Andy Rourkewhose creative bass parts played a key role in shaping the sound of Artisan and who later contributed heavily to Morrissey's early solo career following that band split, died at the age of 59 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York. his Smiths bandmate Johnny Marr announced the news on twitter this morning (May 19).
“It is with deep sadness that we announce that Andy Rourke has passed away after a long illness with pancreatic cancer,” he said. “Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and by music fans as a supremely talented musician. We request privacy at this sad time.”
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Rourke met Marr as a pre-teen in Manchester, England in the mid-1970s, and joined the Smiths on bass in the summer of 1982, shortly after Marr had formed the group with vocalist Morrissey. UK rock scene, with Rourke's melodic bass lines on “Hand in Glove,” “This Charming Man,” “The headmaster Ritual,” “Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before,” and “Girlfriend in a Coma” Am.”
After leaving his formal education at the age of about 15, Rourke repeatedly became addicted to heroin and was briefly estranged from the Smith family in early 1986. drummer Mike Joyce and second guitarist Craig Gannon. Rourke's inventive playing drove songs such as “Interesting Drug” and “The Last of the Famous International Playboys,” and he also wrote the music for the early Morrissey B-sides “Yes, I'm Blind,” “Girl Least Likely To,” and . “Get off the stage.”
However, his second go-around with Morrissey was short-lived, and he went on to record and tour with the Pretenders, Badgley Drowned Boy, Stone Roses singer Ian Brown, and Killing Joke, among others.
In 1989, Rourke and Joyce sued Morrissey and Marr for royalties from the Smiths catalogue. Rourke was struggling with drugs at the time and settled for a reported £83,000 and 10% of future royalties, but Joyce did not resolve his end of the dispute for the next seven years and is said to have Huge pay day is a given. Rourke declared bankruptcy in 1999.
“Sometimes one of the most radical things you can do is to speak plainly. When someone dies, the usual rhetoric comes out – like their death is of use. I do that with Andy. I'm not ready to,” Morrissey posted on his web site, “I just hope – wherever Andy has gone – that he is well. As long as his music is heard he will never die. He never knew his power, and everything he played was played by someone else. was not played. His distinction was so terrifying and unorthodox and he proved it could be done. He was also very, very funny and very happy, and after Smith, he maintained a stable identity – one that never produced Not tricks. I think, at the end of it all, we hope to feel that we were valued. Andy doesn't have to worry about that.”
In later years, Rourke played in freebass bands with former Stone Roses member Mani and New Order's Peter Hook, and in 2006, he helped lead the Manchester V cancer benefit in his hometown, during which he performed for the first time. performed on stage with Marr. Since the dissolution of the Smiths.
In 2009, he moved to New York and began making frequent appearances as a DJ at venues such as the Passenger Bar in Williamsburg. She staged additional surprise reunions with Marr during two solo concerts later in 2013 in New York, where she performed Smith's “How Soon Is Now?” and “Please, please please, let me get what I want.” Rourke most recently joined Marr at Madison Square Garden in New York on September 30, 2022, when she performed “there is a light that never goes out” And “how soon Is Now?,
“Not only the most talented bass player I've had the privilege of playing with, but also the sweetest, funniest lad I've ever met,” Joyce wrote on twitter, “Andy left the building, but his musical legacy is eternal. I miss you so much. In my heart forever friend.”
“I am so saddened to hear this news! Andy was a brilliant musician and a lovely guy,” added longtime Smith and Morrissey producer Stephen Street Twitter, “I have yet to read any further news regarding the details, but I send my deepest condolences and thoughts to his friends and family.”
Tributes are pouring in from many musicians including Billy Bragg, The Charlatans' Tim BurgessAnd Rick Astley, marr's daughter sonny also shared That Rourke was “an incredible person; Smart, kind and deeply funny. He and my father were brothers and it was a very touching experience to see them standing together in these final months.
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