Mike Joyce drummed with The Smiths from their formation in 1982 until their split in the autumn of 1987. Within that five year period the band, fronted by enigmatic lyricist Morrissey on vocals and Johnny Marr on guitar, stood out like a celebratory beacon of hope for the outsider left cold by the impending big-haired bland pop of the time and the uncompromisingly fatal ripples of Thatcherism. With a catalogue of songs laced with venom, wit, melancholy and tenderness and soundscapes that owed as much to Bob and Marcia, The Shangri-Las and T-Rex as they did to Punk and New Wave, The Smiths were arguably the most important British band since The Sex Pistols. Their music had a personality, a stomp and a bite.
The dichotomy between Morrissey and Marr, one being an idealistic guitar hustler, the other being a reclusive introverted Oscar Wilde reading New York Dolls fanatic with a his own special Northern-English croon, saw to it that The Smiths sounded and looked like nothing that preceded them or that has come in their wake. With four studio albums and a collection of exclusive non-album singles with B-sides that put their contemporaries' A-sides to shame, The Smiths packed a lifetime into five short years.
As lauded and as important as Morrissey and Johnny Marr were as a songwriting team, one of the key factors of The Smiths was the rhythm section. The band boasted one of the tightest live units around thanks to Mike on drums and Andy Rourke on bass. Did Mike feel at the time that he was part of something special?
"Well when you're young and starting a band, you like to think that you're going to be the best band in the world," he says. "Those early days in the rehearsal with Johnny and Morrissey were interesting, but it wasn't until we recorded our first single, 'Hand In Glove', when I stood back and realised, Christ, this is amazing. This sounds like a band I want to be a fan of. It just built from there. We knew we were a great band and were never afraid to say it. Every time we recorded something it just got better and better. We raised the crossbar each time we did a song and that went right up to our last album 'Strangeways Here We Come'. The fact that people still talk about what we did together twenty years after we split shows that it was something special. Those records still stand up today. The appeal of The Smiths endures and I'm privileged to have been a part of it."
Despite the attention of major labels, and the Manchester label Factory, The Smiths opted to sign for London-based Independent label Rough Trade. A dogged reliance to do things their own way saw to it that The Smiths had the freedom to present themselves in a way that many major labels prohibited their acts from doing.
"Rough Trade gave us the freedom to put out whatever single we wanted and tour in any manner that we wanted," reflects Mike. "Obviously releasing albums called 'Meat Is Murder' and 'The Queen Is Dead' would cause concerns to certain labels, but Rough Trade went with the flow. Morrissey took care of all the sleeves for the singles and the albums as well"
This approach saw the band break from the conventional touring path, taking themselves to venues many popular bands tended to ignore. This was perhaps realised best in the relentless touring The Smiths did of Ireland.
"It was Morrissey's idea to travel to parts of Ireland that other bands would ignore. Most bands still to do this day will play Dublin and Belfast and that's it. We would do Belfast and Dublin, but also places like Dundalk, Coleraine and Letterkenny. We also played the Leisure Centre in Galway, which was great for me because Galway is where my family is from. We had a big Joyce gathering that night, I remember," recalls Mike.
"We wanted to break away from that big arena set-up," he stresses. "The gigs were like celebrations between the crowd and the band - we were both the same. We never wanted it to be a case of, well you're way up on the stage and we're down here. It was a case of all of us together."
The band toured relentlessly throughout their existence and for Mike, it gave him an opportunity to approach the songs differently at times from their recorded incarnations. As a fan of the John Peel Session recordings of their early material as opposed to the studio versions that made up the band's debut album, I put it to Mike if he felt the same.
"John Porter produced that first album and he was keen on having a consistent beat running throughout songs like 'What Difference Does It Make?' remembers Mike. "When we played the song live it was broken up a bit more. I did prefer it that way and Morrissey did too. John convinced us into doing it his way in the studio, even though we continued to do it the way we liked live. Still, we had a hit with 'What Difference Does It Make?' and did it on Top of The Pops, so John knew what he was doing. I like both versions. I recently heard the studio version at a fairground and it sounded amazing. It was the perfect setting!"
For many, The Smiths' opus was their 1986 album 'The Queen Is Dead'. Undoubtedly one of the finest intros to an album ever, Mike's tribal drum roll led into Johnny Marr's furious and chaotic guitar swagger and Morrissey's wry and blackly comic tale of envious royal siblings, nine-year-old drug peddlers and tone-deaf piano players breaking into Buckingham Palace. Does Mike share my enthusiasm for that intro?
"Well I never get sick of hearing people tell me that," he laughs. "It was an unusual recording process for me when we did that track. There were drum loops and samples running through the song. But they were recorded live in the room. I wanted to do the whole thing live. Stephen Street, the producer, said I could do it when we played it live but the studio should be a different dynamic because of what's available. We all agreed for that to be the case throughout the band's history. That's why Johnny had so much scope in the studio for 'How Soon Is Now?' There must be about thirteen guitars layered on that track. Concerts were always a different dynamic and I always loved it when we played 'The Queen Is Dead' live - it was a killer!"
Despite all that has been written about 'The Queen Is Dead', Mike's favourite Smiths album is their final album together, 'Strangeways, Here We Come'.
"There is this idea that it was all falling apart when we recorded 'Strangeways', but nothing could be further from the truth," he stresses. "Everyone was getting on so well and we really were on fire as musicians. There was obvious pressure on Morrissey and Johnny to deliver, but once the songs were written we were so confident in them. It all came together so easily after that, and we felt like we had nothing to prove. For five years we were getting bigger and better. The momentum just kept growing by the day."
Yet despite the unified front during the recording of 'Strangeways, Here We Come', disagreements and tensions between Morrissey and Marr saw the band split just prior to the album's release. Since then, Mike has remained busy as a drummer.
"I toured with Sinead O'Connor after The Smiths. It was great to play with Sinead at that point. She had never really played with a band before and it was just before she had the worldwide success that she did. Those were precious times. I also got to go on tour and drum with The Buzzcocks, which was a great honour as they were always my favourite band and John Maher on drums was a major influence on me as a musician."
Mike also has his own band now in Manchester called Autokat, who have just recorded an EP, which will be available in October. He also fronts his own Radio Show called 'Alternative Therapy', where he plays rock and alternative classics from over the past forty years. He also tours as a DJ playing these classics.
Having one quarter of my favourite ever four-piece on the other side of the phone left me with no other choice but to ask Mike the, at last count, £40 million dollar question. "I think I know what's coming," laughs Mike. So, if Morrissey or Johnny Marr were to phone Mike up today and say lets reform, what would Mike say, in light, of course, of modern events such as a certain court case over an equal share of recording and performance royalties in 1996?
"It was all such a long long time ago," says Mike. "Morrissey is happy doing his solo thing. Johnny is busy touring with Modest Mouse. Andy has his own thing going on too. Ideally, I'd like to think that we did enough. Of course, if we were to get together for, say, a charity gig, and do maybe four songs, of course I'd do it. It would have to be all four of us. But it's all pretty hypothetical talk by now. The body of work has lasted and will always last - that's satisfying for me."
The dichotomy between Morrissey and Marr, one being an idealistic guitar hustler, the other being a reclusive introverted Oscar Wilde reading New York Dolls fanatic with a his own special Northern-English croon, saw to it that The Smiths sounded and looked like nothing that preceded them or that has come in their wake. With four studio albums and a collection of exclusive non-album singles with B-sides that put their contemporaries' A-sides to shame, The Smiths packed a lifetime into five short years.
As lauded and as important as Morrissey and Johnny Marr were as a songwriting team, one of the key factors of The Smiths was the rhythm section. The band boasted one of the tightest live units around thanks to Mike on drums and Andy Rourke on bass. Did Mike feel at the time that he was part of something special?
"Well when you're young and starting a band, you like to think that you're going to be the best band in the world," he says. "Those early days in the rehearsal with Johnny and Morrissey were interesting, but it wasn't until we recorded our first single, 'Hand In Glove', when I stood back and realised, Christ, this is amazing. This sounds like a band I want to be a fan of. It just built from there. We knew we were a great band and were never afraid to say it. Every time we recorded something it just got better and better. We raised the crossbar each time we did a song and that went right up to our last album 'Strangeways Here We Come'. The fact that people still talk about what we did together twenty years after we split shows that it was something special. Those records still stand up today. The appeal of The Smiths endures and I'm privileged to have been a part of it."
Despite the attention of major labels, and the Manchester label Factory, The Smiths opted to sign for London-based Independent label Rough Trade. A dogged reliance to do things their own way saw to it that The Smiths had the freedom to present themselves in a way that many major labels prohibited their acts from doing.
"Rough Trade gave us the freedom to put out whatever single we wanted and tour in any manner that we wanted," reflects Mike. "Obviously releasing albums called 'Meat Is Murder' and 'The Queen Is Dead' would cause concerns to certain labels, but Rough Trade went with the flow. Morrissey took care of all the sleeves for the singles and the albums as well"
This approach saw the band break from the conventional touring path, taking themselves to venues many popular bands tended to ignore. This was perhaps realised best in the relentless touring The Smiths did of Ireland.
"It was Morrissey's idea to travel to parts of Ireland that other bands would ignore. Most bands still to do this day will play Dublin and Belfast and that's it. We would do Belfast and Dublin, but also places like Dundalk, Coleraine and Letterkenny. We also played the Leisure Centre in Galway, which was great for me because Galway is where my family is from. We had a big Joyce gathering that night, I remember," recalls Mike.
"We wanted to break away from that big arena set-up," he stresses. "The gigs were like celebrations between the crowd and the band - we were both the same. We never wanted it to be a case of, well you're way up on the stage and we're down here. It was a case of all of us together."
The band toured relentlessly throughout their existence and for Mike, it gave him an opportunity to approach the songs differently at times from their recorded incarnations. As a fan of the John Peel Session recordings of their early material as opposed to the studio versions that made up the band's debut album, I put it to Mike if he felt the same.
"John Porter produced that first album and he was keen on having a consistent beat running throughout songs like 'What Difference Does It Make?' remembers Mike. "When we played the song live it was broken up a bit more. I did prefer it that way and Morrissey did too. John convinced us into doing it his way in the studio, even though we continued to do it the way we liked live. Still, we had a hit with 'What Difference Does It Make?' and did it on Top of The Pops, so John knew what he was doing. I like both versions. I recently heard the studio version at a fairground and it sounded amazing. It was the perfect setting!"
For many, The Smiths' opus was their 1986 album 'The Queen Is Dead'. Undoubtedly one of the finest intros to an album ever, Mike's tribal drum roll led into Johnny Marr's furious and chaotic guitar swagger and Morrissey's wry and blackly comic tale of envious royal siblings, nine-year-old drug peddlers and tone-deaf piano players breaking into Buckingham Palace. Does Mike share my enthusiasm for that intro?
"Well I never get sick of hearing people tell me that," he laughs. "It was an unusual recording process for me when we did that track. There were drum loops and samples running through the song. But they were recorded live in the room. I wanted to do the whole thing live. Stephen Street, the producer, said I could do it when we played it live but the studio should be a different dynamic because of what's available. We all agreed for that to be the case throughout the band's history. That's why Johnny had so much scope in the studio for 'How Soon Is Now?' There must be about thirteen guitars layered on that track. Concerts were always a different dynamic and I always loved it when we played 'The Queen Is Dead' live - it was a killer!"
Despite all that has been written about 'The Queen Is Dead', Mike's favourite Smiths album is their final album together, 'Strangeways, Here We Come'.
"There is this idea that it was all falling apart when we recorded 'Strangeways', but nothing could be further from the truth," he stresses. "Everyone was getting on so well and we really were on fire as musicians. There was obvious pressure on Morrissey and Johnny to deliver, but once the songs were written we were so confident in them. It all came together so easily after that, and we felt like we had nothing to prove. For five years we were getting bigger and better. The momentum just kept growing by the day."
Yet despite the unified front during the recording of 'Strangeways, Here We Come', disagreements and tensions between Morrissey and Marr saw the band split just prior to the album's release. Since then, Mike has remained busy as a drummer.
"I toured with Sinead O'Connor after The Smiths. It was great to play with Sinead at that point. She had never really played with a band before and it was just before she had the worldwide success that she did. Those were precious times. I also got to go on tour and drum with The Buzzcocks, which was a great honour as they were always my favourite band and John Maher on drums was a major influence on me as a musician."
Mike also has his own band now in Manchester called Autokat, who have just recorded an EP, which will be available in October. He also fronts his own Radio Show called 'Alternative Therapy', where he plays rock and alternative classics from over the past forty years. He also tours as a DJ playing these classics.
Having one quarter of my favourite ever four-piece on the other side of the phone left me with no other choice but to ask Mike the, at last count, £40 million dollar question. "I think I know what's coming," laughs Mike. So, if Morrissey or Johnny Marr were to phone Mike up today and say lets reform, what would Mike say, in light, of course, of modern events such as a certain court case over an equal share of recording and performance royalties in 1996?
"It was all such a long long time ago," says Mike. "Morrissey is happy doing his solo thing. Johnny is busy touring with Modest Mouse. Andy has his own thing going on too. Ideally, I'd like to think that we did enough. Of course, if we were to get together for, say, a charity gig, and do maybe four songs, of course I'd do it. It would have to be all four of us. But it's all pretty hypothetical talk by now. The body of work has lasted and will always last - that's satisfying for me."
The Smiths in all their live glory in 1985 peforming 'Hand In Glove'
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