“Also with the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears. So the price is enormous.

“If you travel to Germany, it’s still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity. But travel to England and you have no idea where you are.”

He added: “The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in. The British identity is very attractive, I grew up into it and I find it quaint and very amusing.

“Other countries have held on to their basic identity yet it seems to me that England was thrown away.”

“You’ll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent.”

Maybe I am losing my marbles but what is racist about that?

It seems to have caused a stir with the Unite Against Fascism ect all calling him racist.

England is over-crowded with immigrants, the housing situation is on it's knees and immigrants and asylum seekers are getting higher priority for houses (which I know for a fact) , it is predicted that in some towns and cities whites will become the minority. It's not racist to say that, we do have problems with immigration to deny that is insane.

This article is also insane: http://www.blink.org.uk/pdescription.as ... 82&cat=414

Am I the only one who thinks this all a bit over the top. He's not said anything racist as he hasn't attacked a race.

quoted by Morrissey who NOW LIVES IN ROME!!

This...

...and this...

...are bollocks. That's what's wrong with it.

I've been back and forth to Britain quite a bit since the summer. I know what I'm talking about. Britain still feels overwhelmingly British.

Of course people who don't like wogs tend to notice them more don't they.

I can't disagree Chip, apart from pointing out it is in fact the 21st Century now.

when morrissey was in manchester writing about 80's drudgery you could believe him,now he's lived abroad so much that he's become a cabaret star and he can't speak for anyone but himself.
That said the NME have stiched him up royally, they have got on their moral high horse about this one. They have no problem promoting other acts with right wing and other dodgy views.
by the way I still love most of Morrissey's work you are the quarry is the dog's testicles.

Bit of a sweeping statement there Mr Head. There is no way our capital city is overwhelmingly British.

Go and live abroad then come back to the UK and see if it still feels British, even London. You might be surprised.

Or if you're talking specifically about "ghettoes" you'll find them in nearly every Western country.

Morrissey's choice of Knightsbridge as an example is laughable. It's not exactly part of your typical British village/town/city is it? I'm a big Morrissey fan but even I can't escape the fact he's as shrewd as he is miserable. This just smacks of self-publicity - say something controversial and the NME (who ceased being relevant a long time ago) will be thick enough to fall for it, the wider media will latch onto it and Morrissey is then able to claim he's the real victim.

"it is predicted that in some towns and cities whites will become the minority."

Implication - any other colour just ain't 'British'. I don't think so. How would a black British citizen born and bred in the UK feel reading this. One day it's the east Europeans, next it's niggers and day after that goodness knows what else. Dangerous territory I reckon. And doesn't Germany have more Turks than any where other than Turkey - or are the Turks excluded for some reason.

'Please please let me get what I want this time' has certainly gone to Mr Morrisey's head. And this ain't the first time.

Anyway what's white - most of us are a mix of much earlier immigrants. Ghettos not immigrants are the problem for me. Ghettos of British ex pats being the worst. No the Uk still rules OK.

I'll think of Mr Morrisey tonight as I tuck into my Lamb Sag

Anyone think he's only doing this to get in the tabloids and promote his tour without even trying?

The last time I went to see The Smyths at the Studio there were a couple of blokes dressed like him, hearing aid and all. For a tribute band! Very strange.

There's something about Turks being allowed into Germany for work purposes but they'e not allowed to become German citizens in-spite of contributing their taxes etc. Sounds German to me.

Everybodies opinions on things are different thank god, maybe the bloke is on about the culture of the country etc.

I think immigration is an issue that shouldnt be shied away from and that people shouldnt be called racist for bringing the issue up in a balanced and non racist way. Obviously some Britons feel threatened by the influx, even though the country has been built on it since the year dot.
However, the homeless hostel I work for was taken over by Your Homes Newcastle two years ago, who provide 33,000 council houses in the city and I know for a definite fact that assylum seekers do not get higher priority whatsoever. In fact, if you are seeking assylum then you have to go to a designated place, not a council house. If you are granted leave to remain in the uk, then you have 28 days to leave this base and even if you havent got anywhere you are kicked out. A very few sleep on the streets but the vast majority are put up by mates who already have somewhere to live. You then join the rest of the throng to find a council house but you dont have a priority. In Newcastle you get allocated a council house depending on the length of stay in your current residence (as long as its in Newcastle) so that leaves immigrants (not assylum seekers any more) as fucked as the majority of people I'm afraid.

Well said BWH top post everybody should be able to voice an opinion without it being shot down, i personally feel like the country has lost a lot of its culture ie the so called royal family a bit of a joke.

Now that sounds like exploitation

For me the question - is Britain overcrowded - is a legitimate ask. It becomes a problem when 'colour' and 'over crowding' are linked. But a debate is important and should be had providing all sides avoid the racist bits and stick to the issue which is surely how many folk can Britain accommodate? Where they come from is surely irrelevant .

I agree we are over-crowded for houses, we can not afford to let more people in the country. It can takes year for a homeless person (Who is kipping on sofas of friends/relatives houses) to get a home.

What I should have said is that some immigrants are struggling to fit into society and are not learning the English language and society is a lot less well knit than it used to be.

Nobody has mentioned colour and over-crowding. If we are over-crowded should we letting immigrants in?

Do we currently have the resources to house them?

Anyhow, the main thing I was getting at was that it's a sad time when you can't debate things like immigration without being called racist.

Replace English with Spanish and you have exactly the same problem that Spain is having, but with our fellow countrymen as the cause this time. Or is that ok because they've got money?

A commune of ex pats is a terrible thing in my book - full of folk trying to build a little bit of England (normally the bit they found down the Rotary Club) on foreign soil.

Spain's problem is not the Brits, its the hoards of Eastern Europeans roaming around robbing people at gunpoint in their own homes. I have some knowledge of this so trust me they much prefer the Brits.

I passed withing inches of a previous/recent Dr Who yesterday in Manchester. Going about his business he was, free from any hassle.

A man with a twig in his back pocket is always gonna be odd.

Strange one this. As you can probably tell by my avatar I'm a massive fan of yer man and particularly The Smiths.......but I've always found his right wing comments on "foreigners" weird, especially from someone who portrayed himself as a socialist and humanist in the 80's.
My own opinion on immigration is that generally it has been a very positive thing, and i hate ex-pats who slag England off especially ones who blame the countries so called downfall on the influx of immigrants, the vast majority of which are hard working decent people trying to improve their lives.
So how come I still love Morrisey. First of all you can only judge an artist by his art. In my opinion Morrisey is one of (if not the) most influential and radical voices in British music. Listen to The Queen is Dead, Hatful of Hollow,Vauxhall and I, You are the quarry- and tell me he's overrated.
I also dont believe he is genuinely rascist, he says in the article that rascism is stupid, the editor of the NME(comic btw) has said that Morrisey is obviously not rascist. If he really did think of people as "wogs" and "pakis" I would hate his guts.........
Last album was crap mind.

Further developments:

Morrissey is sueing the NME for slander.

The article is credited to "Interview - Tim Jonze; Words - NME". The NME reworded the questions.

The interviewer asked for his name to be removed.

Morrissey's lawyers have accused NME editors of doing a "hatchet job".

I was surprised he agreed to be interviewed by them at all, they were always going to stitch him up good and proper.

As much as I love the Smiths,Mozza should pack in

Well let all the people who have no problem with immigation pay more council tax and income tax to help them or even better move a few of them in to there house for awhile. any takers

Words fail me, for once!

I haven't got a problem with immigration.

Well, after all, I'm an immigrant.

Locals are up in arms like......'you come over here, spending all that money and contributing to the society....teaching our kids your fancy dan Hartlepool ways....cah!! Allagever now....'Send the buggers back............''

Morrissey hits back...

On Friday of last week I issued writs against the NME (New Musical Express) 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 and will not let this pass without being absolutely clear and emphatic with regard to what my position is.

Racism is beyond common sense and I believe it has no place in our society.

To anyone who has shown or felt any interest in my music in recent times, you know my feelings on the subject and I am writing this to apologize unreservedly for granting an interview to the NME. I had no reason whatsoever to assume that they could be anything other than devious, truculent and unreliable. In the event, they have proven to be all three.

The NME have, in the past, offered me their “Godlike Genius Award” and I had politely refused. With the Tim Jonze interview, the Award was offered once again, this time with the added request that I headline their forthcoming awards concert at the O2 Arena, and once again I declined it. This is nothing personal against the NME, although the distressing article would suggest the editor took it as such. My own view is that award ceremonies in pop music are dreadful to witness and are simply a way of the industry warning the artist "see how much you need us" - and, yes, the "new" NME is very much integrated into the industry, whereas, deep in the magazine's empirical history, the New Musical Express was a propelling force that answered to no one. It led the way by the quality of its writers – Paul Morley, Julie Burchill, Paul du Noyer, Charles Shaar Murray, Nick Kent, Ian Penman, Miles – who would write more words than the articles demanded, and whose views saved some of us, and who pulled us all away from the electrifying boredom of everything and anything that represented the industry. As a consequence the chanting believers of the NME could not bear to miss a single issue; the torrential fluency of its writers left almost no space between words, and the NME became a culture in itself, whereas Melody Maker or Sounds just didn't. Into the 90s, the NME's discernment and polish became faded nobility, and there it died – but better dead than worn away. The wit imitated by the 90s understudies of Morley and Burchill assumed nastiness to be greatness, and were thus rewarded. But nastiness isn't wit and no writers from the 90s NME survive. Even with sarcasm, irony and innuendo there is an art, of sorts. Now deep in the bosom of time, it is the greatness of the NME's history on which the “new” NME assumes its relevance.

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.

The editorial treatment given to my present interview with the "new" NME is the latest variation on an old theme, but like a pre-dawn rampage, the effects of the interview have been meticulously considered with obvious intentions. It is true that the magazine is ailing badly in the market place, but 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. Strangely enough, my own name is the only one featured in the "new" NME that links their present with the NME's distant past, therefore a Morrissey interview is an ideal opportunity with which to play the editorial naughtiness game.

This, regrettably, is what has taken place with this most recent interview, which, it need hardly be said, bears no relation in print to the fleshly conversation that took place.

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 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.

Tim's line of questioning advanced with: "What about politics, then ... the state of the world?" - which, I was forced to assume, was a well-thought-out question. It was from here that the issue of immigration - but not racism - arose.

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.

I chose to mention Knightsbridge because it had always struck me as one of the most stiffly British spots in London. I am sorry Tim, but you are not yet ready to interview anyone responsibly.

When my comments are printed in the "new" NME they are butchered, re-designed, re-ordered, chopped, snipped and split in order to make me seem racist and unreasonable. Tim had told me about his friend who did not like the 1991 song Bengali In Platforms because the friend had thought the song attacked him on a personal level. I explained to Tim that the song was not about his friend. In print, the "new" NME do not explain this, but attempt to multiply the horror of Tim's friend by attributing "these people" and "those people" quotes to me - terms I would never use, but are useful to the "new" NME in their Morrissey-is-racist campaign because these terms are only used by people who are cold and indifferent and Thatcherite. All of the people I spoke to Tim about in the interview who are heroes to me and who are Middle-Eastern or of other ethnic backgrounds were of no interest to either Tim or Conor. Clearly, Tim had been briefed and his agenda was to cook up a sensational story that would give life to the "new" NME as a must-read national if not global shock-horror story. Recalling how Tim asked me to sign some CD covers, I do not blame him entirely. If Conor can provoke bureaucratic outrage with this Morrissey interview, then he can whip up support for his righteous position as the morally-bound and armoured editor of his protected readership - even though, by re-modelling my interview into a multiple horror, Conor has accidentally exposed himself as deceitful, malicious, intolerant and Morrissey-ist -all the ist's and ism's that he claims to oppose. Uniquely deprived of wisdom, 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.

My heart sank as Tim Jonze let slip the tell-all editorial directive behind this interview: "It's Conor's view that Morrissey thinks black people are OK ...but he wouldn't want one living next door to him." It was then that I realized the full extent of the setup, and I felt like Bob Hoskins in the final frame of The Long Good Friday as he sits in the back of the wrong getaway car realizing the extent of the conspiratorial slime that now trapped him.

During the interview Tim asked if I would support the "Love Music Hate Racism” campaign that the NME had just written about and my immediate response was a yes as I had shown my support previously by going to one of their first benefit gigs a few years ago and had met some of their organizers as well as having signed their statement. Following the interview I asked my manager to get in touch with the NME and to pledge my further support to the campaign as I wanted there to be no ambiguity on where I stood on the subject. This was done in a clear and direct email to Conor McNicholas on the 5th of November, which went ignored and last week we found out that it had never even been presented to anyone at the campaign as that would obviously not have suited what we now know to be the NME’s agenda. I am pleased to say that we have now had direct dialogue with "Love Music Hate Racism" and all of our UK tour advertising in 2008 will carry their logo and we will also be providing space in the venues for them to voice and spread their important message, which I endorse.

Who's to say what you should or shouldn't do? The IPC have appointed Conor as the editor of the "new" NME, and there he remains, ready to drag the IPC into expensive legal battles such as the one they now face with me due to Conor's personal need to misstate, misreport, misquote, misinterpret, falsify, and incite the bloodthirsty. Here is proof that the "new" NME will twist and pervert the views of any singer or musician who'd dare step into the interview ring. To such artists, I wish them well, but I would advise you to bring your lawyer along to the interview.

My own place, now and forevermore, shall not be with the "new" NME - and how wrong my face even looks on its cover. Of this, I am eternally grateful.

an excellent riposte from mozzer, i thought. i've not added to this thread, despite being a massive fan of the smiths and morrissey, as i suspected that he could answer his critics (both in the press and the sheeplike responses on here) far more eloquently than i ever could. and he's just proved it. whatever you think of him, love him or loathe him or feign total indifference, the idea that he would either hold or broadcast racist views is utterly laughable.

its amazing that there are certain posters on here who play the cynic 24-7, disbelieving not only everything that they read in the paper, but also ridiculing the pr output of our local mp and the club they profess to 'follow'. Yet the same people readily accepted an interview in a failing music rag, desperate to hark back to the glory days where it actually mattered and was taken seriously. Why ? Why not turn the illuminating powers of their intellect on the supposed 'source' of the latest bit of tittle tattle ? They don't believe anything else that comes out of the press, but they'll get their thongs in a twist over the most illogical, ill-conceived interview in the music press this year.

i'm not sure what your point is ? morrissey has given an interview, and it has been edited by the nme editor to the extent that the original interviewer has disowned it entirely. but you and the intelligentsia still say its gospel proof that morrissey is racist.

so that's like me putting in print that jon daly is the world's greatest footballer, and it suddenly being true, just because i've written it.

He's saying, and I agree with him, that this affair has been somewhat stage managed from the start. I don't think he's a racist and I am a big fan of his but this whole thing smacks of publicity. Oh, the reason Tim Jonze disowned the article was because he didn't think the NME was hard enough on Morrissey, not because he thought it had been altered to put Mozza in a bad light.

i have no doubt that most music magazine interviews are done for publicity of some shape or form, that's almost a given. But that isn't the issue, is it ? It's people taking the interview utterly at face value and believing everything they read. anyway, morrissey's rebuttal puts it better than me.

are we knocking morrissey for looking for publicity now ?

i think if you read some of the correspondence from the so called journalist here http://www.true-to-you.net/ those defending the musical equivalent of the sun will see what a spineless rag it has become.

When Smash Hits went out of business, NME tried to absorb it's market and that's when I stopped buying it. Even the gig guide was shite. Morriseys description of their interviews (Cheers mate, got pissed last night, HA HA) is absolutely spot on.

Sadly between NME and the Madonna/Kylie/rap-gun violence worshipping Q there is no middle ground. Someone should address that.

I stopped buying Q about 4 or 5 years ago, after the most innacurate glastonbury review, I was at most of the performances it reviewed, songs were metioned that the bands didn't even do..... the Q is the monthly NME, and the endless '100 records we say you should buy' lazy lists give me MOJO, The Word and Uncut anyday.....

I agree with palesaint. The Word is a geniunely excellent read from start to finish. As for the NME, they can f-off, and when they get there, they can f-off again! How can any credit be given to a publication who's annual highlight is 'the cool list'

Artrocker magazine

it's to your eternal credit that you've neither allowed your personal view of morrissey to colour your view of the case, nor have you applied any sweeping generalisations

oh, hang on.....

I reckon Morrissey probably really did say some dodgy things.

His "If you walk down Knightsbridge you’ll be hard-pressed to hear anyone speaking English" hardly gets him off the hook does it, and in any case it's a stupid statement. People come from all over the world to go to Harrods. When he says "it had always struck me as one of the most stiffly British spots in London" I think he's getting it mixed up with Sloane Square.
Knightsbridge is and always has been every time I've been to London the one place where you are guaranteed to be outnumbered by tourists.

But come on now we know he wasn't talking about tourists. Anyone who believes so is kidding themselves about their racial tolerance.

now that i can believe (well the first bit anyway)

Can I interject and say Morrisey is a bounder, a gay, trapped in 1972, from Monchesta, and is a bounder?

by all means

I may be a little out of touch with the Music Press, having stopped reading my particular favourite, Sounds, in the mid 70's. But if Morrissey has such a low opinion, as it appears he already had, of NME, why did he even agree to an interview with the 'Musical equivalent of the Sun'. I have no particular bias with regard to his music, as the only song I can honestly say I know of his/The Smiths is 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'. Which ensured I never bothered to listen to anything else he was involved with. Maybe I do have a bias after all!

there's a million blokes who could easily have been pop stars/football managers if they'd wanted to but decided they would much rather work 40 hours a week in an office. fair play to them.

Morrisey should be working for the DSS or some other lickspittle bone-idle local authority type setup, it would suit his persona down to a tee

a reunited smiths to headline glasto 2008 anyone? no such thing as bad publicity.
I love and hate morrissey in roughly equal proportions depending on what day you ask me,a bit like richie barker in that respect.

No such thing as bad publicity?

What about Chris Langham and Gary Glitter ?

Swans sing before they die, -t'were no bad thing
Should certain persons die before they sing.

S.T Coleridge

Can you post one or two of your better songs than Morrissey on here? I like songs and poems