Andy Rourke, the bassist for indie legends the Smiths, has died aged 59.
The news was announced by guitarist Johnny Marr on social media, who wrote: “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Andy Rourke after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer. Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans. We request privacy at this sad time.”
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.
Morrissey also paid tribute, writing: “He will never die as long as his music is heard. He didn’t ever know his own power, and nothing that he played had been played by someone else. His distinction was so terrific and unconventional and he proved it could be done. He was also very, very funny and very happy, and post-Smiths, he kept a steady identity – never any manufactured moves. I suppose, at the end of it all, we hope to feel that we were valued. Andy need not worry about that.”
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.
The Smiths formed around the partnership of Marr and Morrissey in 1982. 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.
“We were best friends, going everywhere together,” Marr said in a written tribute to Rourke. “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. Andy and I spent all our time studying music, having fun and working on becoming the best musicians we could possibly be.”
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.
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.
Rourke struggled with heroin use and was arrested for possession in 1986. 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). “You start getting a bunch of money and don’t know what to do. You start spending it on drugs,” Rourke later said.
Marr left in 1987, precipitating the band’s split shortly afterwards. “When he left the impact was huge and I think we were all traumatised and probably still are,” Rourke said in 2022. “No one knew how to react. I didn’t know whether to call him or leave him alone. It was a really awful time, horrible, for everyone concerned.”
Rourke played on solo Morrissey songs in 1989 such as The Last of the Famous International Playboys and Interesting Drug, which Joyce said in retrospect was “a big kick in the eye for Johnny … I felt like I had betrayed him so it was a long while before we spoke again”.
Rourke and Joyce took Morrissey and Marr to court in 1989, arguing they were owed an equal share of earnings having only earned 10% each of the group’s performance and recording royalties. Rourke quickly settled for a lump sum of £83,000, while Joyce continued with the lawsuit and was awarded around £1m in backdated royalties and 25% thereafter; the case famously featured the judge’s description of Morrissey as “devious, truculent and unreliable”. Rourke later filed for bankruptcy, in 1999.
As well as the aforementioned collaborations, Rourke later played with another celebrated Mancunian musician, Badly Drawn Boy, and joined his touring band. His most recent project was Blitz Vega, a band with Kav Sandhu of the Happy Mondays.
Tributes have been paid to Rourke online, including by Suede bassist Mat Osman who described Rourke as “a total one-off – a rare bassist whose sound you could recognise straight away”. The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess called him “an inspirational musician with a style that made so many of us pick up a bass guitar”.
Marr’s tribute continued: “Watching him play those dazzling basslines was an absolute privilege and genuinely something to behold. But one time which always comes to mind was when I sat next to him at the mixing desk watching him play his bass on the song The Queen Is Dead. It was so impressive that I said to myself: ‘I’ll never forget this moment.’”
