MOJO’s New Smiths Special Is Out Now!

Presenting the definitive guide to every album by The Smiths, Morrissey and Johnny Marr, plus books, films, and rarities, MOJO The Collectors’ Series: The Smiths Essentials is on sale and available to order for delivery wherever you are now! GET YOUR COPY HERE!

Sometimes – though very rarely – a group comes along that sounds nothing like anything you’ve ever heard before and, in an instant, tears up the existing rule book of rock’n’roll and throws it onto the fire. So it was with The Smiths in 1983.

Here was Morrissey, his quiff huge even by the standards of the day, balancing on one leg while swirling a bouquet of gladioli above his head. The lyrics he sang on the group’s first hit single, This Charming Man, concerned a leather car seat and “a jumped-up pantry boy who never knew his place” – hardly the usual clichéd pop fare. Meanwhile, Johnny Marr, dressed like he was hanging out on Sunset Strip in 1966, played a chiming riff so intricate that even expert guitarists watched agape.

So began the cult of The Smiths, which would become ever bigger over the course of the next four years. During that time, their every release was feverishly devoured, their concerts became rituals of almost religious intensity, and Morrissey’s lyrics – full of droll, risqué humour and allusions to film, art and literature – were gleefully learned by rote. And then, just as their fourth album, Strangeways, Here We Come, was completed in summer 1987, they suddenly split.

In this deluxe MOJO Essentials bookazine, we unfold The Smiths’ extraordinary tale by dissecting their timeless body of music, album-by-album, with in-depth features shedding new light on their mercurial rise and fall and the constant dramas that engulfed the group. We also spotlight their live recordings, compilations, rarities and TV appearances, as well as provide a guide to the very best in Smiths literature.

Of course, Morrissey and Marr would each go on to enjoy successful solo careers – the singer becoming an increasingly controversial and divisive figure – and we profile both men’s musical output and their artistic highs and lows.

Illustrated with rare and iconic photographs and album artwork, The Smiths Essentials is a must-have purchase for fans of the band and music connoisseurs everywhere.

Order your copy now!

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