The Smiths Turn Down $5 Million Reunion Offer

I've often wondered what it would take to get these guys to reunite. Well, I guess it's not $5 million (which I consider it an insult, since ABBA was offered $1 billion back in 2000).

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During a public Q&A session March 16 at the South By Southwest Music & Media Conference in Austin, Texas, Morrissey revealed that his former band, pioneering '80s alt-rockers the Smiths, recently rejected a $5 million offer to reunite at next month's Coachella Valley Arts & Music Festival in Southern California. Seems Coachella organizers said please please please, but failed to get what they want.

When music journalist David Fricke, who was conducting the SXSW interview, asked the singer if he had seriously considered the offer, Morrissey replied, "No, because money doesn't come into it." Various other critically acclaimed, seminal acts--such as the Stooges, the Pixies, Gang Of Four, New Order, and Bauhaus--have either launched reunions or revived their careers with a much-hyped Coachella appearance. And judging by some of Morrissey's comments during his Fricke Q&A, he may have considered a Coachella reunion if his ex-bandmate, guitarist Johnny Marr, was also receptive.

Said Morrissey to Fricke, "[Being in the Smiths] was a fantastic journey. And then it ended. I didn't feel we should have ended. I wanted to continue. [Marr] wanted to end it. And that was that."

Morrissey's upcoming solo album, Ringleader Of The Tormentors, is out April 4 on Attack/Sanctuary Records, and will be supported by a European tour (including a six-week run of sold-out gigs in the U.K.) followed by North American trek. Meanwhile, a Smiths-free Coachella Festival will take place April 29-30, with a lineup that includes the Smiths' '80s peers Madonna and Depeche Mode as well as newer acts like Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sigur Ros, James Blunt, and Scissor Sisters.

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Funny blog entry about this:

Morrissey, too, ruminated on the subject of longevity and communicating with his inner mope, er, muse: "If I horrified people and made them vomit, it's confirmation." While Neil was chatty and open, Morrissey was uncomfortable and slightly withdrawn.

High points: His vow of celibacy was overblown ("Every one goes through dry spells"). Fricke asked why he considered recording his new CD, Ringleader of the Tormentors, with Jeff Salzman, best known for the wave revivalism of the Killers. "I like his records," Morrissey reasoned.

The Smiths turned down $5 million to reform for Coachella 2006. His response: "Money doesn't come into it. When you start doing things for money, terrible things happen." He was promptly laughed out of the room, dragged out to Brush Square Park and burned at the stake by greedy executives chanting "Heretic!"

Later that night, Morrissey played songs off Ringleader and honored his past by playing four Smiths songs at the Austin Music Hall ("Still Ill," "Girlfriend in a Coma," "How Soon Is Now?" and "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"). For those yelling "contradiction," he gets a pass, because those songs are so damn good.