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Listen With Mozzer

• Stuart Bailie
• 1 Dec 07, 12:44 AM

I’ve not bought the for at least a year. Occasionally I look at Rigsy’s copy in the ATL office and it seems that the paper and myself are too far apart, generationally. I don’t like the scuzzy digital pictures and the small articles about bands with too many tattoos. I know that old fellas like to claim “their” NME as the definitive version, so I shouldn't get too sniffy and predictable.

Still, I wanted to read the new Morrissey interview. I was on the staff in 1992 when we ritually turned on the man, concerned that his thoughts on race and immigration were rather ambiguous. It was a defining moment, a chance to consider the Union Jack, the revival of Fascists in Britain and the wisdom of getting patriotic at a Madness gig in Finsbury Park.

The new interview has been painted up as some titanic battle between the mag and the Moz. Certainly, they won’t be on speaking terms for another decade or two. Even the journalist Tim Jonze is unhappy, claiming that the paper has editorialised around his transcript. Morrissey's management has threatened to sue. The gist of the debate is that the singer believes that the English character has been “flooded” by immigrants. He still yearns for the days of Nobby Stiles, Rita Tushingham and tetchy ruffians. He thinks this era was “quaint”, and essentially over. He's surely correct.

Which is rich coming from the son of a Dublin blow-in. Who lives in Italy, California, or wherever. But reading the piece, it seems that Moz bears no malice to the newcomers. Back in 1992, we might have welcomed this distinction. The new debate is half-cooked, loosely argued and out of character with the paper’s thin agenda. You know, it’s really nothing.

Stu Bailie presents The Late show on Radio Ulster, every Friday from 10pm until midnight.

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