Morrissey has recorded a cover of The Pretenders’ 1982 single “Back on the Chain Gang” — which the former Smiths frontman has taken to playing live of late — in a Los Angeles studio and intends to release it this summer as a single, according to a post on his new Morrissey Central website.
In a trainwreck that just keeps getting worse, Mike Joyce today announced that he, too, will not take part in the Classically Smiths live shows he began teasing last week, saying he’d been barred from revealing Andy Rourke wouldn’t be taking part when the project was announced Monday.
After cryptic hints Friday, the cat’s now out of the bag: The Smiths’ Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, plus “fifth member” Craig Gannon, will perform the band’s beloved songs backed by a full orchestra in the U.K. this summer, the Manchester Evening News reported today. No dates have yet been announced.
It appears that Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke, the rhythm section of The Smiths, are planning something — a concert? a full tour? — this year with Craig Gannon, the onetime Aztec Camera member who toured with The Smiths as a second guitarist toward the end of the band’s life.
Morrissey’s cancellation as headliner of tonight’s KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show left The Killers as the evening’s closing act, and Brandon Flowers and Co. took the opportunity to give fans what they weren’t getting, covering both The Smiths’ “This Charming Man” and Moz’s own “Everyday is Like Sunday.”
In what will come as a surprise to absolutely no one, Morrissey has canceled his headlining appearance at KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas in Los Angeles on Sunday, the radio station announced this evening, citing illness in the wake of his two previously scrubbed shows this week.
For the second time in a year, a U.S. tour by Morrissey has stumbled to a halt amid medical-related cancellations. This afternoon, Boston’s Orpheum Theatre announced Moz’s tour-ending concert on Thursday is being canceled “due to illness in the touring party” — the same excuse as when the singer scrubbed his Philadelphia show.
Stop me if you think… never mind. Morrissey, who had gone nearly a month since canceling a concert, has postponed tonight’s performance at The Fillmore in Philadelphia “due to illness in the touring party,” the venue announced via Twitter just hours before showtime.
Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. This week’s new titles include Morrissey’s latest solo album, ‘Low in High School’ and a new Madness best-of.
Morrissey today released the third song off his upcoming 10th solo album Low in High School, the apparently Brexit-themed single “Jack’s Only Happy When She’s Up On Stage,” which you hear in full via the official lyric video below. The 7-inch release will include a cover of the Elvis Presley classic “You’ll Be Gone.”
If you were wondering how far Morrissey would get into his current U.S. tour before canceling a concert, well, the answer is three dates. Tonight, the mercurial former Smiths frontman pulled the plug on his outdoor concert in Paso Robles, Calif., because it was too cold and the venue’s on-stage heating system wasn’t working.
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