Andy Rourke

Rourke joined the Smiths after their first gig, having known guitarist Johnny Marr since secondary school, and played on their entire discography. After the group broke up in 1987, he performed on some of lead vocalist Morrissey's early solo releases. Rourke recorded with Sinéad O'Connor and the Pretenders in the early 1990s, and was a member of the supergroup Freebass and the band D.A.R.K., and later Blitz Vega with Kav Sandhu. He organised the Versus Cancer concerts from 2006 to 2009.


Rourke died of pancreatic cancer on 19 May 2023, aged 59.

Early life[edit]

Rourke was born in Manchester, Lancashire, on 17 January 1964.^[1][4] His father, called Michael, worked as an architect^[5] and was Irish and his mother, called Mary (nee Stone),^[5] was English; Rourke was the only one of the Smiths to not have two Irish parents.^[6] He was raised by his father in Ashton-upon-Mersey, and later Sharston, after his mother separated from him and left the family home.^[7][8]


He received an acoustic guitar from his parents when he was seven years old. At the age of 11 he befriended the young John Maher (soon to be Johnny Marr) with whom he shared an interest in music: both attended St Augustine's Grammar School in Sharston. The pair spent lunch breaks in school jamming and playing on their guitars. When Marr and Rourke formed a band, Rourke switched to bass, which he fell in love with and continued to play for the rest of his career.^[9]


Rourke left school when he was 15^[10] and passed through a series of menial jobs, playing guitar and bass in various rock bands, as well as in the short-lived funk band Freak Party, with Marr.^[11] Growing up on the Racecourse Estate in Ashton, he began using heroin, a habit that would spiral out of control once he made more money with the Smiths.^[12]

Death[edit]

On the morning of 19 May 2023, at age 59, Rourke died from a "lengthy" battle with pancreatic cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.^{[1][4][47][48]}


All three of Rourke's former Smiths bandmates paid tribute to him, with Morrissey writing: "He didn’t ever know his own power, and nothing that he played had been played by someone else. His distinction was so terrific and unconventional and he proved it could be done...I suppose, at the end of it all, we hope to feel that we were valued. Andy need not worry about that."^[49], and Marr describing Rourke as a "beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans",^[5] as well as speaking about the early days of their friendship: "We were best friends, going everywhere together [...] When we were fifteen I moved into his house with him and his three brothers and I soon came to realise that my mate was one of those rare people that absolutely no one doesn’t like."^[50]

Equipment[edit]

Throughout his career, Rourke used a Fender Precision Bass,^[51] a Fender Jazz Bass, a Yamaha BB3000 bass and others.^[52]