Morrissey Upset With Andy Rourke Again

09/14/09 12:05pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Morrissey is angry about something former Smiths bassist Andy Rourke told Toronto's Eye Weekly last week.

Rourke, who was in Toronto to DJ the opening night Toronto International Film Festival event at the Drake Hotel, told the publication the stories that Morrissey kicked him out of The Smiths in 1986 by leaving a postcard under the windshield wiper or on the hood of his car (the account differs all the time) were true. "Andy, you have left The Smiths. Good luck and goodbye, Morrissey," the postcard is said to have read.

"I thought it was a parking ticket, but it was a lot worse than that," he said.

Rourke was briefly booted from the band because of his drug problems, but rejoined the band before the release of 1986's The Queen Is Dead.

Morrissey wasn't pleased with the comment, which Rourke has made before, and released a statement about it on Sunday.

"I am forced to defend myself — again — from a comment made by Andy Rourke last week on the Eyeweekly website," he said in the statement. "It is a recurring comment whereby Andy confirms that his dismissal from the Smiths was made via a handwritten postcard from me telling Andy 'you have left the Smiths.'

"I would like to state to anyone interested in the truth of this matter that no such postcard was ever written by me, and no dismissal postcard was ever placed on Andy's car with my knowledge or consent, and I am naturally irked that such an alleged deed has gone down in the fairy tale footnotes of Smiths lore.

"If such a postcard ever existed, it is likely that an unfunny stunt was played on Andy by someone attempting Morrissey scrawl — easily done. Secondly, Andy's 'dismissal' from the Smiths would not be a decision solely made by me, and would not be announced by me on a note bearing only my name, and it would also not be executed by a handwritten note carelessly thrown onto the hood of a car (or window-wipers, as has been often reported). Doesn't anyone have the wit to work this one out?"

Morrissey will play these dates in support of this year's Years Of Refusal:

Oct. 23 Birmingham, England @ Symphony Hall
Oct. 24 Swindon, England @ Oasis Leisure Centre
Oct. 26 Bournemouth, England @ Opera House
Oct. 27 London, England @ Royal Albert Hall
Oct. 29 Leeds, England @ O2 Academy Leeds
Oct. 30 Sheffield, England @ Sheffield City Hall
Nov. 2 Salisbury, England @ Salisbury City Hall
Nov. 3 Brentwood, England @ Leisure Centre
Nov. 5 London, England @ Alexandra Palace
Nov. 7 Liverpool, England @ Echo Arena
Nov. 10 Lille, France @ L'Aeronef
Nov. 12 Paris, France @ Le Zenith De paris
Nov. 16 Berlin, Germany @ Tempodrom
Nov. 17 Hamburg, Germany @ Congress Centrum Hamburg
Nov. 19 Dusseldorf, Germany @ Philipshalle
Nov. 20 Munich, Germany @ Tonhalle
Nov. 23 Dublin, Ireland @ The National Stadium