The Smiths

Manchester

In May 1982 Johnny Marr and his friend Steve Pomfret went to Morrissey's home in Stretford and asked him to form a band. The two had met at a Patti Smith concert in 1978, and Marr had been impressed that Morrissey had written a book about the New York Dolls. Marr later told the Guardian that he was following the example of Jerry Leiber, who knocked on Mike Stoller's door. Morrissey chose the name the Smiths because it was the most ordinary name, and he thought it was time for ordinary folk to show their faces. Marr's old school friend Andy Rourke replaced an earlier bassist, and Mike Joyce became the drummer after auditions.

The first public show was at the Ritz in Manchester in October 1982. Geoff Travis of Rough Trade agreed to release Hand in Glove in May 1983, and John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show invited the band to record a session. The second Peel session, in September 1983, included This Charming Man, which Marr wrote for it and which became their second single. A first attempt at a debut album, produced by Troy Tate, was rejected by Rough Trade, and the band remade it with John Porter. The Smiths came out in February 1984 and reached number two in Britain.

Singles and Meat Is Murder

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now, in May, was their first top ten hit and the first session with the engineer Stephen Street. The B-side of William, It Was Really Nothing was How Soon Is Now?, a song built around a single chord and a tremolo guitar part. It went onto Hatful of Hollow, a compilation of the radio sessions and singles that appeared in November 1984.

Meat Is Murder followed on 11 February 1985. Morrissey called it dark, rainy and political. It had a vegetarian title track and songs about corporal punishment, and is the only Smiths studio album to reach number one in Britain. The band toured Britain and the United States at length that year.

The Queen Is Dead

Much of it was written at Marr's home in Bowdon. The Queen Is Dead was recorded in the second half of 1985 with Morrissey and Marr producing and Street engineering, but a legal dispute with the label held it back until 16 June 1986. Marr said afterwards that he had been extremely ill and drinking more than he could handle. Rourke was fired in early 1986 over heroin use and reinstated about two weeks later, and Craig Gannon joined as a second guitarist for a while.

The album reached number two. It holds Bigmouth Strikes Again, the lead single, and There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, which Rough Trade wanted as the first single but which was not released as one until 1992. The band's last concert was a benefit at Brixton Academy in London on 12 December 1986, and it ended with Hand in Glove.

Strangeways and the split

In 1987 came Shoplifters of the World Unite and Sheila Take a Bow, and two compilations, The World Won't Listen and Louder Than Bombs, gathered the singles and B-sides. Strangeways, Here We Come was recorded in March 1987 at the Wool Hall in Bath. Marr resisted the expectation of a jingly-jangly sound, and the record added piano, synthesised strings and a drum machine. He left in July, and the band had split before the album was released on 28 September. It reached number two in Britain and number 55 in the United States, their best placing there. Marr told the Guardian in 2016 that being expected to manage the band at 23 was what split it.

After

In 1989 Joyce and Rourke began legal proceedings against Morrissey and Marr over how the royalties were divided. Rourke settled. In 1996 the case reached the High Court, where the judge found in Joyce's favour, and an appeal by Morrissey was dismissed in 1998. Morrissey's first solo album, Viva Hate, reached number one in 1988. Marr worked with Electronic, the The and Modest Mouse before making solo records. Rourke died of pancreatic cancer on 19 May 2023, aged 59. Morrissey and Marr have repeatedly said they will not reunite the band.

Noel Gallagher and the Stone Roses' John Squire have both cited the Smiths or Marr as an influence, and Blur formed after seeing the band on The South Bank Show in 1987. Douglas Wolk of Pitchfork wrote in 2011 that there have been better bands, but never a more perfect one, with a distinct, deliberate aesthetic shaped by the tensions of collaboration.