Andy Rourke, bassist for The Smiths, one of the most influential British bands of the 1980s, has died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, his former bandmate Johnny Marr said on Friday. He was 59 years old.
In a lengthy post on Instagram, Marr, who is a guitarist and songwriter, paid tribute to Rourke, whom he met when they were both in elementary school in 1975.
“Throughout our teenage years we played in various bands around South Manchester before establishing our reputation with The Smiths from 1982 to 1987, and it was on those Smiths records that Andy reinvented what it is to be a bassist,” said Marr.
During their brief stint as a four-piece band, The Smiths deliberately stayed away from the mainstream of popular music, earning a cult following in the independent music scene.
Although much of the attention was focused on the songwriting duo of Marr and bandleader Steven Patrick Morrissey, better known as Morrissey, the sound of The Smiths owed much to the bass of Rourke and his partner in the rhythm section, drummer Mike Joyce.