The Drums | Mike Joyce

For three years between the release of their debut album in 1984 and their split in 1987, the Smiths conquered the alternative and mainstream music world. All four of their rapid-fire studio albums reached the top five in the UK charts and a succession of top twenty singles saw them as at home on Top of the Pops as they were in a session for John Peel. In the years since their abrupt split, new generations of devotees have fallen head over heels in love with their music. Forty years on, they have become one of the most influential bands of all time.

After seeing John Maher of Buzzcocks playing the drums at the age of fourteen, Mike Joyce waged a campaign to persuade his mam to buy him his own matching red drumkit.He installed it in his dad's shed at the bottom of the garden for rehearsals and set about learning his craft playing with a number of Manchester bands.

In 1982, he heard that two local lads Johnny Marr and Steven Morrissey were looking for a drummer, so he went down to Spirit Studios to meet them. It was an audition that changed his life.

A lot of the Smiths' story is already canonised. Rather than retelling those well-documented iconic moments, in The Drums, Mike captures the raw feeling of what it was like to be the drummer in the Smiths as they released hit record after hit record and toured the world playing to clamouring hordes of fans. His off-piste, frank and witty perspective allows him to re-contextualise the cultural impact of the band, while providing a beautifully vulnerable, human insight into his life.

As the self-confessed biggest Smiths fan in the world, in The Drums, Mike finally gives his account of what it was like for this ordinary lad from the suburbs of Manchester to become a member of a band that changed everything.

Size: 162 x 241mm (hardback with dustjacket)

Pages: 258

Publisher: New Modern