14 Facts About The Smiths

The Smiths based their songs on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey and Marr.

Several The Smiths singles reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart, and all their studio albums reached the top five of the UK Albums Chart, including the number-one album Meat Is Murder.

The Smiths said later that "it was the most ordinary name and I thought it was time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces".

The Smiths was replaced by the bass player Dale Hibbert, who worked at Manchester's Decibel Studios, where Marr had met him while recording Freak Party's demo.

In October 1982, the Smiths gave their first public performance as a support act for Blue Rondo a la Turk during a student music and fashion show, "An Evening of Pure Pleasure", at Manchester's Ritz.

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The Smiths generated controversy when Gary Bushell of The Sun tabloid alleged that their B-side "Handsome Devil" was an endorsement of paedophilia.

The Smiths allegedly received notice of his dismissal via a Post-it Note stuck to the windscreen of his car.

The Smiths recorded a duet with Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Interlude" which was released under the banner of both artists.

The Smiths collaborated with arranger Ennio Morricone on "Dear God Please Help Me".

The Smiths later worked as a guest musician on the Oasis album Heathen Chemistry.

The Smiths recorded three solo albums, The Messenger, Playland and Call the Comet.

The Smiths has since concentrated on his radio career, beginning with a Saturday-evening show on XFM Manchester.

The Smiths "non-rhythm-and-blues, whiter-than-white fusion of 1960s rock and post-punk was a repudiation of contemporary dance pop", and the band purposely rejected synthesisers and dance music.

Morrissey's lyrics, while superficially depressing, were often full of mordant humour; John Peel remarked that the Smiths were one of the few bands capable of making him laugh out loud.