Photo Credit: Andy Rourke (left) with The Smiths. Paul Cox for Sire Data.
Andy Rourke, bassist for The Smiths, has passed away feeble 59 after a prolonged fight with pancreatic cancer.
Only identified as The Smiths’ bassist, Andy Rourke passed away at age 59 after a prolonged fight with pancreatic cancer. Veteran bandmate Johnny Marr announced his death on Twitter.
“It is with deep unhappiness that we teach the passing of Andy Rourke after a prolonged illness with pancreatic cancer,” writes Marr. “Andy will be remembered as a form and shapely soul by of us that knew him and as a supremely proficient musician by tune fans. We quiz privacy at this sad time.”
A friend of Marr’s since they were boys in faculty, Rourke conducted in just a few bands in his native Manchester sooner than joining Marr and Morrissey to make The Smiths in 1982. Marr remembers their childhood friendship in a post paying tribute to Rourke on Instagram, how the pair “spent all our time discovering out tune, having fun, and engaged on turning into the appropriate musicians we would possibly perchance presumably presumably perchance additionally fair be in a dwelling to be.”
“Help then, Andy was as soon as a guitar participant and an accurate one at that, on the different hand it was as soon as when he picked up the bass that he would get his lawful calling and his singular skills would flourish,” says Marr.
“In some unspecified time in the future of our younger folks, we conducted in various bands around South Manchester sooner than making our reputations with The Smiths from 1982 to 1987, and it was as soon as on these Smiths records that Andy reinvented what it is to be a bass guitar participant.”
“I was as soon as demonstrate at each of Andy’s bass takes on every Smiths session,” Marr continues. “In most cases I was as soon as there as the producer and infrequently appropriate as his proud mate and cheerleader. Staring at him play these stunning basslines was as soon as an absolute privilege and indisputably one thing to glance.”
“We maintained our friendship over time, no matter where we were or what was as soon as going on, and it is a matter of deepest pleasure apart from unhappiness that the final time Andy conducted on stage was as soon as with me and my band at Madison Sq. Garden in September 2022,” Marr’s tribute continues. “It was as soon as a various 2nd that we shared with my family and his wife and soul mate, Francesca.”
“Andy will frequently be remembered as a form and shapely soul by all individuals who knew him and as a supremely proficient musician by of us that savor tune,” concludes Marr. “Effectively performed, Andy. We’ll miss you, brother.”
Rourke labored with many artists in the years after The Smiths split in 1987, including The Pretenders, Sinead O’Connor, Badly Drawn Boy, and Ian Brown. He seemed on many of Morrissey’s solo records, and Rourke teamed up with two other Manchester-born bassists — Peter Hook and Mani — to make the neighborhood Freebass.