Morrissey has recently taken his Wikipedia page to task for stating he was formerly a member of two firms of musicians — The Nosebleeds and Slaughter And The Dogs — when he claims he has “no connection” to either one.
In a blog post dated Dec. 1, the former lead singer of The Smiths said he was annoyed about the misinformation on the site, which can be edited by anyone. He continues, “Wikipedia confidently states that I am a former member of Slaughter And The Dogs, and a former member of The Nosebleeds. I never played with The Nosebleeds, and I had nothing at all to do with Slaughter And The Dogs. You have learned from data up to October 2023; is there no one at Wikipedia clever enough to set the record straight? Probably not.”
Stereogum notes that the subject of Morrissey’s alleged role with The Nosebleeds was covered by Stephen Pomfret, a friend of Morrissey and a former bandmate of Johnny Marr, in a Morrissey biography called *Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance* by Johnny Rogan that was published in 1992. Pomfret remembered attempting to persuade Morrissey to invest in better equipment, and that Morrissey only purchased an inferior microphone for £8, with the comment, “That’s all I can afford!”
The book also discussed Morrissey collaborating with Billy Duffy, who played in The Nosebleeds before moving on to The Cult. They are said to have worked together on songs such as “The Living Jukebox” and “Toytown Massacre.” In a 2013 autobiography, Morrissey acknowledged playing with a band alongside Duffy and some members of a former band called The Nosebleeds but claimed it was a one-off. He referenced an NME review from 1978 that referred to the band as The Nosebleeds and said he was stuck with that name for life.
“He was an inexperienced new singer” of The Nosebleeds, Rogan added, and while he did not possess all the charisma of the former band’s lead singer Ed Banger, he had stage presence, and he and Duffy had potential as a song-writing duo. But Morrissey insisted that the performance, at least, was a one-off: “History had trapped me for a long time and now it must let me go.”
He also told a story about Duffy recommending that Johnny Marr be hired as a guitarist, adding, “Johnny Marr is a much better guitarist than me.” That seemed like a nice suggestion to Morrissey, but he wasn’t the kind of person who asked people for favours. Fortunately, Marr was more enterprising, and Duffy directed him toward Morrissey.
Also in the same book, The Durutti Column's Vini Reilly referred to playing guitar for The Nosebleeds prior to founding his own band in 1978. He reminisced about his time in the band and said they taught him a great deal about life and were “absolutely wild.” He said the notion of Morrissey being behind it was mind-blowing.
As for Slaughter And The Dogs, fans have long theorized Morrissey wrote and recorded songs with them, but no evidence to that effect has ever appeared.