1964
Rourke was born in Manchester, Lancashire, in 1964, and grew up on the Racecourse Estate in Ashton upon Mersey. His Irish father, Michael, worked as an architect; his mother, Mary (née Stone), was English. He was raised by his father in Ashton-upon-Mersey, and later Sharston, after his mother separated from him and left the family home.
January 1964
Andrew Michael Rourke (17 January 1964 – 19 May 2023) was an English musician best known as the bassist of the 1980s indie rock band the Smiths. Regarded as one of the greatest bassists of his generation, he was known for his melodic and funk-inspired approach to bass playing.
1975
He received an acoustic guitar from his parents when he was seven years old. At the age of 11, he befriended a young John Maher (soon to be Johnny Marr) with whom he shared an interest in music: both attended St Augustine's Grammar School in Sharston. The pair spent lunch breaks in school jamming and playing on their guitars. When Marr and Rourke formed a band, Rourke switched to bass, which he fell in love with and continued to play for the rest of his career.
1982
Marr later teamed up with Morrissey to form the Smiths. Rourke joined the band after its first gig in 1982, when Marr fired original bass player Dale Hibbert, and remained through the rest of its existence. The band's second studio album, Meat Is Murder, featured the track "Barbarism Begins at Home", a seven-minute funk-inspired track regarded by several critics as one of Rourke's greatest contributions. He was also praised for rockabilly-inspired basslines on the tracks "Rusholme Ruffians" and "Nowhere Fast". Some of Rourke's other noted performances include "This Charming Man" and "How Soon Is Now?".
Early 1986
Suffering from heroin addiction, Rourke was arrested for drug possession and sacked from the band in early 1986, via a handwritten note left on his car windscreen by Morrissey. Experienced session musician Guy Pratt was brought in as a replacement and found Rourke's compositions difficult to learn; he was relieved when Rourke was restored two weeks later, having been cleared to tour the United States. Just after Rourke's reinstatement, the Smiths released their third studio album, The Queen Is Dead. In his absence, second guitarist Craig Gannon joined the band. Marr described Rourke's contribution to that album as "something no other bass player could match", and the heavy bassline on the title track as one of the best he had heard. Rourke played cello on several Smiths tracks, including "Shakespeare's Sister", "Rubber Ring", "Oscillate Wildly" and the Troy Tate version of "Pretty Girls Make Graves". The Smiths released their fourth and final studio album Strangeways, Here We Come, in 1987 to critical acclaim, and broke up soon after.
1987
Rourke joined the Smiths after their first gig, having known guitarist Johnny Marr since secondary school, and played on their entire discography. After the group broke up in 1987, he performed on some of lead vocalist Morrissey's early solo releases. Rourke recorded with Sinéad O'Connor and the Pretenders in the early 1990s, and was a member of the supergroup Freebass and the band D.A.R.K., and later Blitz Vega with Kav Sandhu. He organised the Versus Cancer concerts from 2006 to 2009.
1994
In 1994, he worked as a session bassist with the Pretenders, appearing on six tracks on Last of the Independents, as well as working with Killing Joke, Badly Drawn Boy (with whom Rourke toured for two years), Aziz Ibrahim (formerly of the Stone Roses) and ex-Oasis guitarist Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs as Moondog One, which also included former Smiths members Joyce and Gannon. Rourke also played bass guitar for Ian Brown, both on tour and on Brown's fifth solo studio album, The World Is Yours (2007).
1999
Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce started legal proceedings against Morrissey and Marr over royalties. Short on money due to his heroin addiction, Rourke settled out of court for £83,000 and 10% of future royalties while relinquishing all further claims; Joyce pursued the claim until 1996 and was awarded substantially more in court. Having spent the settlement, Rourke later found himself being declared bankrupt following a petition of the Inland Revenue in 1999.
January 2006
Rourke, his then-manager Nova Rehman, his production company, Great Northern Productions, and others organised Manchester v Cancer, a series of concerts to benefit cancer research, later known simply as Versus Cancer. The initiative was prompted when Rehman's father and sister were diagnosed with the disease. The first Manchester v Cancer concert took place in January 2006. It featured a reunion between Rourke and his former Smiths bandmate Johnny Marr, who performed one song together. He organised further concerts in the three following years.
2007
Rourke formed Freebass with bassists Mani (ex-Stone Roses) and Peter Hook (ex-New Order) in 2007 and remained active in the group until August 2010. Early in 2009, he moved to New York City, where he had a programme on East Village Radio and worked as a club DJ with Olé Koretsky under the name Jetlag. This led to Rourke and Koretsky forming the alternative rock band D.A.R.K. with Dolores O'Riordan, lead vocalist with the Cranberries. The trio released their debut studio album, Science Agrees, in 2016 through the independent label Cooking Vinyl.
2012
Rourke moved to New York City in early 2009, where he remained until his death. In 2012, he married Francesca Mor.
January 2018
In January 2018, it was announced that Rourke, Joyce and Gannon would take part in Classically Smiths, a series of classical music concerts based on the Smiths' discography, with the Manchester Camerata. Rourke released a statement, saying that he had never agreed to take part in the event; Joyce and Gannon subsequently withdrew and the events were cancelled.
2019
After the death of O'Riordan, Rourke formed Blitz Vega with guitarist and vocalist Kav Sandhu, formerly of Happy Mondays. Their first single, "Hey Christo", was released in 2019.
2019
Also in 2019, Blitz Vega recorded a live EP at Abbey Road Studios and featured on Red Stripe Presents: This Feeling TV presented by Laura Whitmore and Gordon Smart. In 2022, Blitz Vega released the single "Strong Forever", featuring Johnny Marr as their guest guitarist.
May 2023
On the morning of 19 May 2023, Rourke died from a "lengthy" battle with pancreatic cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He was 59.
November 2024
On 21 November 2024, a mural depicting Rourke was unveiled at The Wheatsheaf pub in Manchester's Northern Quarter. The mural was painted by Akse P19, a Manchester-based street artist. In attendance at the event was Mike Joyce, Nalinee Darmrong (the photographer whose image the work was based on) and Joe Kirwin from Pancreatic Cancer Action.
Trending
4 months ago Shedeur Sanders and Joe Flacco's conversation sparks drama; Browns fans imagine relationship.
Haason Reddick is an American football linebacker for the New York Jets He was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in...
5 months ago Chris Olave Trade Rumors Surface Amidst Derek Carr's Retirement and Eagles Interest
Barca d'Alva railway station was a border station and the former terminus of Portugal's Douro Line until its closure in...
Jabrill Peppers is an American football safety for the New England Patriots A standout player at the University of Michigan...
5 months ago Barcelona Faces LaLiga Title Race, Defensive Concerns, and Player Exit Rumors
Popular
Paracetamol also known as acetaminophen is a commonly used over-the-counter...
Charlie Kirk is an American right-wing political activist entrepreneur and...
Turning Point USA TPUSA is a conservative nonprofit organization founded...
Candace Owens is an American political commentator and author known...
Kash Patel is an American lawyer and former federal prosecutor...
Greg Gutfeld is an American television personality known for his...