Marr Johnny - Morrissey & Marr: the severed alliance

By the same author:

Timeless Flight: The Definitive Biography Of The Byrd
Neil Young: Here We Are In The Years
Roxy Music: Style With Substance
Van Morrison: A Portrait Of The Artist
The Kinks: The Sound And The Fury
Wham! (Confidential) The Death Of A Supergroup
Starmakers And Svengalis: The History Of British Pop Management
The Football Managers
Timeless Flight Revisited

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ISBN: 978-0-85712-128-8

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Morrissey & Mart: The Severed Alliance
what the critics said

A painstaking account highly sympathetica. -Observer

A hugely readable and fascinating book. Flawlessly informed expertly laid out. Whatever there is, Rogans got it nailed. A superb achievement.

-*****Q

An essential purchase a painstaking and thorough investigation.

-Irish Times

Number 1 Rock Book Of The Year: This biography demanded to be written. An irresistible and illuminating account of the most influential British band of the 80s, and a byword for diligent reporting and informed criticism.

-Vox

The most controversial book of the year tells as much about the Smiths as anyone can reasonably want to know Rogan has more than done his homework and treads a fine line between academic rigour and a breathless fandom. A major achievement.

-NME

Exhaustively researched and containing interesting and sensible readings of the songs.

-Sunday Times

A wonderful love story Rogan turns over lots of stones, digs deep, reads Morrisseys juvenilia and dares to question the mans motives, sources and opinions. A bloody marvellous book.

-Melody Maker

Mr Rogan is blessed with a brilliant mind. The research is exhaustive to the point of obsession. Quite superb.

-Manchester Evening News

The Severed Alliance has become an integral part of Morrisseys psychic self-torment, and thus an event of epic import.

-Billboard

Hugely entertaining a tribute to Johnny Rogan, a writer of real integrity a page turner of the first degree a clear-eyed love of his subject suffuses every line.

-Sunday Telegraph

Rogan is a rock biographers biographer . This guy is literally a method writer.

-Whats On In London

A typically thorough and ridiculously entertaining tome of the every-home-should-have-one variety. Rogan truly excels.

-Select

The Best Rock Biography Of 1992 Morrissey will be shaken and disturbed by Johnny Rogans brilliant account Rogans analysis has the suspense and character development of a classy detective yarn . Excellently written with a novelists grasp of pace, The Severed Alliance is one of the classic rock books.

-Record Collector

Personally, I hope Johnny Rogan ends his days very soon in an M3 pile-up.

-Morrissey

There is a greater sense of veracity in this book than youll read in a thousand music press interviews . Every descriptive sentence seems curiously relevant Morrisseys absurd and unwise anti-Rogan outburst is no more than a finger prod against the authors mighty wall of undeniable fact.

-City Life

For DEBORAH RILEY

The Author

J OHNNY ROGAN became a full-time author within 48 hours of leaving university, following postgraduate research on Spensers The Faerie Queene. He has spent the last decade working on substantial books specializing in the music business. Obsessive in his devotion to particular projects, Rogan has been known to spend years researching material, usually self-financed and without a prior commission. On one occasion, he wrote in isolation for an entire year without speaking to another human being.

Among the artistes he has covered are The Byrds, Neil Young, Roxy Music, Van Morrison, The Kinks and Wham! His last major musical tome, the much acclaimed Starmakers & Svengalis was adapted for a six-week BBC series.

Rogan still lives alone, despite a girl-friend, often works till daybreak, doesnt own any property nor any motor vehicle, computer, word processor, freezer, electric kettle, television, video, credit card or any form of insurance. Tape recorded interviews are still his primary method of social communication. This is his tenth book. Barring sequels on the same theme, it may prove his last.

O NE YEAR ON FROM THE FIRST publication of The Severed Alliance, it is hard to imagine a more contrasting period for Morrissey and Marr. For Marr fatherhood has brought a change in lifestyle and a continued association with musical colleagues whose work rate is known to be slow. Electronic have at last completed the move to EMI, and The The have issued the long-awaited Dusk, but no tours seem forthcoming. With Marcus Russell continuing to handle his business affairs, Marr seems a world away from the dreadful chaos that characterized so much of his time with The Smiths. The imminent wholesale reissue of Smiths material by WEA will bring the guitarist abundant wealth, while also reminding him of the fame and follies of youth. Marr has good reason to be enormously proud of his achievements in The Smiths, but its legacy has left him with some sensitivity. In a recent phone conversation with me, Nick Kent wittily dubbed Marr the Paul McCartney of The Smiths. The allusion was both highly amusing and apposite, not merely because McCartney, like Marr, was cast as the man who broke up his group, but the positive way each musician likes to see himself. Despite a streak of toughness, McCartney still likes his old image of the loveable Beatle and thumb-raising man of the people. Marr too likes to be portrayed as the perennial good guy, as if ruthless financial decisions and intense ambition were somehow not commensurate with his self-image as a dedicated and charming musician.

While Marr quietly went about his business during 1992, Morrissey dominated the headlines, amid controversy and bitterness. One month prior to the publication of this book, he issued his celebrated