HELLO GOODBYE
They united after The Smiths split, but old Moz habits meant the ride was not long.
They snatched victory from defeat. It couldn’t last. Stephen Street’s ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ with Morrissey.
HELLO MARCH 1984
I did my first session with The Smiths, as an engineer, at the Fallout Shelter in Fulham, for [single] Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now. It was the start of a long relationship.
Everything was hunky dory when we were making [1987 swansong] Strangeways, Here
We Come, but, of course, then Johnny [Marr] left. I knew there wasn’t much in the can to use as B-sides for the singles, so I just sent Morrissey a cassette with some ideas, saying, “Forgive me for being presumptuous, if there’s anything here that could be useful…” I’d got married that August and had a two- or three-day honeymoon in Paris, and when I got back there was a postcard from Morrissey saying he wanted to do a solo record with me.
That October we were in the studio [The Wool Hall, Bath] recording and it was the most pressure you could ever feel. I was playing bass, bits of rhythm guitar, recording it as an engineer, as a producer, trying to teach Vini [Reilly, guitar] and Andrew [Paresi, drums] the songs, trying to guess what key Morrissey wants it in… I learned a lot of man-management skills working with him. You’re trying to secondguess all the time, but even after we did Viva
Hate, I still thought they’d see the error of their ways, and The Smiths would reform.
GOODBYE JANUARY 1989
I carried on sending songs to him over summer ’88, and he said would I be happy working with [ex-Smiths] Mike [Joyce, drums] and Andy [Rourke, bass]? And also Craig Gannon [guitar]. Which was a bit of a bolt from the blue. So we did the Last Of The Famous International Playboys and Interesting Drug singles. It was quite productive, but it was a bit strange me telling Mike and Andy what to do, especially Mike. I felt slightly as if my position was challenged.
That happened really majorly when Morrissey decided to do this gig in Wolverhampton in December [’88]. I said to him, “I’d love to play guitar, if you’re gonna do songs we’ve done.” There’s a certain look, and silence, you get that tells you it isn’t gonna happen. I was disappointed, just there sitting in the mobile, recording it, outside.
While all this was going on, I’d spent the whole year trying to get my production royalty agreed, and it got to the point where my solicitor wrote to his. Finally, I remember receiving, through the post, the bottom half of one of my solicitor’s letters, ripped in half, and Morrissey had scribbled, ‘Not Enough Is Enough, But Enough Is Too Much.’ And that was it, that was my P45.
I’d sent him the idea for [1989 single] Ouija Board, Ouija Board after Wolverhampton, and he invited me to Hook End Manor where it was recorded, with Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. I walked in and felt awful. They’re looking at me thinking, “What the fuck is he doing here?” It was kind of like Morrissey saying, “This is what I’m doing now, and I’m doing it without you.” I remember being very upset.
Much later, 10 years ago, I wrote him a letter saying, “I’m thinking of you, life’s marching on, it’d be lovely to catch up.” There was a communication from someone at Warners, who said, “Is this a legal letter, do we need to get a solicitor involved?” They wouldn’t even open it. I said, “No, it’s a friendly letter.” So he comes back to me, “Stephen, shocked but nicely surprised to hear from you, blah blah, I’ll be at Claridge’s next week.” He turned up with two other people. He went to the toilet, and this woman that was looking after him said, “Oh he was ever so nervous about meeting you, that’s why we’re here, he thought you might hit him.” I couldn’t believe that’s how they thought things might go. I think the other guy was Jake, the ex-boxer. But when I disagreed with his [2012] remaster of Viva
Hate, and said he’d butchered the record, I was incommunicado again. Having said that, a couple of years ago he did write to me. I think he was recuperating in a hospital or clinic in Switzerland, and he just wanted to say hi, and it was lovely.
Personally, I think he should get out of America and come back to the UK, and make some records here. There’s never been a singer or lyricist like him. I honestly wish the guy well, I really do.
“‘He was ever so nervous… he thought you might hit him.’” STEPHEN STREET