The Smiths‘ former drummer Mike Joyce has criticised Morrissey‘s decision to play a handful of the legendary band’s tracks during his recent Glastonbury performance, saying the songs belong to The Smiths, not their ex-frontman.
Morrissey performed five Smiths tracks last weekend, including the Manchester group’s seminal hits ‘This Charming Man‘ and ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out‘, and Joyce didn’t take the decision well.
“Great performance from M at Glasto but didn’t like the cover versions,” Joyce wrote on Twitter. “M was in the group…but not in the band, those tunes belong to them. The “band” were the musicians in The Smiths…Mozzer wasn’t in the ‘band’ M was the singer/lyricist in the group.”
Morrissey and Joyce have had their fair share of run-ins since The Smiths’ end in 1987, most notably when Joyce took Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr to court in 1996 over royalty disagreements. In addition, Morrissey’s track ‘The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get‘ is seen by many to be a thinly-veiled attack on Joyce..