Cover photo by Stephen Wright
The Smiths - The Day I Was There Paperback
by Richard Houghton
Publication date: 15 October 2019. thisdayinmusicbooks.com With fans recalling memories of the earliest Smiths shows at UK clubs, you'll see a portrait of The Smiths from the fans perspective. With personal photographs, memorabilia, fascinating anecdotes, and fan stories that have never been published before. Based on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey and Marr, The Smiths are one of the most important bands to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. All four of their studio albums reached the top five of the UK Albums Chart, including Meat Is Murder which hit number one. They won a significant following and remain cult favourites. The band broke up in 1987 due to internal tensions and have turned down several offers to reunite. Read More
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I was excited to see that This Day Is Music is publishing The Smiths - The Day I Was There, a new book on the Manchester band. This book is more or less a collection of memories from various fans, compiled and edited by Richard Houghton.
The book is divided by dates 1982 to 1987, Morrissey’s “Solo Years”, Paying Tributes, and finally, Random Encounters. The titles are self-explanatory, and you can go to any section, as it’s not a book you read from start to finish.
Every entry is written by a different person, “who was there”. The problem with this is that some entries are incredible short with very little information (particularly the early days of the Smiths and it’s understandable since it’s over 30 years ago), and some went on too long and misses the point.
Sometime the person who was there, just assume you knew things and don’t explain how they knew this or that. Sometime they use slangs that I’m not familiar with (hey, we’re not all British). Sometime it gets too personal and political, which the Houghton kept in the book because, “I also felt it was wrong to leave them out.”
It’s inconsistent, but that’s just the nature of different views and ideas from many different people. Thankfully, the editor did also add comments and quotes from members of the Smiths about those entries, possibly from magazines or interviews, showing the point of view from the band.
I did enjoy reading entries by various Smiths tribute bands, like Sons and Heirs, The Smyths, Viva Morrissey, Frankly, The Smiths, These Handsome Devils, and Caligula Blushed (what, no Sweet and Tender Hooligans?), as the music of the Smiths affected these fans so much that they had to try to emulate their heroes. It’s interesting to hear what first single or album that they first discovered that really spoke to them.
Undoubtedly the most interesting entry is by Simon Wolstencroft, who was Johnny Marr’s first choice as drummer of The Smiths. He actually turned it down, because he didn’t like Morrissey at the time, in his own words, “I didn’t like the cut of his jib.” Wolstencroft did wonder what could have been if he had joined The Smiths.
If you’re looking for a book on the complete story of The Smiths, this isn’t it. If you’re a Smiths/Morrissey fan and interested in reading about other fans’ perspective about The Smiths or Morrissey, you may want to check out this book. You might also want to look into Mozipedia: The Encyclopedia of Morrissey and The Smiths (2010), which I also own, and that reads like an Encyclopedia, as the name suggests.
As a diehard fan, I do own and have read most of the popular books on Morrissey and the Smiths (even read Morrissey’s non-Smiths Autobiography), so I can tell you the best books on the subject of The Smiths and Morrissey are anything written or compiled by Johnny Rogan. He wrote the definitive Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance (1992), the photo-centric and day-by-day breakdown of The Smiths: The Visual Documentary (1994), and the music-centric Complete Guide To The Music Of The Smiths (1995). The other book you may want to seek out is Peepholism: Into the Art of Morrissey (1994) by Jo Slee, which details every cover artwork and designed for The Smiths (and some Morrissey) artwork.
Books you should not seek out (but I also own), are any Morrissey-written books like The New York Dolls, James Dean Is Not Dead, and Exit Smiling. They don’t offer much to the world of The Smiths, and even Morrissey admit they are awful and doesn’t endorse those books.
The Smiths - The Day I Was There Paperback is out now. The book is available as a softcover and limited hardcover (signed by Richard Houghton), available at thisdayinmusicbooks.com.
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