The Story So Far

On 22nd May 1959, the Morrissey family of Hulme, Manchester, consisting of young Irish couple Peter and Elizabeth and their two year old daughter Jacqueline, welcomed a new member into the world - Steven Patrick, born at the Park Hospital in Davyhulme. He was a beautiful baby (probably) and was to become one of Britain's most talented and celebrated singer/songwriters. In 1963, young Moz became a pupil of St Wilfred's Primary School, and in 1970, St Mary's Secondary Modern in Stretford, a brutal school that famously became the subject of The Smiths' song The Headmaster Ritual. During his teenage years, Steven ran the New York Dolls' fan club, and wrote a book about them, simply entitled New York Dolls. He also wrote James Dean Is Not Dead about another of his heroes... that's right, James Dean. After leaving school with one CSE in woodwork, our hero had brief periods of employment, including working at a hospital as a "flesh remover" (!!). Mostly, though, he was on the dole, spending vast quantities of time writing in his bedroom and trying unsuccessfully to become a music journalist. He got his first taste for performance in 1978 when he became the lead singer for The Nosebleeds, writing with Billy Duffy, who would go on to form The Cult, but the band split up after Steven's second gig, and he was once again left waiting for his big break... which finally came in May 1982, when a young guitarist named Johnny Maher knocked on the door of 384 Kings Road.

John Martin Maher was born on 31st October 1963 to another young Irish couple, John and Frances Maher, at 122 Everton Road, Chorlton-on-Medlock. He was nicknamed Johnny to distinguish him from his father, and the nickname stuck. Johnny attended the Sacred Heart Primary School, and later St Augustines Grammar. He had a great love for music and took up the guitar aged 11, inspired by T-rex's Marc Bolan, and he quickly excelled and easily mastered songs that would take other guitarists years to master. Johnny was involved with many musicians before the formation of The Smiths in 1982, and played with bands such as The Paris Valentinos (another member of which was Johnny's old school friend, Andy Rourke), Sister Ray and White Dice (again with Andy Rourke). After White Dice split in 1981, Johnny didn't see Andy Rourke for a while, but in the mean time met Joe Moss, a man who was to prove to be a big help in the early days of The Smiths. Joe Moss had a shop called Crazy Face on Chapel Walks, which was next door to X-Clothes, a shop that Johnny had worked in for some time. Joe and Johnny became friends due to their mutual interest in music and guitar playing. Joe became a mentor to Johnny. One day in 1982, Moss showed Johnny a documentary on Leiber and Stoller, who had met when one had gone to the other's house and insisted they collaborate. Johnny, who was once again interested in forming a band and was on the lookout for a lyricist/singer, remembered some lyrics that had been shown to him four years previously by old friend and fellow musician Billy Duffy, who was at the time in a band called The Nosebleeds. The lyrics had been written by Steven Morrissey. Johnny remembered that the lyrics were good, and decided he would act upon what he had seen in the documentary. In May 1982 he got on a bus to Steven's house. He knocked on the door... and The Smiths were born.

Morrissey and Maher quickly struck up a great friendship and soon began working on writing songs, the very first of which was Suffer Little Children, a song that would feature on The Smiths first, aponymously titled album. Realizing that they needed a good rhythm section to make the sound complete, Johnny contacted Mike Joyce to play on drums and his old school chum Andy Rourke to play on bass. Now a four piece, the band rehearsed in a room provided for them by their now (but not for long) manager Joe Moss. Their first gig was at the Ritz in Manchester, and featured Steven Morrissey's friend James Maker as a male go-go dancer who wore stilettos. While James Maker soon disappeared from the line-up, The Smiths' fans stayed and quickly grew in number. The band now wanted a record deal and, after rejecting the Manchester based label Factory Records, they headed to London in search of a deal with indie label (when indie actually meant independant, not just any old band with guitars and scruffy hair) Rough Trade. Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis signed them after hearing the demo they proudly presented to him, and aren't we all glad that he did? However, the contract required only two signitures instead of four...Morrissey (having now dropped his first two names) and Johnny Marr (having changed his name from Maher to Marr to avoid confusion with the drummer of The Buzzcocks who was also named John Maher) signed and Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce were left off the contract.

With their new record deal, The Smiths began recording their debut album, simply titled The Smiths. The tracklist was as follows:
Reel Around The Fountain
You've Got Everything Now
Miserable Lie
Pretty Girls Make Graves
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
This Charming Man
Still Ill
Hand In Glove
What Difference Does It Make?
I Don't Owe You Anything
Suffer Little Children
The album was released 20 February 1984, and peaked in the UK at number 2 in the charts.

The Smiths' follow-up album was Meat Is Murder.The tracklist was:
The Headmaster Ritual
Rusholme Ruffians
I Want The One I Can't Have
What She Said
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
How Soon Is Now?
Nowhere Fast
Well I Wonder
Barbarism Begins At Home
Meat Is Murder
Meat Is Murder was first released 11/14 February 1985, and this time peaked in the UK charts at number 1.

Their third album, The Queen Is Dead is often regarded by critics and fans as The Smiths' masterpiece. First released on 16 June 1986, it became the second Smiths album to peak in the UK charts at number 1. The tracklist is as follows:
The Queen Is Dead/Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty
Frankly, Mr. Shankly
I Know It's Over
Never Had No One Ever
Cemetry Gates
Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side(album version)
Vicar In A Tutu
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Some tracks on this album featured an extra guitarist, Craig Gannon. He was brought in to replace Andy Rourke on bass following his sacking from the band due to his addiction to heroin. Andy was soon brought back, though, and The Smiths retained Gannon as an additioal guitarist. He didn't last long, however, and was out of the band by the time they came to record what would be their last album. The Queen Is Dead was to be the last album The Smiths released on Rough Trade records. They had fallen out with Geoff Travis (see Frankly, Mr. Shankly) and, much to the disappointment of their fans, they defected to EMI.

Strangeways, Here We Come was the final Smiths album, and was released posthumously, several weeks after The Smiths split, on 28 September 1987, and featured the following tracklist:
A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours
I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
Death Of A Disco Dancer
Girlfriend In A Coma
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Unhappy Birthday
Paint A Vulgar Picture
Death At One's Elbow
I Won't Share You
This album peaked in the UK charts at number 2.

The Smiths split up only a few weeks prior to the release of Strangeways following a break down of communication between Morrissey and Marr. It had been some time since they had had a good manager, and all the pressure of managerial duties had fallen onto the shoulders of the songwriting duo, primarily Marr. This coupled with the pressures of writing and recording led Marr to become incredibly stressed, and he left the band. Morrissey tried to continue with Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke, but it could never be the same. The void left in the British music industry when The Smiths spilt has yet to be filled.

Apart from the releases listed above, The Smiths also released several compliations: Hatful Of Hollow(1984, number 7), The World Won't Listen (1987, number 2), Louder Than Bombs (1987, number 28), and Rank (live recording, 1988, number 2). Also, Best...1 (1992, number 1),Best...2 (1992, number 29), Singles (1995, number 5, my first Smiths CD!) and The Very Best Of The Smiths (2001, number 31, digitally remastered). The Complete Picture is a video featuring many Smiths promotional videos and performances, and was released in November 1992 and reached number 1 in the UK charts.

The second part of The Story So Far, detailing each of the Smiths' post-Smiths careers and the infamous court case will be up as soon as I can be bothered to do it.