Smiths bassist Andy Rourke has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 59, Johnny Marr, the former guitarist of this flagship English indie rock band of the 1980s, announced on Friday.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Andy Rourke after a long illness, pancreatic cancer,” wrote Johnny Marr on his Twitter account, linked to his official website.
“Those who knew him will remember Andy as a kind and beautiful soul, fans as an extremely gifted musician,” he added on Instagram, where he posted a photo of them as youngsters. .
“We met Andy at school in 1975,” he wrote, “we were best friends, we went everywhere together.”
Andy Rourke started playing guitar and bass at the age of 11. He joined the funk group Freak Party with Johnny Marr. Without being the first bass player of the group, he joined the Smiths in the year of its formation, in 1982.
The group from Manchester, in the north of England, particularly distinguished itself with its album The Queen is Deadreleased in 1986.
The band broke up the following year. Andy Rourke then played with Sinéad O’Connor, The Pretenders, Badly Drawn Boy, Aziz Ibrahim.
In The Smiths’ albums, Andy Rourke “reinvented what it’s like to play bass guitar,” wrote Johnny Marr on Instagram. Among his many collaborations, he worked with Dolores O’Riordan, of The Cranberries, who died in 2018.
Andy Rourke was ‘not only the most talented bassist I’ve had the privilege of playing with, but the most charming and funniest guy I’ve ever met’, reacted ex-Smiths drummer Mike Joyce . “Andy is gone but his musical legacy is eternal,” he added.
The bassist of the Sweden group, Mat Osman, meanwhile paid tribute to a “rare bass player”, whose “we immediately recognized the sound”.
Plagued by heroin addiction and financial difficulties, Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce sued Johnny Marr and singer and lyricist Morrissey in a copyright split two years after the band split. band in 1987.
An agreement had finally been reached, and the friendship between the bassist and the guitarist had survived.
Andy Rourke in 2014 | Derrick Salters/WENN.com
Morrissey has meanwhile adopted an increasingly reactionary discourse – he notably performed in 2019 on an American show with a badge from a British far-right party. He was virulent towards his former comrades, before adopting a more conciliatory tone in his autobiography published in 2013.
The band’s producer, Stephen Street, has expressed his sadness at Andy Rourke’s passing, paying tribute to a ‘lovely guy and amazing bass player’.