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[Jan Deal]

Morrissey demands apology from NME | News | Guardian Unlimited Music

As controversy swells over his alleged comments on immigration, Morrissey has demanded an apology from the NME, the magazine that printed them.

The singer's lawyers are threatening to take legal action against the NME unless the magazine offers an apology for this Wednesday's cover story "Bigmouth Strikes Again", which they say amounts to "character assassination" of their client. On the front of the magazine, the ex-Smiths frontman is quoted as saying: "The gates of England are flooded. The country's been thrown away."

Morrissey's lawyers demanded an apology by 1pm today, but the request has not yet been met by the magazine.

During a lengthy Q&A conducted in New York by journalist Tim Jonze (who also writes for the Guardian), 48-year-old Morrissey is alleged to have made the following comment when asked whether he would consider moving back to Britain from his new home in Rome: "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."

Asked to elaborate, the singer noted: "If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won't hear an English accent. You'll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent."

In a follow-up interview conducted over the phone with Jonze and also printed in Wednesday's NME, Morrissey expressed concern at how his previous comments could be interpreted: "I just think that it would be construed that the reason I wouldn't wish to live in England is the immigration explosion. And that's not true at all."

In an article credited to "NME" surrounding the Q&A, the magazine condemned Morrissey: "This is not the first time that Morrissey has trod clumsily around the area of immigration." The unnamed writer went on to rehash past controversies concerning Morrissey, such as when he flew the Union Jack at a concert in Finsbury Park in 1992 and a lyric from 1998's Bengali in Platforms that went "life is is hard enough when you belong here". The NME article concluded: "Morrissey, the son of immigrants who has lived for most of the past decade in LA or Rome, wants others to have the freedom to travel the world like him, but implies he would shut the gate to people coming to live in the UK. At the very least it smacks of a naive hypocrisy, but mostly sounds more like the ravings of a rogue Tory MP."

Merck Mercuriadis, Morrissey's manager, condemned the NME article in a post onthe singer's fan website. "Conor McNicholas [NME's editor] made a decision for reasons known only to himself to betray our trust and make himself out to be a hero at Morrissey's expense," he wrote. "We will be unrelenting in our quest to bring him/NME to justice." (The situation has been further complicated by the fact that Jonze has sought to distance himself from the final article, removing his byline from all but the Q&A and claiming he was unhappy with how it had been "rewritten" by the NME.)

An NME spokesman commented: "We can confirm that Morrissey's legal representatives have been in contact with NME and pending the outcome of these discussions we won't be commenting any further."

I get the impression that Morrissey has been stiched up. He may be an arse, but I really doubt that he is a racist or xenophobe.

[hamstir]

im going to send him a teddy bear called mohamed to cheer him up.

never got why it was wrong for mozzer with all his englishness to wave around a union flag but ok for the oasis muppets to

[Jan Deal]

Originally Posted by hamstir

never got why it was wrong for mozzer with all his englishness to wave around a union flag but ok for the oasis muppets to

Mozza's flag waving was badly timed infront of skinheads giving Nazi salutes. A bit of a faux pas really...

[french_disko]

this is just the NME trying to stir up a bit of "controvery" and sell more copies of their Indie Heat/Hello rag.

if you read Morrisey's flipant comments then they're no different from anything being pedalled by the Tories, Labout or the popular press.

[Gemz]

What he's sayin is true but i dont think its racist...

There are huge amounts of foreigners in our country an we are getting treated as second class citizens...its rubbish...

They are cuming here and bunking in there mates flats/houses untill they have national insurance numbers etc then they are putting there names down for houses an getting housed before other local people who need it as its classed as overcrowding...

Then you have the ones that come over an work p/t for a bit then stop working an claim benifits as they do better that way...or the ones that come over work for 15 weeks then fall pregnant an claim SMP, then go home....the money they get equals a polish detectives monthly wage...

Because these people are part of the EU...whats happening aint wrong...I dont think what i have said is racist an i definatly aint a racist...

Bit of a rant...but its one of the reasons the housing has gone into melt down...

[Old Gold]

They took our jobs!

[delboy]

the NME and the mozzter have 'history' back in the early 90's they were accusing him of racism simply because he draped himself in a union jack when supporting madness as 'madstock' 92.

be good to see that jumped up little prick of an editor conor mcnicholas (does his mum know he's not at school and editing the nme??) brought down a peg or two.

Booooooorrrrriiiiiinnnnngggggg.

Can we just quietly forget about him and the NME?

They're both many years past their sell by date.

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by Steven Dedalus

Booooooorrrrriiiiiinnnnngggggg.

Can we just quietly forget about him and the NME?

They're both many years past their sell by date.

You could always just ignore the thread if you think it's boring.

[get lost]

Originally Posted by Steven Dedalus

Booooooorrrrriiiiiinnnnngggggg.

Can we just quietly forget about him and the NME?

They're both many years past their sell by date.

Thats why he sold out his 6 gig residency, within an hour