Smiths turned down $5 million to reform for one-off gig

[blind-fitter]

From The Guardian newspaper, Sat 18th March , 2006

As the son and heir of nothing in particular, money means little to Morrissey - not even $5m to reform the Smiths.

The 46-year-old singer yesterday revealed how he and his fellow former band mates had been offered the sum to reform for just one gig at the Coachella Valley festival, held in the Californian desert.

At a press conference at the music industry's biggest showcase event, south by southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, Morrissey said: "If people must know, it was $5m." After the gasps died down he was asked if he had considered it. "I didn't give it a second thought because money doesn't come into it."

Talking about the 1987 split, Morrissey blamed guitarist Johnny Marr: "I didn't feel we should have ended. He wanted to end it. So that was that."

Morrissey is about to embark on an eclectic six-week tour of the UK playing everywhere from London Palladium to Whitehaven civic hall in Cumbria, with his new album Ringleader of the Tormentors due out in three weeks time.

In an interview with Rolling Stone journalist David Fricke, Morrissey gives his views on life, politics and fellow artists. On the Arctic Monkeys, currently trying to replicate their UK success in America, Morrissey was not encouraging: "It's happening too quickly. They haven't really proven anything and that must make them insecure." On Joy Division: "They were always incredibly boring. Yet as soon as Ian died, the usual thing happened." About life in general the miserabilist appears to have cheered up a bit. "Politically the world is ridiculous," he says in the interview reported by Reuters and on the UK's Record of the Day website. "But there's still a lot of beautiful things ... Nature saves us, nature calms us down."

Anybody able to provide (link to) full original article?

[invisible_r]

here is the link to nme article about the same thing

pitty, i would like to see them live

[RonJonSurfer]

Musician's are such poor business people. They could have, no doubt, generated another $5 million from the residual buzz of their performance. Yeah, I know, it's not about the money...right.