The Smiths’ Mike Joyce on triumph, gladioli & Morrissey when he was still ‘Steve’

The Smiths’ Mike Joyce on triumph, gladioli & Morrissey when he was still ‘Steve’

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold November 2, 2025 Duration: 41:56

Morrissey and Marr both wrote memoirs but Mike Joyce hasn’t read either, preferring to publish ‘The Drums’, his version of one of the great success stories of the ‘80s, a book about “the beauty we’d given to people – and to ourselves”. At one point he and Andy Rourke shout, ‘Where did it all go right?”. He looks back here at …

 

… the fateful meeting in Geales fish bar when Johnny told them he was leaving – “none of us, not even Morrissey, saw it coming”

 

… the first Smiths rehearsal and impressions of “Steve” the singer

 

… how the songs were written - “we never asked what they meant”

 

… and how they were arranged: “I locked with Johnny like Charlie with Keith, and Andy played a bass song over the top”

 

... memories of Johnny at X Clothes in Manchester and Morrissey in ‘82 - “funny, dark, so Manc”

 

… the “almost anti-punk” appeal of the Buzzcocks and the urge for a John Maher red Premier drumkit

 

… “Morrissey’s articulacy was both his strength and his Achilles heel”

 

… echoes of Motown and James Honeyman-Scott in Marr’s guitar

 

… “Singers need to feel they’re the most important person in the room”

 

… on-stage gladioli versus “the austerity of the Hacienda”

 

… and Morrissey today - “very angry” - and the legacy of the Smiths.  

 

Order copies of ‘The Drums here: https://www.resident-music.com/product/joyce-mike-the-drums


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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