THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

He’s only gone and done it – following yesterday’s announcement that Morrissey would slag off the NME today, he has.

You can find the full posting here, the context – if somehow you’re not aware of it – is an article, an interview between magazine and artist that was apparently doctored in some way by NME editor Conor McNicholas to make the former Smiths man appear racist.

Here are selected highlights from Morrissey’s lengthy rant:

Opening statement
“On Friday of last week I issued writs against the NME (New Musical Express) and its editor Conor McNicholas as I believe they have deliberately tried to characterise me as a racist in a recent interview I gave them in order to boost their dwindling circulation.”

On the accusations
“I abhor racism and oppression or cruelty of any kind… racism is beyond common sense and I believe it has no place in our society.”

On NME writer Tim Jonze
“I do not mean to be rude to Tim Jonze, but when I first caught sight of him I assumed that someone had brought their child along to the interview. The runny nose told the whole story. Conor had assured [me] that Tim was their best writer. Talking behind his hands in an endless fidget, Tim accepted every answer I gave him with a schoolgirl giggle, and repeatedly asked me if I was shocked at how little he actually knew about music. I told him that, yes, I was shocked. It was difficult for me to believe that the best writer from the "new" NME had never heard of the song 'Drive-in Saturday'; I explained that it was by David Bowie, and Tim replied "Oh, I don't know anything about David Bowie." I wondered how it could be so - how the quality of music journalism in England could have fallen so low that the prime "new" NME writer knew nothing of David Bowie, an artist to whom most relevant British artists are indebted, and one who single-handedly changed British culture - musically and otherwise.”

On the controversial dialogue
“Me: If you walk down Knightsbridge you'll be hard-pressed to hear anyone speaking English.

“Tim: I don't think that's true. You're beginning to sound like my parents.

“Me: Well, when did you last walk down Knightsbridge?

“Tim: Ummm.... Knightsbridge ....is that where Harrods is?

“So, Tim was prepared to attack and argue the point without even being clear about where Knightsbridge actually is! The "new" NME strikes again. Oh dear, I thought, not again.”

I can’t be a racist, a lot of my friends are black
“Conor would be repulsed by my vast collection of World Cinema films, by my adoration of James Baldwin, my love of Middle-Eastern tunings, Kazem al-Saher, Lior Ashkenazi, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and he would be repulsed to recall a quote as printed in his magazine in or around August of this year wherein I said that my ambition was to play concerts in Iran.”

On Conor McNicholas
“Uniquely deprived of wisdom…Conor doesn't understand how the relentless stream of "cheers mate, got pissed last night, ha ha" interviews that clutter every single issue of the "new" NME are simply not interesting to those of us who have no trouble standing upright.

On the “new” NME
“It is on the backs of writers such as Morley, Burchill, Kent and Shaar Murray that the "new" NME hitches its mule-cart, assuming equal relevance. But the stalled views of the "new" NME sag, and readers have been driven away by a magazine with no insides. The narrow cast of repeated subjects sets off the agony, a mesmerizing mess of very brief and dispassionate articles unable to make thought evolve; a marooned editor who holds the divine right to censor any views that clash with his own.”

Hold forth…