The Smiths

If You Get ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,’ You Get The Smiths

Excerpt:

"The Smiths are one of those rare bands that managed to build a remarkable, enduring legacy and sustain an ardent fan base despite having very little success on the singles charts. Since its debut album in 1983 and long after its break-up less than four years later, the Manchester-based guitar-pop band—comprising singer and lyricist Morrissey, guitarist and songwriter Johnny Marr, bassist Andy Rourke, and drummer Mike Joyce—has enjoyed critical acclaim and a cult following. In the early 2000s, Rolling Stone included four Smiths albums on its list of the 500 greatest in rock history. Their music has functioned as plot points in at least two films produced long after the group’s disbanding: (500) Days of Summer and The Killer... "


Read-counted gate removed:
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2024 May 24th (Fri) – June 8th (Sat) * Closed June 2nd (Sun)
★Reservation-only talk event held on May 26th (Sun) from 15:00 Exhibition
and sale of treasured photographs by photographer/musician ROMI MORI, who has been photographing The Smiths since before their album debut.
In addition, in Part.2 , all 17 12-inch singles, vinyl records of the six albums, rare items that fans must see , etc. will be sold in a bidding auction. Please enjoy them together.


PDF of event with images available above.
Some nice shots by Romi:

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Morrissey mentioned


Excerpt:

In fact, Sameshima is now so at ease with his cruising self that he has a tattoo of a glory hole – openings punched in the walls of toilet cubicles, allowing the men on either side to have sex with each other. (He also did a series of photographs of them, called Erdbeermund.) The artist is more ambivalent about another tattoo that reads “How Soon is Now” in homage to the Smiths, given Morrissey’s recent politics. “Johnny Marr is still OK,” he says. “And he co-wrote How Soon Is Now. Well, that’s how I justify it.”

Louder Than Bombs is on Kevin Griffin's list of Albums he can't live without, for Spin - https://www.spin.com/2024/03/5-albums-i-cant-live-without-kevin-griffin-of-better-than-ezra/?

4. Louder Than Bombs, The Smiths
This was a compilation from one of my all-time favorite bands. Morrisey’s [sic] voice and lyrics… Johnny Marr’s sublime guitar work…oh my it’s heaven!

Couple of bits from the latest Record Collector #556 (April, 2024):

The Smiths
(Rough Trade, 1984)

"William is a massive Smiths fan. I wasn't a fan then and I'm not a fan now. It used to drive me mad because I couldn't find anyone back then who didn't like The Smiths. I don't get them at all. They leave me completely cold."



Small bit on a record shop too:

FWD.

By Neil Crossley.

“Every time I opened a music paper it said, ‘Johnny Marr – jingle jangle’. I'd just had enough”: How The Smiths defied expectations on their final album, Strangeways, Here We Come.

Excerpt:

"Delve back through rock and pop history and it’s often the most unlikely unions that create the most innovative and exhilarating music. Such was the case with Steven Patrick Morrissey and John Martin Maher, the former a writer, vocalist and visionary, who turned Mancunian mundanity into exquisite paeans of desire and disaffection; and the latter, a streetwise guitarist whose dazzling style and technique were matched by melodic prowess."