The World of The Smiths and Morrissey by Angie J Cooke nee Lewis

Andy Rourke 1964-2023 Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now On 19th May 2023, it was announced by his lifelong and dear friend Johnny Marr that Andy Rourke, the renowned and supernaturally talented bass guitarist, had sadly passed away after a lengthy illness.  God damn you to hell, cancer.  A hex on thee. Rest In Power, dear Andy.  You will be remembered now, today, tomorrow and ALWAYS.  Godspeed.        Photo courtesy of Getty Images/BBC Photo by Paul Slattery Keep playing the music, keep him in mind.  That way, he'll always be with us ❤🙏 TIALTNGO US Promo signed by Andy Rourke

RECORD COLLECTOR PRESENTS THE SMITHS A Record Collector Magazine Special Edition The cover for Record Collector Presents The Smiths A special bookazine was published in April 2022,  "Record Collector Presents The Smiths" , which unsurprisingly concerns the famed Manchester pop combo. It contains interviews with former band members, the top 100 rarities, updated reviews of their seminal albums and a look at the classic artwork used for their celebrated musical output.  I appear as part of a feature about fans and their treasured collections. My appearance in Record Collector: These Charming Fans - Angie J Cooke  https://shop.recordcollectormag.com/product/RCSMITHS/record-collector-presents-the-smiths

MORRISSEY AND I: An Imagined Conversation The Smiths Tour Poster 1986 Having given the matter a lot of thought over the years, I realise that Morrissey was beckoning to me a good while before I became a devotee of both his and The Smiths. The problem is that I wasn't quite ready yet, at least not until the year in which Mozzer launched his solo career anyway. Better late than never! 1986 - 13/14 Years Old THE SMITHS - PANIC Its infuriating catchiness appealed to the massive Pop Head that I was at the time, despite me not being a fan of The Smiths. I did like Morrissey's stance on the monarchy, however. Panic MORRISSEY: Angie! ANGIE: [Half glances in the direction of Morrissey’s voice] What? MORRISSEY: Come here! ANGIE: I'm busy! THE SMITHS - ASK I absolutely adored the video, and it was another delightfully snappy number which I was somewhat partial to. Ask MORRISSEY: Angie! ANGIE: [Pays just a wee bit more attention than last time] What is it? MORRISSEY: Come over here...

THE RECESSION: A COMPANY IN PROFILE THE ROUGH TRADE GROUP It's a right Rough Trade, is the entertainment business! For the Final Year Project of my A Level equivalent course ( BTEC National Certificate in Business and Finance ) which I completed at what was then Huddersfield Technical College (now Kirklees College Huddersfield Centre ), I submitted an assignment entitled: "The Recession and Rough Trade" , which involved me investigating and examining the impact of the economic decline of the time in 1991 on an iconic record label.  I was required to relay my findings by means of a presentation, which I was able to achieve with the aid of some significant props.  These were vinyl releases (from my personal collection) by The Smiths , by a considerable distance the biggest success story in the "indie" music scene in which the label founder Geoff Travis , who signed the band to Rough Trade  before they split in 1987, played a huge part. The lege...

Hey, why don’t you Reel Around The Fountain you Wonderful Woman? Bootleg News – Originally posted on 28 th  April 1995 Back in 1995 when the World Wide Web was in its infancy and I was supposed to be completing my dissertation for my Business degree at the University of Bolton, I had instead found myself helplessly and hopelessly absorbed in the numerous online forums dedicated to The Smiths and Morrissey that had already sprung up!   If the whole system hadn’t crashed not long after I posted the bootleg reviews below, I’m certain I would have failed my final year!   That would have been a right pain!   But luckily I managed to scrape by so happy days! The Graduation that nearly never was! Naughty online forums distracting me! I actually lost both of the CDs (together with some others, sob!) in a house move a few years later down the line, but thanks to the internet having improved considerably during that time I was able to replace them with re...