virtually no wit (Madness and Blondie aside) and equally little musicianship. The record-buying public didn’t know it, but it needed The Smiths more than it needed anything: while Steven and Johnny sat head-to-head and planned their future, any discerning rock critic might have come up with a formula for a band that could shake the early Eighties up again, like punk had done six or seven years earlier. The band to re-energise the charts and the hearts and minds of the people who listened to the music would be a singles-orientated band (like the Pistols) with a predominance of guitar-driven pop. They would have both wit and wisdom, controversy but with substance: music needed punk all over again, but newly minted for the new decade.
Music needed The Smiths.
* * *
Morrissey and Maher knew they had what it took. Johnny’s increasing versatility and accomplishment as a guitarist set against Morrissey’s faith in his own concept of stardom and his proven, tried and tested ability as a writer convinced the pair that they were more than viable contenders. Put simply, they both knew what a great record should sound like, and they knew there weren’t many of them around. Johnny has spoken of early singles by Sparks and Roxy Music as influencing his feel for what was right – and ironically several of these involved future Smiths producer John Porter. For Maher, the perfect equation involved a great intro, a great outro, and “something interesting in between”. He cites Roxy’s ‘Love Is The Drug’ as a perfect example: the car engine starting, the cigarette lighting.
They were controversial contenders from the outset too. Set to become probably the most notorious of all The Smiths’ released songs, ‘Suffer Little Children’ was inspired in part by Emlyn Williams’ account of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, in his 1967 book Beyond Belief . One of the duo’s first compositions, it could not be further from the chart pap of Shaking Stevens’ ‘Oh Julie’ or Shakatak’s ‘Night Birds’. It was an astonishing accomplishment for such a new partnership, but at the same time encapsulated so much of what Smiths music would come to mean to people – stylish, melodic, mood-driven, lyrically intense and musically dense. And with a hint of the mournful. For everyone who grew up in the north-west of England in the mid-Sixties, the Moors Murders were a part of their childhood, a news story that eclipsed almost every other, a chilling reminder that, even in the day-glo Sixties,we weren’t as safe and secure in our luxury as we thought we were. Williams’ book contains the title of the song as one of its own chapters, and numerous references in the song – notably ‘find me, find me,’ the chilling call of the murdered children from their graves – are in direct reference to the best-selling book.
Another early product of the new partnership was ‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.’ According to Simon Goddard, the lyrics predated Johnny’s writing partnership with Morrissey by some time. Goddard quotes Richard Boon, who knew Morrissey through Linder Sterling, having heard a home demo of the lyric as far back as 1980. ‘Handsome Devil’ also dates from this initial writing period. Within weeks the Smiths canon was coming together. With alarming speed, by autumn the band was ready, rehearsed and planning their first live gig.
The Smiths’ first public appearance is another landmark legend in their story. They appeared as support to Blue Rondo A La Turk at a fashion show at Manchester’s Ritz, on October 4, 1982. The Ritz dance hall had a history going way back in the musical past of Manchester. Only yards away from The Hacienda, Morrissey had sung there already with The Nosebleeds. Blue Rondo A La Turk represented everything that Maher and Morrissey’s new band rallied against: an absurd name taken from a Dave Brubek jazz number, a ten-piece ensemble and a bubbly interpretation of the currently trendy demob style.
Music needed The Smiths.
* * *
Morrissey and Maher knew they had what it took. Johnny’s increasing versatility and accomplishment as a guitarist set against Morrissey’s faith in his own concept of stardom and his proven, tried and tested ability as a writer convinced the pair that they were more than viable contenders. Put simply, they both knew what a great record should sound like, and they knew there weren’t many of them around. Johnny has spoken of early singles by Sparks and Roxy Music as influencing his feel for what was right – and ironically several of these involved future Smiths producer John Porter. For Maher, the perfect equation involved a great intro, a great outro, and “something interesting in between”. He cites Roxy’s ‘Love Is The Drug’ as a perfect example: the car engine starting, the cigarette lighting.
They were controversial contenders from the outset too. Set to become probably the most notorious of all The Smiths’ released songs, ‘Suffer Little Children’ was inspired in part by Emlyn Williams’ account of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, in his 1967 book Beyond Belief . One of the duo’s first compositions, it could not be further from the chart pap of Shaking Stevens’ ‘Oh Julie’ or Shakatak’s ‘Night Birds’. It was an astonishing accomplishment for such a new partnership, but at the same time encapsulated so much of what Smiths music would come to mean to people – stylish, melodic, mood-driven, lyrically intense and musically dense. And with a hint of the mournful. For everyone who grew up in the north-west of England in the mid-Sixties, the Moors Murders were a part of their childhood, a news story that eclipsed almost every other, a chilling reminder that, even in the day-glo Sixties,we weren’t as safe and secure in our luxury as we thought we were. Williams’ book contains the title of the song as one of its own chapters, and numerous references in the song – notably ‘find me, find me,’ the chilling call of the murdered children from their graves – are in direct reference to the best-selling book.
Another early product of the new partnership was ‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.’ According to Simon Goddard, the lyrics predated Johnny’s writing partnership with Morrissey by some time. Goddard quotes Richard Boon, who knew Morrissey through Linder Sterling, having heard a home demo of the lyric as far back as 1980. ‘Handsome Devil’ also dates from this initial writing period. Within weeks the Smiths canon was coming together. With alarming speed, by autumn the band was ready, rehearsed and planning their first live gig.
The Smiths’ first public appearance is another landmark legend in their story. They appeared as support to Blue Rondo A La Turk at a fashion show at Manchester’s Ritz, on October 4, 1982. The Ritz dance hall had a history going way back in the musical past of Manchester. Only yards away from The Hacienda, Morrissey had sung there already with The Nosebleeds. Blue Rondo A La Turk represented everything that Maher and Morrissey’s new band rallied against: an absurd name taken from a Dave Brubek jazz number, a ten-piece ensemble and a bubbly interpretation of the currently trendy demob style.
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