“For him, it was effortless fluidity…”
Smiths drummer Mike Joyce remembers his friend and bandmate Andy Rourke.
THE FIRST DAY I met him, in Drone Studios, I was expecting Dale Hibbert, the original bass player. And it was, “This is Andy, he’s playing bass.” And that was it, we just kind of locked in from that very moment.
He was an incredible player. Frightening. And for him it was like, effortless fluidity. He was a bit like Johnny [Marr, guitar] – he’d put on the bass and just play the most ridiculously fantastic bass lines. It’s a bit like the Charlie Watts thing, people just took how good he was for granted. I saw him saying that Barbarism Begins At Home was his favourite bass line. Obviously, it’s mesmerising, like four-on-the-floor house music, the repetition is absolutely scorched into your brain. It is phenomenal, but it’s probably my least favourite.