Morrissey

nimmt Stellung

04.12.2007, 17:00, Text: Johannes Mihram

Im morgen erscheinenden Guardian verteidigt sich Morrissey gegen Rassismus-Vorwürfe des NME aus der letzten Woche, wir berichteten. Der früherere Sänger von The Smiths findet von Anfang an klare Worte: \\"On Friday of last week I issued writs against the NME and its editor Conor McNicholas as I believe they have deliberately tried to characterise me as a racist in a recent interview I gave them in order to boost their dwindling circulation (...) I abhor racism and oppression or cruelty of any kind… racism is beyond common sense and I believe it has no place in our society.\\" Morrissey vermutet hinter dem Vorgehen des NME Rachegelüste des Chefredakteurs Conor McNicholas, weil der Musiker nicht an einer Award-Show des Blatts teilgenommen hatte - was er ohnehin nie tut - und den ihm angebotenen Godlike Genius Award abgelehnt hatte. Weiter sagt der Wahl-Römer über McNicholas: \\"Uniquely deprived of wisdom (…) Conor doesn't understand how the relentless stream of \\"cheers mate, got pissed last night, ha ha\\" interviews that clutter every single issue of the \\"new\\" NME are simply not interesting to those of us who have no trouble standing upright.\\"

Hart ins Gericht geht Morrissey aber auch mit Tim Jonze, der mit ihm das Interview geführt und sich später von der gedruckten Version distanziert hatte: \\"I do not mean to be rude to Tim Jonze, but when I first caught sight of him I assumed that someone had brought their child along to the interview. The runny nose told the whole story. Conor had assured [me] that Tim was their best writer. Talking behind his hands in an endless fidget, Tim accepted every answer I gave him with a schoolgirl giggle, and repeatedly asked me if I was shocked at how little he actually knew about music. I told him that, yes, I was shocked. It was difficult for me to believe that the best writer from the \\"new\\" NME had never heard of the song 'Drive-in Saturday'; I explained that it was by David Bowie, and Tim replied \\"Oh, I don't know anything about David Bowie.\\" I wondered how it could be so - how the quality of music journalism in England could have fallen so low that the prime \\"new\\" NME writer knew nothing of David Bowie, an artist to whom most relevant British artists are indebted, and one who single-handedly changed British culture - musically and otherwise.\\" Einen Dialog der beiden gibt Morrissey so wieder:

\\"Me: 'If you walk down Knightsbridge you'll be hard-pressed to hear anyone speaking English.'
Tim: 'I don't think that's true. You're beginning to sound like my parents.'
Me: 'Well, when did you last walk down Knightsbridge?'
Tim: 'Ummm.... Knightsbridge ....is that where Harrods is?'
So, Tim was prepared to attack and argue the point without even being clear about where Knightsbridge actually is! The \\"new\\" NME strikes again. Oh dear, I thought, not again.\\"

Er könne gar kein Rassist sein, sagt der Mozzer, denn \\"Conor would be repulsed by my vast collection of World Cinema films, by my adoration of James Baldwin, my love of Middle-Eastern tunings, Kazem al-Saher, Lior Ashkenazi, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and he would be repulsed to recall a quote as printed in his magazine in or around August of this year wherein I said that my ambition was to play concerts in Iran.\\" Vom derzeitigen NME hält der Brite absolut gar nichts: \\"It is on the backs of writers such as Morley, Burchill, Kent and Shaar Murray that the \\"new\\" NME hitches its mule-cart, assuming equal relevance. But the stalled views of the \\"new\\" NME sag, and readers have been driven away by a magazine with no insides. The narrow cast of repeated subjects sets off the agony, a mesmerizing mess of very brief and dispassionate articles unable to make thought evolve; a marooned editor who holds the divine right to censor any views that clash with his own.\\"

Wer dem \\"eNeMEy\\" dennoch ein Interview geben wolle, dem wünscht der Sänger viel Glück und empfiehlt nachdrücklich, sich von einem Anwalt begleiten zu lassen.

.: www.morrisseymusic.com :.
.: www.myspace.com/morrissey :.