The Smiths

The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. Their line-up comprised singer Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. The Smiths signed to the independent label Rough Trade Records and released their first album, The Smiths, in 1984. The Smiths based their songs on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey and Marr. The band’s focus on a guitar, bass, and drum sound and a fusion of 1960s rock and post-punk was a rejection of the synth-pop sound that was predominant at the time. Several Smiths singles reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart and all their studio albums reached the top five of the UK Albums Chart, including the number-one album Meat Is Murder. They achieved mainstream success in Europe with The Queen Is Dead and Strangeways, Here We Come, both of which entered the top 20 of the European Albums Chart. Internal tensions led to their breakup in 1987, followed by public lawsuits over royalties. Their live album Rank reached the top 10 in Europe. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smiths) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode)