Mozipedia (Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of "Morrissey" and the "Smiths" - Simon Goddard)

Member Name: drakesdrum

Product:	Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of "Morrissey" and the "Smiths" - Simon Goddard
Date:	11/08/09 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full of interesting information, laid out nicely

Disadvantages: A few things missing

Mozipedia is just as it says in the title, an encyclopaedia of Morrissey and The Smiths, written by Simon Goddard. It's hardcovered and the cover does look very attractive with a lovely shade of blue.

The book is split alphabetically into things and people that are related to Morrissey and The Smiths. This includes songs and albums. Each item has a passage explaining how they are related and also a few interesting tidbits that I learnt a few things from. Some items are a lot larger in length than others, which is to be expected as some things affected Morrissey and The Smiths more than others. For example, New York Dolls, Morrissey's favourite band take up 7.5 pages, whereas Anthony Newley takes up little over half a page.

It is well written throughout, keeping the information concise but it still flows, it isn't just a series of points listed, it's nicely written in text. One complaint I do have is that he has left out a few things that really should have been included, such as Peepholism and Joe Slee. I found this to be quite a strange omission considering the book is well researched otherwise. Some of the passages could have been longer though but in general Goddard gets across all the basic information and load on top of that too to keep the die-hards interested. It is generally expansive, there are many items I didn't expect to see but they are there, slightly related to Morrissey and The Smiths but interesting nontheless. A nice addition are the passages on a few songs that were never released, they are quite interesting and well researched. Goddard draws on many sources, such as interviews and books. It is also obvious he was in contact with many people directly in touch with the Smiths and Morrissey, including producers and former band members.

Inside there is are four sections with pictures. There are lots of nice pictures of Morrissey and The Smiths as well as lots of pictures of different things mentioned in the book. There are many pictures on Morrissey's influences such as Shelagh Delaney and New York Dolls. This is a good touch and breaks the text up nicely. On other pages, there aren't any pictures but this is good as it doesn't clutter the pages up. Also, the text is on standard paper whereas the picture sections are glossy paper, making the pictures a much better quality. All the pictures are captioned which is good if you don't know what they are.

Overall, this book will obviously only appeal to Morrissey and The Smiths fans. I consider myself, being a fan, to be knowledgable on them but I did learn many things reading this. I found it was best to dip in and out on this book. I would pick it up, open at a random page and read something that takes my fancy. It is also good if for instance I'm listening to a song and I want to know a few more things about it, I can look it up easily in this book.

The book doesn't have tour information. For example it doesn't have lists of tour dates The Smiths and Morrissey have done and it has no information on the tracks played on the tours either. I feel this would've been a nice addition at the back of the book away from the main body of information. I would have been interested to know where certain incidents took place and what the most played tracks are for example. The book does however have a complete "mozography", listing everything he has ever released and the track listings on them.

I got this book off amazon for £14.99 which I felt was a reasonably fair price. I saw it in the shops for much more so amazon is probably the best place to get this.

Summary: Generally a good book that all Morrissey and Smiths fans will enjoy flicking through.