The Smiths - William

Mojo, April 2001

Even as The Smiths were crafting their greatest triumphs, internal rifts were tearing them apart. John Harris opens our kitchen sink extravaganza with the stormy saga of The Queen Is Dead.

At a time when the biggest rock groups tend to move with all the speed and fluidity of supertankers, it's hard to contemplate an era when a single year in the life of a band could contain at least one long-playing work of genius, a handful of brilliant single and endless internal intrigue. The Smiths were the last British group to move in the quickfire cycles established by forebears such as the Stones, The Beatles, et al. Their annus mirabilis began in May 1986, when they released Bigmouth Strikes Again, the stinging single that trailed their third album. By the late spring of 1987, they would have released four more singles, entered the arena bracket in the USA, signed to a major label — and finished work on the album that proved to be their last word. As Johnny Marr explains, the parallels with their '60s forebears weren't unconscious: "I had a very, very strong intuition and feeling before we made The Queen Is Dead. And I felt a lot of pressure. I knew we had to deliver something that was great. I felt we were great, and we'd been called great, but I didnt want to get away with just coasting. "The other thing is, I wanted us to be as good as my heroes. From day one, I wanted us to be as important. Right from the off with The Smiths, in my head we were our own Rolling Stones. On top of that, we were being talked about in legendary terms. So you'd look at bands like The Who and The Small Faces — that pantheon of British bands — and think, 'Well, are we going to do it or not? Now's the time — it's the third album.'"

The Smiths - Panic

Q, February 2001

Johnny Marr (guitarist, The Smiths): It was our first real tour, but we'd just lost our manager, my old school friend Joe Moss, so Morrissey and I were looking after the business side of things. Joe said his wife was about to have a baby and he wanted to spend more time with his family, but in fact there was friction between him and Morrissey. So, being a good friend of mine, rather than let that friction cause problems between me and Morrissey, he took himself out of the picture. But as a result of losing Joe, we were a bit like a rudderless ship. Dave Harper (press officer, Rough Trade): They did that tour in a panel van. It didn't have seats, just a load of bean bags and a mattress in the back, and carpeting stuck up the wall. Gill Smith (press officer, Rough Trade): I had been brought into Rough Trade to look after Hand In Glove, the single The Smiths were doing with Sandie Shaw. At the start of the tour, they got a new tour manager, Phil Cowie, who didn't fit in.

The Smiths - This Charming Man

The Smiths

Biography

The Smiths were an alternative rock/jangle pop band which formed in 1982 in Manchester, England, United Kingdom. The band consisted of Steven Morrissey (vocals, lyrics), Johnny Marr (guitar, music),Mike Joyce (drums) and Andy Rourke (bass). Hugely influential, The Smiths lasted all of five years from 1982 to 1987, releasing during this period four studio albums (The Smiths, Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead and Strangeways, Here We Come) and three compilation albums (Hatful of Hollow, The World Won’t Listen and Louder Than Bombs). Meat Is Murder went on to enter the British charts at number one in February of 1985, and The Queen Is Dead further confirmed the band’s popularity with its release in spring 1986. Greeted with enthusiastic reviews and peaking at number two on the U.K. charts, the album also developed The Smiths’ cult following in the U.S., breaking into the Top 100.

After the band’s split in 1987, a further six albums have been released, bringing the total number of Smiths albums to 13. These albums consisted of another five compilation albums (‘Best … I’, ‘…Best II’, ‘Singles’, ‘The Very Best of the Smiths’ and ‘The Sound Of The Smiths’), and one live album (‘Rank’) recorded before the band’s split during ‘The Queen Is Dead’ tour. Both ‘Best 1’ and ‘Best 2’ were heavily criticised by critics and some fans; ‘The Very Best Of’, was very similar content to said ‘Best’ albums, sold excellently, but drew much criticism from press and the band, who had no input.

Former members

Bass was originally played by Dale Hibbert, but he was replaced after 4 months. Craig Gannon was briefly a second guitarist for the band in 1986.
See The Smiths First Meetings