thought Morrissey was old.
Taster Track : Barbarism Begins At Home