The Smiths: Last News

Morrissey has said he has bought back the rights to two of his albums, after a long-running dispute with his label Capitol Records.The former Smiths frontman has been locked in battle with Capitol for a number of years, after his album ‘Bonfire Of Teenagers’ went unreleased, despite being completed in 2021.The album had been announced for a 2023 release on Capitol, but Morrissey later said he had “voluntarily withdrawn from any association with Capitol Records”. He also revealed that Miley Cyrus, who recorded backing vocals for the track ‘I Am Veronica’ in 2020, had asked to have her vocals removed from the song.But now, in a post on his website Morrissey Central, titled ‘A Rush And A Push And The Music Is Ours’, in reference to a 1987 Smiths song, he has said that he has bought the rights to release that album.“Morrissey has paid the exit fee to Capitol Records in order to return both WORLD PEACE IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS and BONFIRE OF TEENAGERS albums back to him,” the post reads.“It’s been a long, hard, bloody war.

The Smiths and Nirvana tribute bands re-opened Brixton Academy last night (April 19) after tragedy closed its doors 16 months ago – with fans hailing it as “the best venue in London”.The legendary South London venue has been shut since December 2022 after a fatal crowd crush that left two people dead. The tragic incident occurred at an Asake concert, which resulted in the deaths of Gabrielle Hutchinson, aged 23, and 33-year-old Rebecca Ikumelo.

The Smiths tribute band set to play at the re-opening gig of the O2 Academy in Brixton tonight (Friday April 19) have spoken to NME about what to expect from the show and what it means it be gracing the stage at the iconic London venue after tragedy closed its doors.The legendary South London venue has been shut since December 2022 after a fatal crowd crush that left two people dead. The tragic incident occurred at an Asake concert, which resulted in the deaths of Gabrielle Hutchinson, aged 23, and 33-year-old Rebecca Ikumelo.

Morrissey has announced details of a new live album reissue, and teased that he plans to announce two “special event concerts”.The announcement was shared by the vocalist and former Smiths frontman over the weekend (April 13), as he took to his Morrissey Central blog to tease a new release with fans.“On Friday 26 July, Warner Records will re-issue Morrissey’s 1993 live in Paris album, ‘Beethoven Was Deaf’,” the brief post stated. “The release is global, and the album will be available on CD, black vinyl, and orange vinyl.”“The album originally reached #13 in England, but was not released in the U.S.

Johnny Marr was joined on stage by Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant at London’s Eventim Apollo last night (April 12) – check out footage from the show below. Marr’s The Spirit Power Tour arrived at the Hammersmith venue, and welcomed Tennant at the end of the set for covers of David Bowie’s ‘Rebel Rebel’ and Electronic’s ‘Getting Away With It’, a song on which Tennant himself sang the original lead vocals.

Deftones have performed an electrifying cover of The Smiths‘ ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’ during their Coachella 2024 set.While taking over the outdoor theatre during their debut set at this year’s edition of Coachella, Chino Moreno and co. jumped right into the 1984 Smiths track following their performance of ‘Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)’.The band rarely perform their cover of the indie classic which was featured in their 2011 compilation album simply titled ‘Covers’.

December 2022 after a fatal crowd crush that left two people dead.The O2 venue has been shuttered since the tragic incident that occurred at an Asake concert, which resulted in the deaths of Gabrielle Hutchinson, aged 23, and 33-year-old Rebecca Ikumelo. A third was left in a critical condition.The future of the iconic London venue had been uncertain since then, before it was announced in December that the venue was allowed to retain its licence and re-open if it can meet “robust” safety rules.

Damon Albarn covered The Smiths‘ ‘Panic’ with his Africa Express collective on stage in Mexico City this weekend.The Blur frontman joined the group for the performance in Morelos, Mexico at Bahidorá Festival on Saturday (February 17).The musical collective was formed in 2006 with the aim of bringing together artists from different cultures and musical genres for collaborative events.Albarn sang and played piano for the high-energy performance, and was joined by Camilo Lara for a lively ska interpretation of The Smiths’ 1986 track.Check out footage of the showcase below.Announcing the show last month, the Gorillaz artist shared that the performance would mark Africa Express’ first visit to Mexico, bringing together musicians, singers and DJs from around the world “to collaborate on a very special, completely original show”.NME watched Africa Express live back in 2019, describing the show in a five-star review as a “symbolic display of diversity, collaboration and unity”. It added: “Africa Express rarely gets together, but when it does, it specialises in generating one-off moments through unique combinations.”The collective’s last release, ‘Egoli‘ also came out in 2019.

Johnny Marr appeared on an episode of Would I Lie To You this evening (February 9) and recounted a “true story” about getting egged in Manchester as a teenager.Would I Lie To You? – which was first broadcast back in 2007 – is presented by Rob Brydon (Gavin & Stacey, The Trip), and the award-winning programme’s current team captains are David Mitchell (Peep Show) and Lee Mack (Not Going Out).Per an official description, the trio “encourage their guests to tell the tallest of tales” to the opposing team across three rounds: ‘Home Truths’, ‘This is My…’ and ‘Quick-Fire Lies’. Teams are awarded a point for correctly guessing whether a story is true or not, but their rival team gets a point if they guess incorrectly.After being described as “this show’s coolest ever guest” by comedian Mack, Marr tried to convince the other contestants that he was telling the truth about the time he was egged after getting sacked from his job at a local co-op in Manchester.Marr had a job as a teenager “stacking shelves” and “eggs” in the shop for around three weeks before he was “let go”, he told the contestants.

Morrissey is currently “receiving medical supervision for physical exhaustion”, after the former Smiths frontman cancelled a string of shows in LA.The former Smiths frontman was scheduled to perform two shows in California celebrating the 20th anniversary of his classic 2004 album ‘You Are The Quarry’ this weekend, before it was announced that the gigs would not be going ahead due to “unforeseen circumstances”.Now, the indie veterans’ social media accounts have shared the reason for the cancellation with a message from his tour manager Donnie Knutson.“Morrissey is receiving medical supervision for physical exhaustion,” said Knutson. “He has been ordered to rest for two weeks, and he will remain in Zurich.”Posted by Morrissey Official on Friday, January 26, 2024The announcement comes amidst the singer’s grapple with Capitol Records over the release of his upcoming album, ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’.

Ahead of the New Hampshire primary earlier this week, political reporter Ben Jacobs attended a rally for former President Donald Trump and noted in a posting on X that the Smiths had been added to the presumptive Republican nominee's pre-show playlist. The following day, ABC's Soorin Kim noted that this wasn't a new development.

Johnny Marr has reacted to a video showing The Smiths track ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ being played at a Donald Trump rally.The former president is currently running for the Republican Party nomination to be U.S. President. A video has been making the rounds on X/Twitter showing the famous Smiths B-side track playing at the South Dakota Republican rally last year.Marr, the former guitarist for the Mancunian band and composer of ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’, expressed his discontent with the song being used by Trump at rallies.“Ahh…right…OK.

Smiths bassist Andy Rourke, have announced their debut album to mark what would have been his 60th birthday.Rourke died last May after “a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer”, as confirmed in a statement from ex-bandmate Johnny Marr. He was 59 years old.Today (January 17) would have been Rourke’s 60th birthday, and Blitz Vega have marked the occasion by revealing that their debut album ‘Northern Gentleman’ will see the light of day on April 26.“The album is a diary of the last seven years of the journey that Andy, the band and I went on recording this music as Blitz Vega,” the band’s Kav Sandhu said in a statement of the record, which features guitar from Marr and is something he said he “promised” Rourke he would release.“Every song tells a story and personally takes me back to a memory of recording that song.

Morrissey has claimed that he has been “deleted” from the “essence” and history of The Smiths in a new post.Taking to his official website Morrissey Central yesterday (January 11), the singer-songwriter defended his role in his former band amid numerous reports that – according to him – have downplayed his contributions.“There is also an obvious media shift to delete me from being the central essence of The Smiths,” he began, “but this cannot work because I invented the group name, the song-titles, the album titles, the artwork, the vocal melodies, and all of the lyrical sentiments came from my heart.“And so it’s a bit like saying Mick Jagger had nothing to do with the Stones.”Morrissey continued: “Several news sites now claim that the initial meeting at Rough Trade Records was with ‘Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke,’ even though Andy wasn’t even a committed band member at that point. The meeting, of course, was Morrissey and Marr.“Even Geoff Travis [Rough Trade founder] has now suddenly decided that he ‘can’t remember who was with Johnny,’ even though Geoff looked me squarely in the eye on that very day and said ‘we’d like to release [The Smiths’ 1983 debut single] ‘Hand In Glove’ immediately,’ and he then more importantly said to me that his name was Geoff with a G, not Jeff with a J.

Morrissey has announced a 30th-anniversary reissue of ‘Interlude’, his duet with punk icon Siouxsie Sioux.The duet is a cover of Timi Yuro’s track by the same name and was released back in 1994. It was recorded during the recording sessions for Morrissey’s fourth solo LP ‘Vauxhall and I’.

Johnny Marr has issued a warning over fake AI-generated voice messages that may appear to be him.The musician and former member of The Smiths took to his official X/Twitter account to share a tweet advising fans to be wary of fake messages that may be going around which appear to be from him but were created with the use of artificial intelligence.“Just a warning to people to watch out for fake messages from me generated by AI, including voice messages. If anyone receives one please send them my details as I’d quite like to have a dialogue with AI Johnny, who I really hope isn’t actually smarter than me…than I,” read his tweet.Just a warning to people to watch out for fake messages from me generated by AI, including voice messages.

Johnny Marr has performed a collection of solo and Smiths classics with a 30 piece orchestra during a Manchester homecoming show last night (December 7) – check it out below.Marr is marking his first 10 years as a solo artist with a two-night residency at the Factory International’s new venue Aviva Studios this week and will play a second show tonight (December 8).

Morrissey has announced that he will be playing a pair of shows in the US in 2024 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his album ‘You Are the Quarry’. The first concert will take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on January 26, followed by a show at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on January 27. Tickets will be available from 10am local time on Friday December 8 here.

Johnny Marr has opened up about working with Billie Eilish, calling her “a modern-day version” of The Cure.The singer, songwriter, guitarist, and former Smiths member took part in a new interview for NME‘s ‘In Conversation’ series, where he spoke about working on ‘No Time To Die’ with Eilish and her brother/collaborator Finneas.The discussion came as Marr released his first solo compilation album today (November 3), entitled ‘Spirit Power’. The song was written for the 2021 James Bond film of the same name.When asked by NME about his experiences of collaborating with Eilish, Marr said: “She and her family are just so musical. She can pick up a uke and just write a song like that.

Johnny Marr has announced a 2024 greatest hits tour in support of his new album ‘Spirit Power: The Best Of Johnny Marr’.The former Smiths guitarist will kick off the tour at Newcastle’s O2 City Hall on April 2, before making stops in Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Wolverhampton, Cardiff, Bristol, London and Brighton. The tour will then wrap up at Rock City in Nottingham on April 14.Tickets are due to go on sale this Friday, October 27, at 10am BST.

Morrissey has said that Capitol are willing to give ‘Bonfire Of Teenagers’ back to him “for a certain price”.During an interview with Good Day New York today (October 20), the former Smiths frontman opened up about the current situation regarding his album ‘Bonfire Of Teenagers’. He also performed ‘Sure Enough The Telephone Rings’, which is the 10th song from the LP.Speaking to journalist Rosanna Scotto, Morrissey said: “This album was recorded in January 2021 and Capitol signed it and didn’t release it, but they’re now prepared to give it back to me for a certain price.