In the latest of many years’ worth of ongoing speculative ‘will-they-won’t-they’ stories about whether Morrissey and Johnny Marr will finally bury the hatchet and reform The Smiths for live shows, Morrissey has been noted as suggesting to the Herald Sun that Coachella once again attempted to coax them out of retirement (via Pitchfork)
"Interestingly the agents for Coachella offered a 100-per-cent vegetarian event for the following year," said the renowned vegetarian, who has previously refused to play in venues cooking any meat products, "if I would agree to headline with Johnny Marr as the Smiths."
Of course, there’s not a word to suggest that either of them actually accepted the deal, so we can probably take it as read that it’s not going to happen (and of course, as with The Stone Roses’ return for giant shows this year, there’s always the perpetual question of whether or not it should happen).
Perhaps more interesting than the revelation that a major festival have again been trying to entice a major band to reform for a major event – shock, horror, etc – is that Coachella apparently weren’t particularly fussed whether or not they managed to bring along the other two former Smiths to sweeten the deal. "Fascinatingly they made it clear that they would ‘not require’ the Smiths’ bass player or drummer," Morrissey continued, "which I thought certainly said something." Which seems pretty tough on Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, all things considered.
