Fact #162810
When:
Short story:
The Smiths release their debut single, Hand In Glove, in the UK, on Rough Trade Records.
Full article:
Joe Moss (manager, The Smiths) : Hand In Glove was done for £250, because the other side was 'Handsome Devil,' which was live from the Hacienda, straight off the desk. Oh, by the way, that was only the third gig we'd played.
Geoff Travis (MD, Rough Trade) : Johnny and Andy came to see me when I was working in the Rough Trade Distribution warehouse. I was in the kitchen just making some coffee, doing some washing-up or something, and they collared me. They pressed a tape into my hand and said, 'Would you listen to this - it's not just another tape.' I promised them I'd listen to it - this was a Friday - and give them a ring on Monday. I listened to it all weekend and absolutely loved it. It was Hand In Glove and Handsome Devil. I called them on Monday and said, 'Let's make a record.' And they said, 'When?' I said, 'Well, we'll do it tomorrow.' So they all came down Tuesday. And that's the first time I met Morrissey.
Johnny Marr (guitarist, The Smiths) : In the beginning, it was good to be in a group that stood for and against certain things. We were against synthesizers, the Conservative government, groups with names like Orchestral Manoeuvers In The Dark, the English monarchy, cock-rock guitar solos, and the American music scene at the time. We stood for the Englishness of the Kinks, T-Rex, and Roxy Music, the arty quirks that kept those groups from being huge in the U.S. We were into the Rolling Stones, the MC5, the Patti Smith Group, Oscar Wilde, [playwright] Shelagh Delaney, and certain actors. Some things were really important to us, and we made no secret of our obsessions. Morrissey and I wanted to be a modern-day Leiber and Stoller, writing bubblegum backing tracks with intense lyrics. We weren't minimalistic, but we wanted to sound very home-grown, not like a polished major-label group. I'm very proud of everything we did, musically, lyrically, and politically. It was a really great time, but only a fool doesn't know when it's time to stop.
Jill Smith (press officer, Rough Trade) : Rough Trade had very little money and really couldn't afford to treat The Smiths like stars. I never heard them complain about it though. They signed to Rough Trade because they liked the ethic of the label, and I think they understood what they were getting into.
Rough Trade dealt directly with Morrissey and Marr because they didn't have a manager as such. One difficult thing was there was a bit of a cult of silence in The Smiths. You never got the whole picture of what they were thinking.
Joe Moss (manager, The Smiths) : Apart from the fact that they were brilliant, the main factor was John Peel completely turning on to it. It seemed as though every time you switched to the Peel show, you were hearing a Smiths’ session or Hand In Glove.
John Walters (producer, BBC Radio) : Peel always says I was absolutely raving about it, but I can't quite remember that. I just thought it was a lead worth following. A bit like Inspector Morse, you know. Pursue the lead. And then they became a little like a flag, or a banner with a strange device, as the poet put it.
(Source : not known)
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Geoff Travis (MD, Rough Trade) : Johnny and Andy came to see me when I was working in the Rough Trade Distribution warehouse. I was in the kitchen just making some coffee, doing some washing-up or something, and they collared me. They pressed a tape into my hand and said, 'Would you listen to this - it's not just another tape.' I promised them I'd listen to it - this was a Friday - and give them a ring on Monday. I listened to it all weekend and absolutely loved it. It was Hand In Glove and Handsome Devil. I called them on Monday and said, 'Let's make a record.' And they said, 'When?' I said, 'Well, we'll do it tomorrow.' So they all came down Tuesday. And that's the first time I met Morrissey.
Johnny Marr (guitarist, The Smiths) : In the beginning, it was good to be in a group that stood for and against certain things. We were against synthesizers, the Conservative government, groups with names like Orchestral Manoeuvers In The Dark, the English monarchy, cock-rock guitar solos, and the American music scene at the time. We stood for the Englishness of the Kinks, T-Rex, and Roxy Music, the arty quirks that kept those groups from being huge in the U.S. We were into the Rolling Stones, the MC5, the Patti Smith Group, Oscar Wilde, [playwright] Shelagh Delaney, and certain actors. Some things were really important to us, and we made no secret of our obsessions. Morrissey and I wanted to be a modern-day Leiber and Stoller, writing bubblegum backing tracks with intense lyrics. We weren't minimalistic, but we wanted to sound very home-grown, not like a polished major-label group. I'm very proud of everything we did, musically, lyrically, and politically. It was a really great time, but only a fool doesn't know when it's time to stop.
Jill Smith (press officer, Rough Trade) : Rough Trade had very little money and really couldn't afford to treat The Smiths like stars. I never heard them complain about it though. They signed to Rough Trade because they liked the ethic of the label, and I think they understood what they were getting into.
Rough Trade dealt directly with Morrissey and Marr because they didn't have a manager as such. One difficult thing was there was a bit of a cult of silence in The Smiths. You never got the whole picture of what they were thinking.
Joe Moss (manager, The Smiths) : Apart from the fact that they were brilliant, the main factor was John Peel completely turning on to it. It seemed as though every time you switched to the Peel show, you were hearing a Smiths’ session or Hand In Glove.
John Walters (producer, BBC Radio) : Peel always says I was absolutely raving about it, but I can't quite remember that. I just thought it was a lead worth following. A bit like Inspector Morse, you know. Pursue the lead. And then they became a little like a flag, or a banner with a strange device, as the poet put it.
(Source : not known)