Johnny Marr at Summer In The City (Photo: Gary Mather for Live4ever)
It’s not the full album as some had been speculating, but some Smiths reissues have been put out today to mark the 31st anniversary of the band’s seminal 1986 LP The Queen Is Dead.
Fans will have to move quick though to get their hands on new 7″ and 12″ vinyl versions of the album’s brilliant title-track. The 12″ also contain remastered versions of tracks such as Oscillate Wildly and Money Changes Everything, while the 7″ is carrying I Keep Mine Hidden.
It was almost exactly a year on from The Queen Is Dead when Johnny Marr walked out on the band; reunion speculation has been intense ever since, but until the publication of Marr’s autobiography last year we didn’t realise just how close it had come in 2008.
“The drinks kept coming and we sat talking for hours,” he wrote. “We chatted, as we always did, about the records we loved, and eventually we moved on to “that subject”. There had been rumours for years that The Smiths were about to re-form, and they were always untrue. I had never pursued any offer.”
“Morrissey and I continued our dialogue and planned to meet up again. I went to Mexico with the Cribs, and then suddenly there was radio silence.”