9 January 2007
Panic on the Streets of Helsinki?
Posted by Dexter M under: Uncategorized .
I was a teenager in the eighties, and The Smiths provided me with an idea salve for my teenage angst. It seemed like a turning point - musically and politically when they split in the autumn of 1987 - the same year I started at Cardiff University (or UWIST as it was then).
The handful of albums full of poignant, witty, funny, sad, pretentious and utterly on-the-button pop songs can still move me even now. However, after an initially promising start with Viva Hate, Morrissey as a solo artist has always been a bit hit and miss for me - whilst I love Vauxhall and I, I’ve never been as bowled over by much since his first solo effort.
Now the Smiths generation has reached their mid-to-late 30s, and have a bit more buying power than in their student days, the former Smiths vocalist has seen something of a revival over the last few years. Cybercontroler Daz and Foxytallchick went to see him at his recent Nottingham gig and have written enthusiastically about it.
So, when today, the BBC revealed that he has been approached to write and perform an entry for Royume Uni in the Eurovision Song Contest, many people were a bit bemused. Perhaps they forget what a truly great pop artist he can be - hell he even worked with Sandi Shaw early on in The Smiths carrier. Of course, he’d still have t go through the qualification process like all the other hopefuls, but who knows? What the hell eh - if a pantomime heavy metal band and an Israeli transsexual can win it, why not the former daffodil waving, hearing aid wearing veggie evangelist himself.
While we’re at it why not field some of our other great pop artists like Neil Hannon (aka The Divine Comedy) or Saint Etienne (that would confuse the French!)