Andy Rourke, the bassist for The Smiths, has died of pancreatic cancer, his former bandmate and childhood friend Johnny Marr announced overnight.

Our good friends at Strangeways Radio are putting together a week-in-review video series called Alt. Rewind that recaps the news posted at Slicing Up Eyeballs and on the Strangeways site throughout the preceding week, hosted by Velvet Rebel. Watch the latest episode right here.

For those who haven’t yet partaken in the sourdough-making craze that swept through coronavirus lockdowns this spring, none other than Mike Joyce — yes, the former drummer for The Smiths — is here to help get you up to speed and kneading away. Watch his video tutorial right here.

In a trainwreck that just keeps getting worse, Mike Joyce today announced that he, too, will not take part in the Classically Smiths live shows he began teasing last week, saying he’d been barred from revealing Andy Rourke wouldn’t be taking part when the project was announced Monday.

After cryptic hints Friday, the cat’s now out of the bag: The Smiths’ Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, plus “fifth member” Craig Gannon, will perform the band’s beloved songs backed by a full orchestra in the U.K. this summer, the Manchester Evening News reported today. No dates have yet been announced.

It appears that Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke, the rhythm section of The Smiths, are planning something — a concert? a full tour? — this year with Craig Gannon, the onetime Aztec Camera member who toured with The Smiths as a second guitarist toward the end of the band’s life.

One day after new 12-inch and 7-inch singles of The Smiths’ “The Queen is Dead” went on sale at U.K. retailers, Morrissey is accusing the HMV chain of “an attempt to freeze sales” by limiting sales of new vinyl to one copy per person — and he’s urging fans to don silly costumes and buy as many copies “as​ you ​desire.”

The prospects of The Smiths all gathering in the same room — forget about a live performance, just getting the four together behind a podium would have been a miracle — were dashed early Tuesday when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced next year’s inductees, a list that did not include the first-time nominees.

After six years of eligibility, The Smiths were nominated today for induction as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015, joining a list of nominees that includes Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, the late Lou Reed, Kraftwerk, Sting and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

It’s Morrissey’s birthday today, and while the ever-dour singer celebrated by declaring war on foie gras, one of his fans took the opportunity to drop a real surprise, marking Moz’s 54th with a leak of ultra-rare, pro-shot video capturing the singer’s first-ever solo concert, with Moz backed by Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, in full.

A newly revealed cassette recording of The Smiths rehearsing in a Manchester warehouse in May 1983 prior to signing their first record deal has surfaced online in what the band’s drummer today called “an early recording you’ve probably never heard before.”

For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we flash back to 1992 for a walk through Tijuana, Mexico, with John Lydon and host Dave Kendall. This appears to actually be an MTV news piece, likely repackaged from segments produced for a July 1992 episode of “120 Minutes” that featured the Public Image Ltd. frontman as co-host.

A new 700-page biography of The Smiths by music writer and biographer Tony Fletcher will be published in the U.K. next week — but not in the U.S. until December — and promises, through “extensive research, dozens of interviews and unprecedented access,” to tell “the complete story” of the iconic Manchester band.