Jose Maldonado - voice
David Collett - lead guitar and keyboards
Jeff Stodel - rhythm guitar (and attorney)
Lee Burkhart - bass and backing voice
Danny Garcia - drums

Sweet and Tender Hooligans formed in 1991. We began writing original material and performed locally in the Los Angeles area. In 1992, a local record store put together L.A.'s first ever Morrissey Convention. We thought it would be a gas to perform an entire set of Morrissey and The Smiths songs. The response was OVERWHELMING. A lot of people who attended that particular show started regularly coming to our gigs. We continued to perform our original material and recorded an album's worth of songs onto a cassette.

Every year, we would perform at the Morrissey Convention to GREAT ENTHUSIASM. It really became the highlight of each year. Once every so often someone would ask us to perform at their house for a birthday, graduation party, etc. doing our tribute to Morrissey and The Smiths. It was just a real fun thing to do. In 1993 I was fortunate enough to meet Morrissey and I gave him a copy of our cassette. It was then that I asked him if he minded the name of our group. He said he liked our name and our hairstyles.

In recent years, the Morrissey/The Smiths Convention has continued and every year we are there to do our tribute set. In 1997,The Smiths Convention featured Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke. They personally told us how impressed they were with our renditions. We have also taken our tribute act to some of the bigger clubs here in Los Angeles. Sweet and Tender Hooligans are billed as "The Ultimate Tribute to Morrissey and The Smiths" I like to believe that is the honest truth.

What I find a bit surprising is that we get far more requests for Morrissey's solo material than that of The Smiths. One would think that since The Smiths are no longer that the opposite would be true. I don't mind it since I adore ALL his songs. (With a slight preference towards his solo work.)

If I can make one thing clear to everybody out there it is this. Some (maybe five or six different people) have asked us why a group of musicians would want to be in a cover group. My response to that is: Think of us as an orchestra performing one of Beethoven's symphonies. We may not have written the music, but we are using our instruments and playing his songs. We are not interested in making a career out of impersonating Morrissey. We are just big fans of his work and we like to show our appreciation of it by performing it.

We do not currently have a web-site, but ANYONE wishing to e-mail me can reach me at JRMBoyRacer@hotmail.com (note by me, *maribel*: SATH now have a clubat yahoo!>

I thank you for your interest.

Just a side note, at the show in Tempe Arizona, Morrissey got on the microphone before his band started to play and he said, "Hello, we're the Sweet and Tender Hooligans!"

I couldn't believe my own ears! He actually acknowledged us!