Morrissey’s martyrdom knows no bounds

Say what you like about Steven Patrick Morrissey – lead singer of The Smiths, the Mancunian miserabilist, ‘the Pope of Mope’ etc – but he has a knack, nearly four decades after his band dissolved acrimoniously, for coming out with attention- and headline-grabbing pronouncements. At first glance these declarations might seem like revelatory news stories, but on closer inspection they tend to rather fall apart.

Just this month, Morrissey declared that his unreleased new album, Bonfire of Teenagers, has been ‘gagged’ because of an apparently controversial song about the 2017 Manchester bombing. He proclaimed in a recent interview with the Telegraph that ‘every major label in London has refused [it] whilst also admitting that it is a masterpiece. And although there is nothing insulting or antagonistic in the title track, label bosses say they are worried that the Guardian would make their lives hell if they supported any such social awareness’.

Strong words, but then there is also the perennially vexed question of The Smiths, and whether the central duo of Morrissey and Johnny Marr will ever reunite.