Fact #158516
When:
Short story:
Having just lost their manager, Joe Moss, The Smiths play their first American date, at Danceteria, New York City, USA.Full article:
Grant Showbiz (soundman, The Smiths) : Amazing, in a way, the confidence that it was really going to happen, and the lack of machinery to make it happen. The way it kind of staggered on. You know, once we lost Joe...
Johnny Marr (guitarist, The Smiths) : Our manager, Joe Moss, who was an old friend of mine, had told us he was quitting just as we boarded the plane in Manchester Airport to leave for America. He said it was because his wife was having a baby and he wanted to be with the family but, in fact, there was friction developing between him and Morrissey. What he was really doing was taking himself out of the situation so that I wouldn't be put into conflict, because Morrissey was also my friend.
Joe Moss (manager, The Smiths) : The reason I left was because it was obvious I was going to be spending more time away from home. And I had a young family. I had an 18-month-old son then, and my wife had just had a daughter in the November (of 1983). Plus I was 40. If I'd been younger I might have viewed it differently."
Grant Showbiz : Joe was bankrolling us all. His company were going bankrupt. And I think he just realised that from now on it was going to be a really heavy fight with a bunch of cold, calculating Southern bastards.
Scott Piering (radio plugger, Rough Trade records) : The world was clawing at them. Everybody wanted to manage them - a lot of charlatans came over from the States and promised them the world. It was a very heady time. By that time I was handling so much of their media and spending so much time with the band that I became sort of a caretaker. But in fact The Smiths called all the shots.
Grant Showbiz : We lost Joe, like, three days before we went to America for the first time ever. That was the first time, apart from Morrissey, that any of them had been on a plane. It was so scary to go to America manager-less, to go and sign to the record company (Sire) and do a big New Year's Eve gig. It was unbusiness-like to the nth degree. I turned up at the airport expecting Joe Moss to be there. There was Geoff Travis there, and Geoff is a lot of things but he's not a warm, loving, tender, cuddly sort of guy, which is what Joe was. So we'd been used to feeling alienated in Norwich, and suddenly we were, like, in fuckin' airports with horrible people. And it's no secret that Johnny had broken up with Angie - the only time (they are now married) - so the father figure had gone; the lover, the cosmic twin - 'cos they're born on the same day - had gone. We didn't realise it but Mike Joyce was just about to come down with chicken-pox, so he was feeling really awful. The vibe was a little like, well, all that other stuff was fun. Now we've got to grow up.
It was an incredible time. We were really miserable, and it was supposed to be exciting. It was a weird vibe.
Scott Piering (radio plugger, Rough Trade records) : International opportunities were arising already, and all I could do was help keep them at bay. They turned down about three Japanese tours, and you know how lavish they are. They didn't like the idea of being away from Manchester, they didn't like the idea that they couldn't order egg and chips instead of sushi. They really didn't like foreign food at all. The whole thing was anathema to them. Any foreign place at all - even Europe - they just had the utmost disdain for.
(Source : not known)
Tweet this Fact
Johnny Marr (guitarist, The Smiths) : Our manager, Joe Moss, who was an old friend of mine, had told us he was quitting just as we boarded the plane in Manchester Airport to leave for America. He said it was because his wife was having a baby and he wanted to be with the family but, in fact, there was friction developing between him and Morrissey. What he was really doing was taking himself out of the situation so that I wouldn't be put into conflict, because Morrissey was also my friend.
Joe Moss (manager, The Smiths) : The reason I left was because it was obvious I was going to be spending more time away from home. And I had a young family. I had an 18-month-old son then, and my wife had just had a daughter in the November (of 1983). Plus I was 40. If I'd been younger I might have viewed it differently."
Grant Showbiz : Joe was bankrolling us all. His company were going bankrupt. And I think he just realised that from now on it was going to be a really heavy fight with a bunch of cold, calculating Southern bastards.
Scott Piering (radio plugger, Rough Trade records) : The world was clawing at them. Everybody wanted to manage them - a lot of charlatans came over from the States and promised them the world. It was a very heady time. By that time I was handling so much of their media and spending so much time with the band that I became sort of a caretaker. But in fact The Smiths called all the shots.
Grant Showbiz : We lost Joe, like, three days before we went to America for the first time ever. That was the first time, apart from Morrissey, that any of them had been on a plane. It was so scary to go to America manager-less, to go and sign to the record company (Sire) and do a big New Year's Eve gig. It was unbusiness-like to the nth degree. I turned up at the airport expecting Joe Moss to be there. There was Geoff Travis there, and Geoff is a lot of things but he's not a warm, loving, tender, cuddly sort of guy, which is what Joe was. So we'd been used to feeling alienated in Norwich, and suddenly we were, like, in fuckin' airports with horrible people. And it's no secret that Johnny had broken up with Angie - the only time (they are now married) - so the father figure had gone; the lover, the cosmic twin - 'cos they're born on the same day - had gone. We didn't realise it but Mike Joyce was just about to come down with chicken-pox, so he was feeling really awful. The vibe was a little like, well, all that other stuff was fun. Now we've got to grow up.
It was an incredible time. We were really miserable, and it was supposed to be exciting. It was a weird vibe.
Scott Piering (radio plugger, Rough Trade records) : International opportunities were arising already, and all I could do was help keep them at bay. They turned down about three Japanese tours, and you know how lavish they are. They didn't like the idea of being away from Manchester, they didn't like the idea that they couldn't order egg and chips instead of sushi. They really didn't like foreign food at all. The whole thing was anathema to them. Any foreign place at all - even Europe - they just had the utmost disdain for.
(Source : not known)