The Smiths: Last News

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.

Johnny Marr has said in a new interview that The Smiths‘ break-up was “mostly a personal thing”.Speaking to MusicRadar, the musician reflected on how the Morrissey-fronted band parted ways back in 1987 following the release of their fourth and final studio album, ‘Strangeways, Here We Come’.“It was mostly a personal thing,” Marr told the outlet. “We were working at such a breakneck pace – 50-odd tracks in four years – that I thought I was going to end up repeating myself.”He continued: “Also, I was frustrated with what people expected me to come up with.

Morrissey has claimed that the CEO of Capitol Records is trying to derail his career.The soloist and former The Smiths singer posted an image of Capitol Records’ logo on his website on Sunday (October 15) under the headline “CAPITOL WRECKERS”, but with no basis for his attack.He also included a photo of Capitol Music Group Chair and CEO Michelle Jubelirer and wrote: “Hi! I run Capitol Records and if I want to wreck Morrissey’s career no one can stop me. Bye, now!”NME has reached out to Capitol Records for comment, with the label yet to provide a response.Capitol Records linked up with Morrissey in autumn 2022 to release his album ‘Bonfire Of Teenagers’, which the singer has called “the best album of my life”.

Johnny Marr has said that gifting Noel Gallagher with an expensive guitar – after he smashed the previous one – is partly what motivated him to stop drinking.Marr previously recalled the time he gave a young, “skint” Gallagher his guitars before the pre-Oasis guitarist could afford his own.“He was just this guy who I recognised was intense and really serious about what he was doing, and he was skint and I had a load of guitars and I thought, ‘right OK well I’ll give him this guitar’,” he told Radio X.The Smiths guitarist gave Gallagher a 1960 Gibson Les Paul – which can be heard on The Smiths’ 1986 album ‘The Queen Is Dead’, and was formerly owned by The Who‘s Pete Townshend – only for him to smash it while dealing with a stage invader during a gig in Newcastle.Gallagher called Marr to ask for a replacement, after which the guitarist gifted his black 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom.Marr also gave his 12-string sunburst Gibson 335, which features in the video for ‘Sheila Take a Bow’, to former Suede guitarist and producer Bernard Butler.“It’s just to be nice,” Marr told The Guardian. “As simple as that.

Johnny Marr has announced a new compilation album ‘Spirit Power: The Best Of Johnny Marr’ and shared new single ‘Somewhere’.The former Smiths guitarist will release the new collection on November 3 via BMG, which will spotlight “the breadth of musicality across the first ten years” of Marr’s solo career, according to a press release – you can pre-order/pre-save the album here.The record will also include two brand new tracks produced by Marr along with co-producer James Doviak – ‘The Answer’ and ‘Somewhere’. Listen to the latter below.The musician wrote ‘Somewhere’ while on tour with The Killers and Blondie in 2022.

Johnny Marr has announced two concerts in Manchester, where he’ll be backed by a 30-piece orchestra.The former Smiths guitarist will mark his first 10 years as a solo artist with a two-night residency at the Factory International’s new venue Aviva Studios on December 7 and 8.Led by conductor Fiona Brice, the orchestra has been assembled by Marr specifically for the two-night billing; and is composed of musicians from across the North.Tickets go on general sale this Friday (September 15) here.“I’ve had two experiences of playing with an orchestra – Hans Zimmer, obviously, and also with Pet Shop Boys – but to actually sing in front of an orchestra playing my own work, that’s a first. You can’t help feeling a little bit emotional,” said Marr.He continued: “It’s been really enjoyable working on the arrangements.

David Fincher has explained why he chose to include tracks by The Smiths on the soundtrack for his upcoming film The Killer.Michael Fassbender stars as a troubled assassin in the upcoming thriller, which is based on the French graphic novel by Alexis Nolent. It was adapted by screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who previously worked with Fincher on Seven.While the film’s score is composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Fincher explained at the Venice Film Festival how The Smiths also came to feature heavily on the soundtrack.“The Smiths were a post-production addition because I knew I wanted to use ‘How Soon Is Now?’ and I love the idea of that song specifically as a tool for assuaging his anxiety,” Fincher said (via IndieWire).

The Maccabees’ Felix White has spoken about how Johnny Marr helped steer the direction of new music with his comeback band 86TVs.The group – comprising Felix’s brothers Hugo and Will (the latter formerly of mid-noughties indie band Talk Taxis and his solo project BLANc) and The Noisettes’ drummer Jamie Morrison – recently released their debut single ‘Worn Out Buildings’.Speaking to NME in a recent interview about writing post-Maccabees and the direction of the new band, Felix explained how The Smiths guitarist and songwriter gave them some important advice for their new material.The band recalled that for the first year of the project, “it was completely instrumental and we were writing music we thought could be a soundtrack or we’d get someone else to sing on”.However, eventually they were convinced by Marr to sing on the tracks themselves.“I think The Maccabees had just split up, but I’d read Johnny Marr’s autobiography, which I loved, and it was a really striking time to read it because a lot of his life has been about reinvention and change,” Felix recalled.He continued: “So there was a correlation in my head at that particular moment in my life with what Johnny’s book had said. I bumped into him at the NME Awards and said, ‘Can I send you some music? We’ve just been doing some instrumental music and we don’t know if it’s good’.

The Cult’s Billy Duffy has joined Johnny Marr on stage to play tracks by The Smiths and Depeche Mode. Check out footage of the moment below.The gig took place at the Cheese and Grain venue in Frome last night (August 16) as part of Johnny Marr’s latest run of solo gigs, and featured a number of tracks from across his discography, including solo tracks and classics by The Smiths.Fans at last night’s show, however, were left surprised after the singer-songwriter and guitarist brought out The Cult’s Billy Duffy as a surprise guest for the evening.The on-stage appearance is the latest of the multiple times the two musicians have joined forces, as they both have a long history of playing music together – stemming back to their adolescent years.Meeting in Manchester during their childhood, Duffy was in an early incarnation of The Smiths with Morrissey and had also played guitar with Marr when the latter was just 12 years old.

The Sopranos star Michael Imperioli has defended Morrissey, saying he still “gives him the benefit of the doubt”.The former frontman of The Smiths has come under scrutiny in recent years for making a number of comments that have deemed be racist. However, in a new interview with The Guardian, Imperioli explained how other members of the band had led him to believe that racism is not a part of who Morrissey is.“I’m not sure how racist the things he said were,” said the actor. “To me they weren’t flagrantly racist.

tributes have poured in — but The Smiths frontman and perennial provocateur Morrissey isn’t convinced by the sudden admiration.In a post titled “You Know I Couldn’t last” uploaded to his personal website yesterday, the English singer-songwriter paid tribute to O’Connor, who passed away yesterday at the age of 56.The title is a reference to one of Morrissey’s own songs, and the content of the message is as much a call-out as a tribute to the late Irish singer and activist.Morrissey took aim at the the industry and the public figures whom he claimed failed to offer O’Connor the support she needed and deserved while she was still alive, noting that “she was dropped by her label after selling seven million albums for them.”“There is a certain music industry hatred for singers who don’t ‘fit in,'” he wrote, referencing O’Connor’s controversial past, “and they are never praised until death — when, finally, they can’t answer back.”The post continued, “The cruel playpen of fame gushes with praise for Sinead today … with the usual moronic labels of ‘icon’ and ‘legend’ … You hadn’t the guts to support her when she was alive and she was looking for you.“She was a challenge, and she couldn’t be boxed-up, and she had the courage to speak when everyone else stayed safely silent. She was harassed simply for being herself.