The Smiths

The Smiths are a famed British rock band to rise to glory in the midst of eighties. This formation was founded and later, largely, ruined prematurely by vocalist Steven Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. Before organizing The Smiths, they had been performing at various local bands. It was Marr who came up with the idea of The Smiths, but he needed a quality singer and skilled lyricist whom he found in Morrissey. They met in spring 1982 and, in a short while, The Smiths held their first performance. To complete the lineup, Marr and Morrissey recruited bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce. A year was enough for the rockers to establish a steady, yet small, army of loyal supporters that could be enlarged only by their gigs beyond Manchester. After a streak of voyages to London, The Smiths recorded the first single, Hand in Glove, to become a national hit. Morrissey touched slightly the subject of homosexuality, which could not but catch the public attention.

In the late 1983, the second single by The Smiths, This Charming Man, picked at number twenty five in the charts paving the way for the subsequent single What Difference Does It Make straight to the twelfth position. The Smiths released their much-anticipated debut album in 1984. The critics met this work enthusiastically as it ranked second among the top albums. The Smiths were doing perfectly in their native UK, while the invasion into the USA left much to be desired. The British did not arrange large-scale tours in America, which made it possible to listen to them only on college radios. Meat Is Murder, a new album of The Smiths, hit the stores in 1985 and in no time made it to the top of the British charts, although experts saw it musically weaker than the debut effort. By the time of this release, Morrissey was far out of the line while giving his interviews. He was condemning Thatcher rigorously and became an active supporter of vegetarianism. He reached the limit when he demanded the other members of The Smiths eat no meat.

In autumn 1985, The Smiths prepared the audience for the release of their third album with issuance of the single The Boy with the Thorn in His Side. The album The Queen Is Dead saw light in 1986 and appeared the first successful record by The Smiths across the ocean. In a few months, Marr suffered a disastrous car accident. During his recovery period, the band fired Rourke due to his uncontrolled drug consumption. 1987 was arguably the best year in the history of The Smiths. Their non-LP singles inhabited permanently the leading positions of the charts while the name of the group became well known to the whole world. Nevertheless, Marr was losing his interest in The Smiths as he grew disenchanted with the music industry and found himself in the writer’s block. His profound differences with Morrissey made the situation even worse. All these circumstances led to Marr quitting the group several weeks before the release of Strangeways, Here We Come. Shortly after this, Morrissey dissolved The Smiths and took up a solo career. The concert album Rank became available in autumn 1988, and in 1992, the stores offered the compilation of The Smiths best sings. Three years later, a collection of their singles surfaced. In the mid nineties, Rourke and Joyce decided to sue Marr and Morrissey. As the songwriters, both received 80% of The Smiths revenues, which did not seem fair to the other members of the band. Rourke abandoned his effort and Joyce won his case finally.