Andy Rourke

Rourke’s father was Irish while his mother was English.[1] He received an acoustic guitar from his parents when he was seven years old. At the age of 11 he befriended the young John Maher (soon to be 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 has stuck with ever since.[2]

Rourke left school when he was 15.[3] 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 schoolfriend Johnny Marr.[4]

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. Suffering from heroin addiction,[5] he was sacked from the band in early 1986, rejoining two weeks later just before they released The Queen Is Dead. In his absence, second guitarist Craig Gannon joined the band.[6] 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.