When Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce sued Morrissey, he affectionately called them "Lawnmower Parts"... suggesting that they were not an important part of The Smiths and did not deserve the 25% equal share of the group's earnings.
In celebration of the late Andy Rourke, Blitz Vega announced his final album Northern Gentlemen. This was Rourke’s last project with Kav Blaggers. Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr is a greatest hits album from guitarist extraordinaire Johnny Marr came out last year. Unfortunately, no The Smiths songs on the tracklisting. This is probably due to rights issue and most likely because they wanted to keep this strictly Marr’s solo work. The official Morrissey merchandise store, Mporium is offering a limited-edition Morrissey Peace Sign Harrington Jacket for £85 pre-order (shipping in April 2024). Unfortunately, this is only offered on their UK website. I kind of want it, I would’ve ordered it, but unfortunately, I don’t live in the UK.
Blitz Vega’s “Strong Forever”, What is incredibly important about this single is that it features a team-up of Andy Rourke and Johnny Marr, a long time The Smiths reunion of some sort… a meeting that only took 35 years in the making. We all know that Morrissey has never forgiven the other band members (and in fact had an online spat with Marr a few years ago), so seeing Rourke and Marr together is good enough for me!