"The whole thing," says Morrissey, with a characteristic turn of phrase, "is so completely heavenly..."

 

Or, to put it another way, everything is coming up roses. Over a year ago now, guitarist Johnny Marr 'discovered' Morrissey, put him in front of a microphone, and said "sing, sing, sing." And so, as Morrissey says, "I sung, sung, sung."

 

From the very start, the Smiths set out to win a wide audience, and they seem to be succeeding. The fans love them, the music press love them, John Peel and David Jensen love them, and, amongst all the other flattering reviews they have been getting, even Paul Morley devoted half a week's single review page to raving about them.

 

As Johnny Marr explains, sitting in their dressing room before another London gig, their ambition is an uncomplicated one. "We just want to convert everyone to our way of thinking, that's all" — which is exactly what they have set about doing.

 

Whatever their considerable merits, the Smiths have been helped along this path by the state of extreme introversion that has gripped the more creative side of the English music business over the last few years, and this is something they recognise.

 

"No-one seems to be ambitious any more," observes Morrissey. "There's just this very inverted 'let's keep ourselves to ourselves' attitude. They all say 'yes, we know everything, but we're not telling anyone else' ... It's really stupid, like diving into a trap willingly."

 

Looking up from under his mop of hair, Johnny Marr agrees with him. "I'd really hate it if we cut off our noses to spite our face like they do. We'd just be closing doors on ourselves, when really we want to be massive. We want to attain the highest position possible so we have the power to get our music across, and pollute people's homes with it."

 

Morrissey again: "We want our audience to be as large as possible. There's no point in having very strong views and hiding them away. You have to reach as many people as you can — to stretch your abilities as far as they can go. It's constantly construed that our attitude about this embodies some kind of outright arrogance, but there's no sense in being sheepish and po-faced."

 

Johnny and Morrissey simply do not understand groups that seem to have less all-embracing ambitions than their own. They have nothing other than contempt for bands that have rejected the mass market.

 

"So many popular groups within recent years have seen having a big audience as some kind of stain. The auditorium bit is still inked with so many unwanted faces from the Sixties, but I think it's there to be grabbed and utilised."

 

This means that no part of the media is taboo when it comes to spreading the Smiths' gospel.

 

"We want to be on Top of the Pops whenever we can," says Marr. "We'd be really foolish if we said we're not doing the whole sell-out trip. We really should be up there on all these television programmes giving them some sort of credibility."

 

Morrissey takes over the point. "So many people don't talk to the press or appear on TV. You can only presume that it's due to their absolute lack of imagination that they cannot utilise these mediums."

 

"You don't have to deface the set or kill the DJ. Just do what you do and if that isn't enough you shouldn't be here."

 

A cynical observer might add that using the media is a good way to sell records, and that selling records can be a good way to make a lot of money.

 

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"Well," says Morrissey, "when you see that the money is there, that somebody has to have it, and that most of the people who do have it are totally brainless, it gives you some incentive to say, well, I'm having the money. But there's this kind of underhanded slur about being a pop figure — that it's embarrassing in some way — but I feel that the kind of people that hold this position are entirely shallow creatures anyway."

 

But isn't there the danger that if the Smiths participate fully in the pop business that they could get sucked up in the inertia of the whole thing and end up sounding as bland as everyone else?

 

Morrissey doesn't see this as a problem. "I think you can do almost anything in this business and walk away with the height of credibility. If you have enough faith in yourself, and there is enough depth in what you are doing, then nothing should crush you. You could appear on Crackerjack every night of the week and still be considered the most intellectual group imaginable."

 

All the same, the Smiths have already found that the media can be a fickle ally. In the rush to find a pigeon hole to put the Smiths in, the band was quickly stereotyped along with Aztec Camera as part of some kind of hippy revival.

 

Morrissey still sounds a little put out when the subject is brought up. "The hippie thing is entirely monotonous," he drawls. "I'm just really tired of the whole thing. It's completely lazy journalism. They look no further than the flowers and say, 'Aha! Hippiedom! It couldn't possibly be anything else.' Anything trivial like that simply bores us to death."

 

But the Smiths have also encountered the unhealthier side of the press in the form of allegations in the Sun. These are of course the dangers of touching on that rather tricky area of human relationships — sex — which crops up explicitly in some of their songs and is hinted at darkly in others. Morrissey is still very sensitive to the mention of the topic.

 

"Well it's intriguing when you think that I make so many statements saying that I have quite a minimal interest in sex and then all the questions are entirely related to sex. It's just like saying that I'm not very interested in the country Austria, and then everyone persistently asking me about the Austrian government. It's strange the way people are."

 

This may be an ingenious line of argument, but if Morrissey has only a minimal interest in sex, how come it appears so much in his songs?

 

"But I mean it's sex," he answers. "It's this enormous blanket, and there are so many implications that can be put onto it. As far as the press see it what I do lyrically can almost be interpreted as obscene, which of course it never can be.

 

"I think it's a sad reflection on modern journalism that this thing constantly comes up. To us it's just like asking about our verukas or something. Simply to concentrate on one small distasteful aspect really belittles everything else we do."

 

Okay. Point taken — time to change the subject. So what about the 'Morrissey's tragic childhood' bit that everyone keeps reading about?

 

"It was just isolation. 'Tragic' makes me sound like I was a part-time axe murderer as a six-year-old child. No, it was just a time of immense isolation, which seemed quite tragic to me."

 

"It was because nobody liked him," adds Johnny maliciously.

 

"I was raised in dire poverty," continues Morrissey. "We never had money or socks of anything, and I think that had a great influence on me."

 

So how much is the person he projects into his songs a real one, or is it just an image of some kind?

 

"The songs are completely personal. I flee from the word image because it implies something that you buy and take home in a box. No, we're naked before the world. We just rip our hearts open and this is how we are. My hand moves the pen."

 

The interview comes to a close and a German radio team take over a task of interrogating the Smiths. They question Morrissey earnestly about the meaning behind his songs. What the German avant-garde, still busy beating bits of metal, will make of this God only knows, but here you have the Smiths in action, using the media wherever they come across it. Later that night the Smiths take the stage, performing to one of the most enjoyable responsive audiences I have ever been part of. Morrissey brandishes a bunch of gladioli, swinging it around his head like a sword, ripping his heart open and naked before the world once again."

 

 

"It was because nobody liked him"

 

Now, too many people like him :lol:

 

Nice interview