(Originally appeared here 10/1/07) First the Tory party, now the BBC. Is there any daggy British institution that isn’t scrabbling for a sweaty piece of Mozza’s gold lamé shirt, like an especially wild-eyed fan at the end of a gig? You can hardly have escaped the news that, after last year’s grinding nadir… Read More »A man of great Euro-vision
Johnny Morrissey was runner-up. Which is, along with ‘sixteen clumsy and shy’, the story of his life. Always running-up, never quite arriving. All things considered, it’s probably just as well no one took any notice of me and he didn’t win. David Attenborough’s acceptance speech made me realise – after I… Read More »Johnny Morris is voted ‘Britain’s Greatest Living Cultural Icon’
Morrissey is one of the three finalists in BBC2’s ‘Living Icon’ middle-class popularity contest. He’s up against David hush-we-don’t-want-to-frighten-the-gorillas Attenborough and Sir Paul twist-and-shout McCartney. Now, all such contests are silly by definition, even and perhaps especially when they appear on BBC2. But given the strategic use of the word… Read More »‘Living Icons’
Mark Simpson sees Take That eaten alive at Wembley Arena Originally appeared in Attitude magazine, October 1994 and collected in It’s a Queer World IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Maenads were “frenzied women worshippers of Bacchus” who were inclined to “rend to pieces” unfortunate men who passed their way. They were known… Read More »A Little Bit of Give & Take
Rufus Wainwright confesses his priestly urges to Mark Simpson (Pride magazine, 2005) The man who has been described as the ‘Joni Mitchell of his generation’, lionised for his genius by such as the Scissor Sisters, Elton John, Neil Tennant and Michael Stipe, is changing onstage from jeans and shirt… Read More »Ban the Folk Mass! Interview with Rufus Wainwright