21 March 2024

Forty years on from the release of their debut album, UNCUT celebrates the band
with an 172-page Definitive Edition of our Ultimate Music Guide to THE SMITHS.

Mike Joyce (former drummer) “The music we were playing was so different, and it stayed like that throughout the Smiths’ career. It wasn’t punk or reggae or vaudeville, or something with big anthemic tunes but at the same time it was all of that. The band was never about the four individuals. You could say the same about the Beatles or the Stones: how did it work? Why did it work? It just happened that way, as a unit. What we were creating was so magical and diverse it drew us all in. What we did is bigger than us as individuals. We changed the perception of what indie bands were supposed to be.” ”

Collected here are incisive and in-depth reviews of all the band’s albums, and a selection of the best interviews from the archives. In an eight-page foldout miscellany timeline, you’ll find stats, maps, and insightful miscellany.

The past year has seen the passing of Andy Rourke, and it’s testimony to him and abiding ties of what The Smiths created together that Johnny Marr and Morrissey have both been of one mind in expressing their sadness and gratitude for his life. Marr knew Rourke as a close friend. Morrissey, as an admiring bandmate: “nothing that he played had been played by someone else”.

You can purchase a copy and let it be sent to your home. Info HERE.