Morrissey

Stephen Patrick Morrissey was born on May 22, 1959 in Manchester, Englander. As a shy young man, he spent a lot of time in solitude practicing music and writing musical articles. In the late seventies, he tried to find his place in punk rock. After being rejected by Slaughter & the Dogs, he sang with Nosebleeds for a short while. In 1982, Morrissey met guitarist Johnny Marr and together they cofound one of the most influential bands of that time, The Smiths. In 1983, the musicians became an underground sensation with their debut single Hand in Glove with a slightly touching the subject of homosexuality. Morrissey promoted his band actively using his skill to communicate with press. He talked often in sharp words and tried to stick to extreme opinions in his interviews, which raised more interest to his own personality and the group itself. Besides, he managed to attract attention to his lyrics, too.

After the release of the smashing debut album The Smiths in 1984, Stephen Morrissey addressed some political questions in his songs regularly criticizing Margaret Thatcher. In 1986, The Smiths issued their stringers record, The Queen Is Dead; but a year later the feud between Morrissey and Marr ended in the latter leaving the outfit. Shortly afterwards, Stephen decided to dissolve The Smiths and start a solo career. He released his first album, Viva Hate, in 1988 to grain commercial and critical success. Following that, the singer escaped to the studio for a long time to prepare the sophomore album. This work took an unexpectedly long time, and in the course of the process he presented the collection Bona Drag (1990) for his fans to while away the waiting time. The much-anticipated Kill Uncle touched the market in 1991, but it was too far out of new music fashion. The artist’s career entered a recession period. He conflicted with the manager and tarnished his reputation by nationalistic mottos in a couple of his songs. Whatever the troubles, Morrissey found himself new musicians and recorded the heaviest album in his career, Your Arsenal, to be warmly welcomed by the audience. All Morrissey’s concerts in the USA were highly anticipated and held in overcrowded hall.

The moment of glory on the American soil restored the confidence in Stephen and prompted him to relocate to Los Angeles. In 1994, he released a much calmer long player called Vauxhall and I, featuring the single The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get to enter Top 50. In 1995, Morrissey came back to the stores with the collection of his best and unreleased stuff The World of Morrissey, soon followed by the progressive rock CD Southpaw Grammar. The presented material was an unpleasant surprise to many Morrissey’s fans to start the downfall of his fame. The effort to bring back the popularity with the 1997 of Maladjusted resulted in a financial failure. Morrissey began searching for the new label and musical ideas. The quest lasted as long as seven years during which the singer reminded of himself only by concerts still visited by many music lovers. Finally, 2004 saw him release the new studio album, You Are the Quarry. In a year, Morrissey issued the concert record Live at Earls Court. Again on a roll, the performer crafted one more album, Ringleader of the Tormentors. Two years later, Morrissey extended his collection with the Greatest Hits compilation. In the beginning of 2009 his new album, Years Of Refusal, saw the light of the day. In 2009 the musician enlarged his discography by the compilation The HMV / Parlophone Singles '88-'95 which includes 62 compositions. In general the year 2009 turned out to be very productive for the artist: he released another compilation album entitled Swords. That record included b-sides from the musician’s previous three long plays: You Are The Quarry, Ringleader Of The Tormentors and Years Of Refusal.