Johnny Marr will follow his previously announced U.K. solo tour with an 18-date North American run in April and May that’s built around his appearances at the two-weekend Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival — and which includes dates with New Order in Las Vegas and Santa Barbara, Calif.
Nearly a week after news broke that Morrissey was hospitalized in Michigan with what would turn out to be a bleeding ulcer, the former Smiths frontman has made his first comments on the matter in his customary form: a wry, written statement issued to fansite and quasi-official mouthpiece True To You.
With three U.S. tour dates already canceled or postponed due to unspecified “band illness,” a representative for Morrissey now tells Billboard.com that the ex-Smiths singer has been hospitalized at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., “where he is undergoing tests for a suspected bladder infection.”
You can’t say they’re not persistent: Organizers of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival apparently continue to make offers to land a reunion of The Smiths to headline the annual festival, with Morrissey reporting this week that he has yet again turned down an offer to have the defunct indie giants top the 2013 bill.
Although he’s already premiered a couple tracks and released a video, Johnny Marr today debuted the video for the first official single from his upcoming solo album The Messenger, a David Barnes-directed performance clip for the song “Upstarts” that you can check out right here.
The 1991 self-titled debut from indie supergroup Electronic — featuring New Order frontman Bernard Sumner and guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths, with the occasional assist from Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant — will be reissued this spring in a 2CD special edition featuring eight previously unreleased bonus tracks.
With his rescheduled two-month U.S. tour set to kick off Wednesday night in Long Island, N.Y., Morrissey dropped by “The Late Show with David Letterman” tonight to perform “Action Is My Middle Name,” one of a handful of new and as-yet-unreleased songs the singer debuted last year and continues to perform on tour.
Q&A: Daniel Ash on Love and Rockets’ reunion, his new band — and figuring out how to play “So Alive” 
Q&A: Chris Frantz talks Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and new book ‘Remain in Love’ 
Q&A: Steve Wynn on The Dream Syndicate’s first new album in nearly 30 years 
Q&A: Bauhaus’ David J on his ‘accidental’ concept album ‘Not Long For This World’ 
Q&A: Peter Murphy on ‘Ninth,’ Bauhaus’ break-up, reuniting Dalis Car 
Q&A: Joey Santiago on Pixies’ ‘Doolittle’ tour, possible ‘Surfer Rosa’ shows, new album talk 
Q&A: Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon on new album, changing the world with music 
Q&A: Peter Hook talks ‘Unknown Pleasures’ tour, re-recording Joy Division 