Andrew Michael Rourke is an English musician, best known as the bassist for the Smiths, an English Rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. The band consisted of vocalist Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce. Critics have called them the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. Q magazine's Simon Goddard argued in 2007 that the Smiths were "the one truly vital voice of the '80s", "the most influential British guitar group of the decade" and the "first indie outsiders to achieve mainstream success on their own terms". The NME named the Smiths the "most influential artist ever" in a 2002 poll, even topping the Beatles. The Smiths had several singles reach the UK top twenty and all four of their albums reached the UK top five, including one which topped the charts. The band broke up in 1987 and have turned down several offers to reunite. The band's focus on a guitar, bass and drum sound, and their fusion of 1960s rock and post-punk, were a repudiation of synthesiser-based contemporary dance pop ? the style popular in the early 1980s. 

January 17th, 1964 in Manchester  /  Died:   May 19th, 2023