Andy Rourke

Andrew Michael "Andy" Rourke (born on 17 January 1964) is an English musician, best known as the bassist for the Smiths, an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. The band consisted of vocalist Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce.

Career

Rourke received an acoustic guitar from his parents when he was seven years old. At age 11 he befriended a young John Maher (the future Johnny Marr) with whom he shared an interest in music. The pair spent lunch breaks in school jamming and playing on their guitars. When Marr and Rourke formed a band, he invited Rourke (still then a guitarist) to try on bass, which he fell in love with and he stuck with ever since. At age 15 Rourke abandoned school. He passed through a series of menial jobs and played guitar and bass in various rock bands, as well as in the short lived funk band Freak Party, with his school friend Johnny Marr.

Marr later teamed up with Morrissey to form the Smiths. Rourke joined the band after its first gig, and remained through most of its existence. Rourke was briefly sacked from the band, allegedly receiving the news in a note left under the windscreen wiper of his car: "Andy, you have left the Smiths. Good luck and goodbye, Morrissey". Morrissey has denied this. In May 1986, Rourke rejoined the Smiths, just before they recorded The Queen Is Dead. Marr described Rourke's contribution to that album as "something no other bass player could match". The Smiths released Strangeways, Here We Come in 1987 to critical acclaim, but split soon after.