It was a really awful time, horrible, for everyone concerned.” I didn’t know whether to call him or leave him alone. “When he left the impact was huge and I think we were all traumatised and probably still are,” Rourke said in 2022. Marr left in 1987, precipitating the band’s split shortly afterwards. You start spending it on drugs,” Rourke later said. “You start getting a bunch of money and don’t know what to do. He was fired from the band, rejoining after two weeks (his brief replacement, Craig Gannon, stayed with the band for a spell, moving to rhythm guitar). Rourke struggled with heroin use and was arrested for possession in 1986. It was a sound that still defines British indie music of the 1980s, and it resulted in four classic albums – The Smiths, Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead and Strangeways, Here We Come – as well as acclaimed one-off singles. The Smiths recorded their first demo in their classic lineup later that year, including songs such as What Difference Does It Make? which set out the core Smiths sound: waspish vocals from Morrissey, complex and ringing lead guitar from Marr, and a strident, technically brilliant rhythm section in Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce, with Rourke in melodic interplay with Marr and – on tracks such as Barbarism Begins at Home – playing funky bass solos. Andy and I spent all our time studying music, having fun and working on becoming the best musicians we could possibly be.”ĭefining British indie music of the 80s … Johnny Marr, Morrissey, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke in 1985. “When we were 15 I moved into his house with him and his three brothers and I soon came to realise that my mate was one of those rare people that absolutely no one doesn’t like. “We were best friends, going everywhere together,” Marr said in a written tribute to Rourke. Bassist Steve Pomfret joined, replaced by Dale Hibbert, who played the Smiths’ first gig but was replaced thereafter by Rourke, a school friend of Marr since the age of 11 – the pair had formed a short-lived earlier band, Freak Party. The Smiths formed around the partnership of Marr and Morrissey in 1982. Rourke also played in the supergroup Freebass with two other celebrated Mancunian bass guitarists, New Order’s Peter Hook and the Stone Roses’ Mani, and recorded with Sinéad O’Connor, the Pretenders, Ian Brown and was in the group DARK with the Cranberries vocalist Dolores O’Riordan. I suppose, at the end of it all, we hope to feel that we were valued. He was also very, very funny and very happy, and post-Smiths, he kept a steady identity – never any manufactured moves. His distinction was so terrific and unconventional and he proved it could be done. He didn’t ever know his own power, and nothing that he played had been played by someone else. Morrissey also paid tribute, writing: “He will never die as long as his music is heard. Rourke played on the Smiths’ classic back catalogue including hits such as This Charming Man and There Is a Light That Never Goes Out – both classic examples of his often boldly melodic style – as well as on solo songs for frontman Morrissey after the group disbanded.
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