1987 08 08 Smiths NME

THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT

NOT LIKE THE OLD DAYS ANYMORE? ...

"We cannot cling to the old dreams anymore."

The fans know, even if, for now, Morrissey doesn't; The Smiths are no more.

There cannot be a 'new' Smiths, a 'different' Smiths or 'added-wonder-ingredient' Smiths since the very essence of the group lay in the public love-affair - personal and artistic - between Steven Patrick Morrissey and Johnny Marr, and in their interlocking differences.

The magic of The Smiths was sparked when the former's knowingly innocent, lovelessly sexual missives on monotony, misery, mischief and mirth were shaped, spotlit and shot full of intense, emotive, life by the latter's almost-familiar, almost-perfect classic rock frames. Stripped of either, the band that remains or emerges might be any one of a million different fab 'n groovy things; but it will not - simply cannot - be The Smiths ...

Why all the fuss? What did they do? Equipped with an unlikely cocktail of Rickenbackers, deaf-aids, glads, removable shirts, a mountain of talent and a crust of arrogance a mile deep, they hurled themselves into the powdered face of mid-'80s pop (and its obsession with sedative keyboards, tepid dance-bleat and ethereal, incestuous groups) and ejaculated a body of pop that topped any produced this decade. Musically, it's as simple and as certain as that.

But always swirling in, over, under and around that music was something else, a capacity to attract controversy (some deliberately, much decidedly otherwise) that was unmatched between the snotty heyday of the Pistols and the advent of the Beasties. What follows are the high (and low) lights of four years of The Smiths, snapshots of the music and the madness ...

Research: DANNY KELLY

MAY '83: "Hand in glove/the sun shines out of our behinds..."

Boom! The Smiths can't wait... in the very first line of their debut they spell it out, announcing their indestructable self-belief and irresistible intent with an audacity unheard since "I am an An-ar-chist" howled outta the opening rumble of 'Anarchy...'

AUTUMN '83: 'Hand In Glove' isn't a hit but the tabloid press give the Mancunian upstarts a sneak preview of celebrity anyway. Just prior to the release of the life-alteringly wonderful 'This Charming Man', The Sun (later abetted by the more shell-headed sections of the music press) precipitates the first of the showers of shit that will periodically engulf The Smiths. 'Hand In Glove''s flip, 'Handsome Devil', you see, advocates child-molestation (no less!), so top BBC brass meet to prevent the song being broadcast as part of a session done for David Jensen's show.

FEB '84: As the legend starts to billow, a backlash of sorts (courtesy NME, natch) begins;

"Morrissey is ordinary and average but not as ordinary and average as Duran Duran .. .The Smiths are just bland and unsensational enough for Morrissey to shine . . ."

Amrik Rai, NME, 11 Feb '84

FEB '84: The Smiths go pop! 'What Difference Does It Make' goes Top Tennish, and, more tellingly, makes 'Now That's What I Call Music Vol 2'.

FEB '84: The frenziedly-awaited debut LP disappoints, thanks to elephants-ear production (grey and flat), and ludicrously overblown expectations.

APR '84: "Working with her has been an endless thrill; it's like meeting oneself in a former life."

Morrissey on Sandie Shaw

"When they started writing to me I thought they were right nutters."

Sandie on The Smiths

MAY '84: For releasing the most stupidly-titled single in the history of pop they probably had it coming; but now the crap, with which they'd only previously toyed, really comes down . ..

The preoccupation of 'Miserable''s b-side, 'Suffer Little Children', with the Moors Murders opens, with the inevitable shove from Fleet Street, old but still-raw wounds. The victims' parents are quoted as being 'greviously upset' at the song, and staff at northern branches of WH Smiths and Woolworths refuse to handle any Smiths discs.

The delicate no-win situation is not eased by a vague resemblance apparent between the single's cover star, pools-win spendthrift Viv Nicholson, and Moors Murderess Myra Hindley.

The dailies soon get bored, the communal grief returns once again to private corners, the storm passes ...

'HATFUL OF HOLLOW' is an ostentatious exhibition of 18 months of incandescent creativity; 'How Soon Is Now' a hypnotic rock landmark; and 'Shakespeare's Sister' saw The Smiths sleepwalking on autopilot, gathering themselves for War On Pork!

"That natural Northern charm, bred in the back-to-backs and cobblestone alleyways, shyly smiling, quipping couplets of love forlorn and bungled romance overthese infectiously syncopated rhythms. All this can mean only one man . ..

"Yes, George Formby."

Paul Du Noyer, NME, Feb 16 '85

'MEAT IS MURDER' is brilliant, a Catherine wheel of inspired language nailed to a sometimes unnervingly evocative and beautiful guitar music. It goes straight into the LP chart at number one and launches Morrissey on a nationwide talkathon on the evils of bacon butties. This discussion, though, isn't all one way; during one of the dates of their anti-carnivore tour, Morrissey is hit full in the kisser by a string of sausages, each bearing the etched legend 'Meat Is Murder'.

"I think it was done out of affection, misguided affection. They hurled them so accurately that I actually bit into them in the action of singing the word 'murder'. I thought at first that it was something else, something extreme..."

Morrissey on the pork projectiles, NME, June 8 '85.

OCT' 85: And now the rumour whirlpool that constantly circles the Smiths is in full spate; The Boy With Thorn EMI In His Side ...

WHILE 'BIGMOUTH"s sleeve continues Morrissey's public adoration of the corpse of James Dean, copies of his pre-Smiths love letter to the actor/icon (top, with which Morrissey is now none too enamoured) carry on surfacing.

"The Queen Is Dead' arrives in a climate of doubt.. .it is as exciting and direct a rock record as you're likely to hear all year-a challenging and often extreme piece of work." 

Adrian Thrills, NME, June 14 '86

CHALLENGING, EXTREME and two-times controversial too. First the Royal Family get theirs, and Morrissey feels disinclined to apologise:

"I didn't want to attack the monarchy in a sort of beer-monster way, but I find as time goes by this happiness we had slowly slips away and is replaced by something that is wholly grey and wholly saddening. The very idea of the monarchy and the Queen of England is being reinforced and made to seem more useful than it really is. We don't believe in leprechauns, so why believe in the Queen?

"And when one looks at the individuals within the Royal Family they're all so magnificently, unaccountably and unpardonably boring!"

Morrissey on the Queen, NME, June 7 1986

Later came accusations that The Smiths - particularly with songs like 'Asleep' - were romanticising, even encouraging, suicide among their listeners. Morrissey admits that he has received letters (half a dozen or more) from the parents of young suicides.

"Although it's very hard for people to accept, I do actually respect suicide, because it is having control over one's life."

Morrissey NME, June 7 '86.

The 'Queen Is Dead' tour is no picnic either. For maybe the first time, The Smiths do not appear to be in complete control, as an increasing number of their shows terminate suddenly with a distraught Morrissey exiting stage left.

"It started at Newport, where Morrissey, through nothing more sinister than overenthusiasm, got dragged into the crowd. .. .The following day. The Sun reports that in the middle of the 'first song', at the point where Morrissey holds up the 'Queen Is Dead' banner, he was attacked by outraged 'royalists'!!"

Johnny Marr, NME, Feb 14 '87.

And, almost casually, The Smiths sign for EMI. Sections of their faithful mourn the betrayal of their much-trumpeted, and talked about, independent status, but the deal is rumoured to be worth a luridly cool million to Morrissey and Marr.

JULY '86: With 'Panic',The Smiths excelled as flak-magnets, accused of racism and homophobia.

"'Panic' came about at the time of Chernobyl. Morrissey and myself were listening to a Newsbeat radio report about it. The story about this shocking disaster comes to an end and then, immediately, we're off into Wham's 'I'm Your Man'. I remember actually saying 'what the fuck has this got to do with peoples' lives?'

"And so - "hang the blessed DJ". I think it was a great lyric, important and applicable to anyone who lives in England."

Johnny Marr Feb 14 '87.

'Panic' too sees the name of Manchester guitarist Craig Gannon on a Smiths sleeve for the first time ... He's drafted in, they say, to beef up the sound. He's really drafted in, they later admit, 'cos Andy Rourke has got himself onto the wrong side of the smack line.

THE NUN-EATING monster metal five-piece version of The Smiths doesn't last long - Rourke makes a recovery and returns. The air is still full, though, with protestations that Marr has used Gannon to rockify the band.

JAN '87: 'Shoplifters ...'is the last oasis on The Smiths' journey, a great record (maybe their last?), a big hit, and, almost inevitably, site for further aggravation ...

One publicity-starved Tory MP decides that the record - an attack on plagiarism - actually encourages real-life supermarket-looting, and calls, in the House of Commons, for its withdrawal.

FEB/APR '87:'The World Won't Listen' ('Hatful Of Hollow II') is a musical affidavit of declining standards, and 'Sheila' their poorest seven-inch to date.

MAY/JUNE '87: The mutterings - musical incompatability, personality clashes, drugs, EMI-fear, disintegration - multiply, stronger than ever. A TV appearance, to promote 'Sheila', pours nitro-glycerene on the flames: Marr sneers through on auto, while Morrissey flails, unsure, agitated, scared, near to panic. The conclusion is obvious and unavoidable . ..

This is a band at the end of its tether.. .

AUG '87: The tether snaps! The new LP - their last for Rough Trade - completed, Marr quits, saying he'll form his own band. Morrissey determines to carry on bravely (or is it just foolish nostalgia?). All sides claim an amicability the reality of which will only be proven by time.

And once again the familiar pattern - inexhaustible speculation punctuated by record releases - grinds on. Will EMI ever hear a note? ... Who will be Morrissey's chosen sidekick now? . . . Is Marr really pencilled in for the threatened McCartney New Year tour??!! . . .