Talk:Linder Sterling

Hello. I don't know what compelled me, but I thought 'I'll search for Linder Sterling on Wikipedia and see what I get!' When I saw that there wasn't a page for her, I decided to write down what I know/remember from years of absorbing music journalism. I'll try to go through my magazines to find proper sources. There's hardly any information about her on the web.

I didn't know whether or not to include that The Smiths' song 'Cemetry Gates' is said to be about walks she took with Morrissey through London cemetaries, or if I should mention that she appeared in the documentary The Importance of Being Morrissey. Her connection to Morrissey is well-known, but I didn't want to paint her as 'just a Morrissey fan'. If you're reading this and have an opinion on whether that should be included -> well, what do you think?

I learned to play the drums underneath an Orgasm Addict poster.

Math Tinder 00:13, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi Math. Thanks for the page with the pictures of her art. I find it very interesting. Her pictures of women's bodies as commodities are very disturbing, while her photos of Morrissey are beautiful. I really want to get my hands on the Morrissey Shot book, but I couldn't order it from amazon, apparently they can't ship it to my country.

Anyway, I know what you're talking about, information on Linder and Ludus is very hard to find. Besides the Ludus biography you quoted, I've come across a couple of articles about an exhibition she did in 2000: The Guardian article http://film.guardian.co.uk/Feature_Story/feature_story/0,,138286,00.html and here is a long and in-depth article: http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/nov2001/manchester_voodoo.html

Her real name is Linda Mulvey. The Guardian article gives info on her date and place of birth (1954, Liverpool) and a bit on her background.

I have some pictures from Ludus sleeves that I might include in the article.

Besides The Importance of Being Morrissey, Linder also appeared in Southbank Show on The Smiths.

What other magazine articles have you found about her? She's usually mentioned in connection with Morrissey, and even that is very rarely. The only magazine article I can think of is that (in)famous Nick Kent "The Face" 1985 article on The Smiths. There are also a few pages about her in "The Severed Alliance", but it's similar stuff as in that Ludus biography you posted the link to, plus some interesting quotes by Richard Boon and Trotter. Apparently her flat in Whalley Range was sort of a bohemian haven for many musicins and artists. They also claim she had quite an influence over men in her circle, that Pete Shelley wrote Buzzcocks' 'What Do I Get' as a plea of unrequited love for her, and that she inspired a lot of Devoto's early work. Her name also pops up a lot in "Songs That Saved Your Life" - besides Cemetry Gates, she's mentioned in entries for Miserable Lie, Wonderful Woman, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (in connection to a weird matrix message that was initially supposed to be on the single) and I Won't Share You. In the latter, there's another quote from the unused Morrissey sleeve note for the cancelled Crepuscule Ludus restrospective - the end of the note sounds very familiar: "Oh Linder. Oh Linder. I'll see you sometime, somewhere."

However, I'm not sure if you should mention any of this stuff in an article, for one thing it comes close to or falls directly into the realm of speculation on personal matters... then again, it's not like Wikipedia articles do not include speculation and rumours (Morrissey page is one of the examples!) But it would be wrong to make it seem as if she is more important for her relationships with male musicians than for her own work... so I don't know.

Nightandday 21:18, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

I have considerably expanded the article on Linder, adding the most important information on her visual art, her band Ludus, her performance art, her exhibitions, the Meltdown appearance, providing the references and several links... God, I'm exhausted! I wish I knew how to upload images - I don't get this tag policy, am I allowed to upload anything??

Nightandday 22:23, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

You have to have find the copywrite state of it, and get rights to use it and stuff... It's AWFULY tedious, really. But if you can find a photographer's email who's taken a picture of her and get her to say it's okay to use a particular immage then you can. That's how I do it.