The Smiths’ Mike Joyce says Queen should wear ‘Queen is Dead’ T-shirt during Christmas address

Drummer also says Morrissey should sort out Christmas peace treaty

Mike Joyce, former drummer of The Smiths, has said he thinks the Queen should wear a ‘Queen Is Dead’ T-shirt during her Christmas speech, as well as “tell the truth” about what’s happening in the world.

Speaking in the new issue of NME, which is on newsstands now and available digitally, the drummer said: “I think she [the Queen] should wear a ‘Queen Is Dead’ T-shirt! And maybe tell the truth instead of this cosseted opinion of what’s happening in the world. They [the royals] don’t understand about money, war, strife and struggle and the realities of life that 99.9 per cent of the country deals with on a regular basis. They don’t live normal lives.”

When asked who should be in charge of sorting out a Christmas peace treaty, Joyce replied that his former bandmate Morrissey would be the best option. “I like that when he puts his arguments forward, there’s no flim-flam, no compromise. For that I’ve always adored him,” he said. “I became vegetarian after ‘Meat is Murder’ in 1985. All my kids have grown up vegetarian and that was his doing.”

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Earlier this month, Channel 4 were forced to deny claims by Morrissey that he was invited to record this year’s alternative to The Queen’s annual Christmas Day message. Morrissey had said he declined the invitation because December 25 is not “quite the time to be trading slaps”.

Channel 4 responded: “We are not aware of any approach having been made to Morrissey to deliver Channel 4’s alternative Christmas message.”

Channel 4’s alternative Christmas message began in 1993 when Quentin Crisp became the first public figure to deliver their own personal sermon. Other figures that have done the same in previous years include US government whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 and Iran’s then-president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2008.

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