The Smiths

Name	The Smiths
Landscape	yes
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Manchester, England
Genre	Alternative rock Indie pop
Years active	1982–1987
Label	Rough Trade, Sire/Warner Bros.
Associated acts	Electronic, Modest Mouse, Freebass, The Cribs
Past members	MorrisseyJohnny MarrAndy RourkeMike JoyceDale HibbertCraig Gannon

The Smiths were an English rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey (vocals) and Johnny Marr (guitar), the band also included Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums). Critics have called them the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. The group were signed to the independent record label Rough Trade Records, for whom they released four studio albums and several compilations, as well as numerous non-LP singles. Although they had limited commercial success outside the UK while they were still together, and never released a single that charted higher than number 10 in their home country, The Smiths won a growing following, and remain cult and commercial favourites. The band broke up in 1987 amid disagreements between Morrissey and Marr and have turned down several offers to reunite since then.

History

Formation and early singles

The Smiths were formed in early 1982 by Steven Patrick Morrissey, a writer who was a big fan of the New York Dolls and briefly fronted punk rock band The Nosebleeds; and John Maher, a guitarist and songwriter. Maher changed his name to Johnny Marr to avoid confusion with Buzzcocks drummer John Maher, and Morrissey performed solely under his surname. After recording several demo tapes with Simon Wolstencroft (later of The Fall) on drums, Morrissey and Marr recruited drummer Mike Joyce in the autumn of 1982. Joyce had formerly been a member of punk bands The Hoax and Victim. As well, they added bass player Dale Hibbert, who also provided the group with demo recording facilities at the studio where he worked as a recording engineer. However, after one gig, Marr's friend Andy Rourke replaced Hibbert on bass, because Marr felt that neither Hibbert's bass playing nor his personality fit in with the group.

The band picked their name in part as a reaction against names used by popular synthpop bands of the early 1980s, such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Spandau Ballet, because they considered these names fancy and pompous. In a 1984 interview Morrissey stated that he chose the name The Smiths "... because it was the most ordinary name" and because he thought that it was "... time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces." Signing to indie label Rough Trade Records, they released their first single, "Hand in Glove", in May 1983. The record was championed by DJ John Peel, as were all of their later singles, but failed to chart. The follow-up singles "This Charming Man" and "What Difference Does It Make?" fared better when they reached numbers 25 and 12 respectively on the UK Singles Chart.

The Smiths

In February 1984, the group released their debut album The Smiths, which reached number two on the UK Albums Chart.

More controversy followed when "Suffer Little Children", the b-side to "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now", touched on the theme of the Moors murders. This caused an uproar after the grandfather of one of the murdered children heard the song on a pub jukebox and felt the band was trying to commercialise the murders. After meeting with Morrissey, he accepted that the song was a sincere exploration of the impact of the murders. Morrissey subsequently established a friendship with Ann West, the mother of victim Lesley Ann Downey, who is mentioned by name in the song.

The year ended with the compilation album Hatful of Hollow. This collected singles, B-sides and the versions of songs that had been recorded throughout the previous year for the Peel and Jensen shows.

Meat Is Murder

Early in 1985 the band released their second album, Meat Is Murder. This album was more strident and political than its predecessor, including the pro-vegetarian title track (Morrissey forbade the rest of the group from being photographed eating meat), the light-hearted republicanism of "Nowhere Fast", and the anti-corporal punishment "The Headmaster Ritual" and "Barbarism Begins at Home". The band had also grown more adventurous musically, with Marr adding rockabilly riffs to "Rusholme Ruffians" and Rourke playing a funk bass solo on "Barbarism Begins at Home". The album was preceded by the re-release of the B-side "How Soon is Now?" as a single, and although that song was not on the original LP, it has been added to subsequent releases. Meat Is Murder was the band's only album (barring compilations) to reach number one in the UK charts. The subsequent single-only release "Shakespeare's Sister" reached number 26 on the UK Singles Chart, although the only single taken from the album, "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore", was less successful, barely making the top 50. Meanwhile, Rourke was fired from the band in early 1986 due to his use of heroin. He allegedly received notice of his dismissal via a Post-it note stuck to the windshield of his car. It read, "Andy – you have left The Smiths. Goodbye and good luck, Morrissey." Morrissey himself, however, denies this. Rourke was replaced on bass by Craig Gannon (formerly a member of Scottish New Wave band Aztec Camera), but was reinstated after only a fortnight. Gannon stayed in the band, switching to rhythm guitar. This five-piece recorded the singles "Panic" and "Ask" (the latter with Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals) which reached numbers 11 and 14 respectively on the UK Singles Chart, That article, written by Danny Kelly, was chiefly based on rumours around some very real and some unfounded tensions between Morrissey and Johnny Marr. Specifically, it was alleged that Morrissey disliked Marr working with other musicians, and that Marr and Morrissey's personal relationship had reached breaking point. Marr then contacted the NME to clarify that his leaving the band was not due to personal tensions as much as desiring a wider musical scope in his own career. Post-Smiths interviews by both Morrissey and Marr would cite the lack of a manager and the accompanying pressure on them personally as the major cause of stress that effectively ended the band.

Former Easterhouse guitarist Ivor Perry was brought in to replace Marr, and the band recorded some new material with him which was never completed, including an early version of "Bengali in Platforms" that was originally intended as the B-side of "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before". Perry was uncomfortable with the situation, stating "it was like they wanted another Johnny Marr", and the sessions ended with (according to Perry) "Morrissey running out of the studio". In a 1989 interview, Morrissey cited the lack of a managerial figure and business problems as reasons for the band's eventual split. It received a lukewarm reception from critics, but both Morrissey and Marr name it as their favourite Smiths album. A couple of further singles from Strangeways were released with earlier live, session and demo tracks as B-sides, and the following year the live recording Rank (recorded in 1986 while Gannon was in the band) repeated the UK chart success of previous albums.

Post-Smiths careers

Shortly after the release of Strangeways, the band were the subject of a documentary in LWT's arts strand The South Bank Show, broadcast on ITV on 18 October 1987.

Following the group's demise, Morrissey began work on a solo recording, collaborating with Strangeways producer Stephen Street and fellow Mancunian Vini Reilly, guitarist for The Durutti Column. The resulting album, Viva Hate (a reference to the end of the Smiths), was released six months later, reaching number one in the UK charts. Morrissey continues to perform and record as a solo artist.

Johnny Marr returned to the music scene in 1989 with New Order's Bernard Sumner and Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant in the supergroup Electronic. Electronic released three albums over the next decade. Marr was also a member of The The, recording two albums with the group between 1989 and 1993. He has also worked as a session musician and writing collaborator for artists including The Pretenders, Bryan Ferry, Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg, Black Grape, Talking Heads, Crowded House and Beck. In 2000 he started another band, Johnny Marr and the Healers, with a moderate degree of success, and later worked as a guest musician on the Oasis album Heathen Chemistry.

In addition to his work as a recording artist, Marr has worked as a record producer on Haven's debut album Between the senses. In 2006 he began work with Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock on songs that eventually featured on the band's 2007 release, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. The band subsequently announced that Marr was a fully fledged member, and the reformed line-up toured extensively throughout 2006-07. Marr has also been recording with Liam Gallagher of Oasis. In January 2008, it was reported that Marr had been adding his skill and experience to a secret songwriting session with Wakefield indie group The Cribs. Sources revealed that they worked together for a week at Moolah Rouge recording studio in Stockport, and had penned a number of new songs. Marr has now become a full member of The Cribs.

Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce have continued working together, including doing session work for Morrissey (1988–89) and Sinéad O'Connor, as well as working separately. Rourke has recorded and toured with Proud Mary and formed the short-lived group called Freebass with fellow bassists Peter Hook (of New Order and Joy Division) and Mani (of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream). They released one album and have since disbanded. He started a radio career, hosting a show on Saturday evenings on XFM Manchester. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has a weekly radio show on the New York based eastvillageradio.com

Court case

In 1996, Joyce took Morrissey and Marr to court, claiming that he had not received his fair share of recording and performance royalties. Morrissey and Marr had claimed the lion's share of The Smiths' recording and performance royalties and allowed ten percent each to Joyce and Rourke. Composition royalties were not an issue, as Rourke and Joyce had never been credited as composers for the band. Morrissey and Marr claimed that the other two members of the band had always agreed to that split of the royalties, but the court found in favour of Joyce and ordered that he be paid over £1 million in back pay and receive twenty-five percent henceforth. As Smiths' royalties had been frozen for two years, Rourke settled for a smaller lump sum to pay off his debts and continued to receive ten percent. While the judge in the case described Morrissey as "devious, truculent and unreliable", he did not state that the singer had been dishonest. Morrissey claimed that he was "... under the scorching spotlight in the dock, being drilled ..." with questions such as " 'How dare you be successful?' 'How dare you move on?'". He stated that "The Smiths were a beautiful thing and Johnny [Marr] left it, and Mike [Joyce] has destroyed it." Morrissey appealed against the verdict, but was not successful.

In late November 2005, while appearing on radio station BBC 6 Music, Mike Joyce claimed to be having financial problems and said that he had resorted to selling rare band recordings on eBay. As a teaser, a few minutes of an unfinished instrumental track known as "The Click Track" was premiered on the show. Morrissey hit back at Joyce with a public statement shortly after, on the website true-to-you.net. Relations between Joyce and Rourke cooled significantly as a result of Morrissey's statement which claimed that Joyce had misled the courts. Morrissey claimed that Joyce had not declared that Rourke was entitled to some of the assets seized by Joyce's lawyers from Morrissey.

2000s

Both Johnny Marr and Morrissey have repeatedly said in interviews that they will not reunite the band. In 2005, VH1 attempted to get the band back together for a reunion on its Bands Reunited show. The programme abandoned its attempt after host Aamer Haleem was unsuccessful in his attempt to corner Morrissey before a show. In December 2005 it was announced that Johnny Marr and The Healers would play at Manchester v Cancer, a benefit show for cancer research being organised by Andy Rourke and his production company, Great Northern Productions. Rumours suggested that a Smiths reunion would occur at this concert but were dispelled by Johnny Marr on his website. However, Rourke did join Marr on-stage for the first time since The Smiths broke up, performing "How Soon Is Now?".

To this day Morrissey refuses to reunite his old band, going as far as to say that he would "rather eat [his] own testicles than re-form The Smiths, and that's saying something for a vegetarian." In March 2006, Morrissey revealed that The Smiths had been offered $5 million to reunite for a performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which he turned down, saying, "No, because money doesn't come into it." He further explained, "It was a fantastic journey. And then it ended. I didn't feel we should have ended. I wanted to continue. [Marr] wanted to end it. And that was that." When asked why he would not reform with The Smiths, Morrissey responded "I feel as if I've worked very hard since the demise of The Smiths and the others haven't, so why hand them attention that they haven't earned? We are not friends, we don't see each other. Why on earth would we be on a stage together?"

In August 2007, the NME reported that Morrissey had turned down a near £40 million offer to reunite with Marr for a 50-date world tour in 2008 and 2009. The condition would only be that Morrissey would have to play the dates with Marr, meaning the deal could have gone ahead without Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke. According to an anonymous press release on true-to-you.net, an unofficial fan site tacitly supported by Morrissey, Morrissey was approached in summer 2007 by a "consortium of promoters" with a $75 million offer to tour during the next two years. The offer required Morrissey to make a minimum of fifty worldwide performances with Johnny Marr, under the Smiths' name. true-to-you.net reported that the offer had been refused. Other reports say that the whole $75 million tour was a hoax.

In an October 2007 interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, Johnny Marr hinted at a potential reformation in the future, saying that "stranger things have happened so, you know, who knows?" Marr went on to say that "It's no biggy. Maybe we will in 10 or 15 years' time when we all need to for whatever reasons, but right now Morrissey is doing his thing and I'm doing mine, so that's the answer really." This is the first potential indication of a Smiths reunion from Marr, who previously has stated that reforming the band would be a bad idea.

In October and December 2008, The Sun reported that the Smiths would be reforming to play at the Coachella Festival in 2009. However, Johnny Marr later stated through his management that the rumours were "rubbish".

A Smiths compilation called The Sound of The Smiths was released on 10 November 2008. Johnny Marr supervised the remastering of all the tracks and Morrissey named the record. The album is available as either a one-disc or two-disc version.

In February 2009, following further suggestions of an imminent reunion, Morrissey once again denied the rumours. In an interview with BBC Radio 2, he stated that "People always ask me about reunions and I can't imagine why ... the past seems like a distant place, and I'm pleased with that." In the same year, Marr mentioned that "we were offfered 50 million dollars for three... possibly five shows", but said that the chances of a reunion were "nothing to do with money", and that the reasons were "really abstract".

Musical style

Throughout the group's existence, Morrissey and Johnny Marr dictated the musical direction of The Smiths. Marr said in 1990, "[I]t was a 50/50 thing between Morrissey and me. We were completely in sync about which way we should go for each record". Encyclopædia Britannica comments that the band's "non-rhythm-and-blues, whiter-than-white fusion of 1960s rock and post-punk was a repudiation of contemporary dance pop" which was popular in the early 1980s. The band's music purposefully rejected synthesizers and dance music. and also frequently wore thick-rimmed National Health Service-style glasses.

Legacy

The Smiths have influenced a number of alternative rock bands through their career. Even as early as 1985, the "band had spawned a rash of soundalike bands, including James, who opened for the group on their spring 1985 tour". The Cranberries combined "the melodic jangle of post-Smiths indie-guitar pop with the lilting, trance-inducing sonic textures of late-'80s dream pop, creating their sound with "trebly, chiming guitars and spare, certain melodies". As well, the band used Stephen Street as producer, who was known for "maximizing the moodiness of the Smiths". The Cranberries fused this sound with lyrics that echoed the lovesick, literary style of Morrissey. "The Smiths singer's bookish, fiercely intelligent lyrics also provided a blueprint for the quiet, literate Scottish band Belle & Sebastian." Marr's guitar playing "was a huge building block for more Manchester legends that followed The Smiths - The Stone Roses"; their guitarist John Squire has stated that Marr was a major influence.

The "Britpop movement preempted by The Stone Roses and spearheaded by groups like Oasis, Suede and Blur, drew heavily from Morrissey's portrayal of and nostalgia for a bleak urban England of the past." Britpop band Blur formed as a result of seeing The Smiths on The South Bank Show in 1987. However, even though leading bands from the Britpop movement claimed to be influenced by The Smiths, the Britpop bands were at odds with the "basic anti-establishment philosophies of Morrissey and The Smiths", since Britpop "was an entirely commercial construct." In the book Saint Morrissey, the author claims that Britpop "airbrush[ed] Morrissey out of the picture ... so that the Nineties and its centrally-planned and coordinated pop economy could happen."

Playwright Shaun Duggan's stage drama William, Douglas Coupland's 1998 novel Girlfriend in a Coma, Andrew Collins' autobiography Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now, Marc Spitz's novel How Soon is Never?, the pop band Shakespears Sister, the defunct art-punk group Pretty Girls Make Graves and the Polish filmmaker Przemyslaw Wojcieszek's short fictional film about two Polish fans of The Smiths, Louder Than Bombs, are all named after songs or albums by The Smiths.

Discography

;Studio albums

The Smiths (1984)

Meat Is Murder (1985)

The Queen Is Dead (1986)

Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)

Notes

References

David Bret. Morrissey: Scandal and Passion (Robson 2004; ISBN 1-86105-787-3; covers both Smiths and Morrissey's solo career)

Simon Goddard. (Reynolds and Hearn 2002, 2004²; ISBN 1-903111-47-1, ISBN 1-905287-14-3)

Mick Middles. The Smiths: The Complete Story (Omnibus 1985, 1988²)

Johnny Rogan. Morrissey and Marr: The Severed Alliance (Omnibus 1992, 1993²; ISBN 0-7119-3000-7)

Mark Simpson. Saint Morrissey (SAF, 2003, 2006, 978-0946719754)

External links

Plundering Desire - chronologically relive the history of the Smiths through articles, release reviews, news items and live reviews

Morrissey-solo - up to date Morrissey and Smiths news

Passions Just Like Mine - a fansite with a very complete discography

Vulgar Picture - Illustrated discography of the Smiths and Morrissey

The Music Collector Site - includes a page and discography looking at UK releases pre and post split

Category:British alternative rock groups Category:Musical groups established in 1982 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1987 Category:Sire Records artists Category:Musical groups from Manchester * Category:1980s music groups Category:Musical quartets Category:Rough Trade Records artists Category:Warner Bros. Records artists