The Rise And Fall Of The Smiths

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS (320kbs-m4a/344mb/2hrs26mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

There are bands who split and reunite so often it stops meaning anything. And then there's The Smiths. Five years. Four albums. A string of hits that still sound like nothing else. And a break-up, in 1987, that's still raw forty years on.

If you're enjoying this series of The Rise & Fall podcast, there are loads of other gripping music stories to immerse yourself in, focusing on Britpop, Madchester, Indie Sleaze, Sex Pistols and Oasis. Just search 'rise and fall' in BBC Sounds, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Sounds. Produced by Tom Pooley with original music and sound design by Coach Conrad. The Commissioner was Will Wilkin, and the Commissioning Producers were Hannah Clapham and Jon Hillcock.

The full series is available exclusively on BBC Sounds.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS - 0. TRAILER (320kbs-m4a/3mb/1min)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

Presented by Steve Lamacq and Elizabeth Alker and built entirely from the BBC archive, this eight-part series goes back to the very beginning: a restless teenager from Stretford, a guitarist from Wythenshawe with a cassette under his arm, and the five extraordinary years that followed.
How did it all go so right? And how did it go so wrong?

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS - 1. IT'S TIME THE TALE WERE TOLD (320kbs-m4a/36mb/15mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

For nearly four decades, one question has followed The Smiths: why won't they get back together? Steve Lamacq and Elizabeth Alker set out to find answers, starting at the very beginning.

Before the anthems and the adulation, there was a restless, isolated teenager from Stretford who haunted Factory Records gigs with a notepad, lost himself in Oscar Wilde and kitchen-sink cinema, and harboured one apparently impossible ambition: becoming a pop star.

Almost everyone who knew him thought it was a fantasy. Drawing on archive interviews with Morrissey himself, Steve and Elizabeth tell the story of the man before the myth.

The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again [Rhino]
The Smiths - Panic [Rhino]
The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out [Rhino]
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead [Rhino]
Shawn Lee - Four Beat [Pedigree Cuts]
The Marvelettes - Paper Boy [Motown]
Sex Pistols - EMI (UMC (Universal Music Catalogue)]
New York Dolls - Looking For A Kiss {Cherry Red]

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS - 2. HAND IN GLOVE (320kbs-m4a/38mb/16mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

In May 1982, a young guitarist with ambitions to form his very own Mancunian Rolling Stones found himself on a bus to Stretford, cassette in hand, and a hunch about the right frontman.

Johnny Marr and Morrissey seemed like opposites. But they had Irish roots, Manchester streets, a love of 60s pop, and an unstoppable sense of purpose in common. From that first afternoon bonding over records, the chemistry was instant.

Then came a drummer on mushrooms, a bass player dragged in from a lumber yard, and the band's first unforgettable gig, with a go-go dancer thrown in for good measure.

The Smiths - You've Got Everything Now [Rhino]
Chic - I Want Your Love [Rhino Atlantic]
Bert Jansch - Finches [Ace]
Iggy & The Stooges - Search And Destroy [Revenge]
The Marvelettes - You're The One [Motown]
Buzzcocks - What Do I Get (Live) [Castle Communications]
Stanley Clarke - School Days [Epic]
The Smiths - Handsome Devil [Rhino]
The Smiths - What Difference Does It Make? [Rhino]

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS - 3. YOU’VE GOT EVERYTHING NOW (320kbs-m4a/45mb/19mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

24 November 1983: The Smiths take the stage on Top of the Pops, and everything changes.

In just four relentless years, the band scored hit after hit, filled venues the length and breadth of the country, and inspired a devotion that bordered on the religious, fans storming the stage at every turn.

But for all the euphoria, the pace was punishing. The cracks were already beginning to show.

The archive tells the story of The Smiths at the height of their powers.

The Smiths - This Charming Man [Rhino]
Paul Young - Love Of The Common People [Sony BMG]
The Smiths - Panic [Rhino]
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (Live In London, 1986) [Rhino]
The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now [Rhino]
The Smiths - William, It Was Really Nothing [Rhino]
The Smiths - Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want [Rhino]
The Smiths - How Soon Is Now [Rhino]

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS - 4. THIS NIGHT HAS OPENED MY EYES (320kbs-m4a/39mb/16mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

New Year's Eve 1983: The Smiths take the stage in New York for their American debut. The band are barely in their twenties. Their manager is nowhere to be found. Someone falls off the stage. Welcome to America.

As the touring schedule grew ever more relentless, so did the excess. And as the rest of the band embraced the rock and roll lifestyle on the road, the distance between them and Morrissey quietly grew.

Meanwhile, bassist Andy Rourke was battling a personal crisis that had followed him since his teens - one that would eventually cost him his place in the band.

The hedonism, the chaos, and the fractures begin to tear at the fabric of the Smiths.

The Smiths - This Night Has Opened My Eyes [Rhino]
The Smiths - Still Ill [Rhino]
The Smiths - Miserable Lie [Rhino]
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead [Rhino]

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS - 5. MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING (320kbs-m4a/46mb/19mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

How do you find a record deal? Grab a label boss by the sleeve in a loading bay, as a teenage Johnny Marr discovered.

This episode tells the story of The Smiths' first manager, Manchester trouser-shop owner Joe Moss, and the signing of a Rough Trade deal that helped birth British indie as we know it. But when only two names ended up on the contract, and a verbal understanding about money was never put in writing, the seeds of a far longer drama were sown.

Archive testimony from the band and their inner circle unpicks the business decisions behind the music, and asks why things went so badly wrong.

Sister Sledge - Thinking Of You [Red Cab]
Iggy & The Stooges - Gimme Danger [MVD Audio]
The Smiths - Hand In Glove [Rhino]
The Smiths - What Difference Does It Make? [Rhino]
The Smiths - How Soon Is Now [Rhino]

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS - 6. BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN (320kbs-m4a/50mb/21mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

No one could accuse Morrissey of playing it safe. Two early singles drew headlines for deeply sensitive reasons. A comment about the Brighton bombing left Fleet Street incandescent. And then there was Meat Is Murder: the album that shot to number one.

But as the tabloids obsessed over every word, a very different tension was building behind the scenes. One that archive testimony from the band and their inner circle reveals in remarkable detail.

The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again [Rhino]
The Smiths - Meat Is Murder [Rhino]
The Smiths - The Headmaster Ritual [Rhino]
The Smiths - Reel Around The Fountain [Rhino]
The Smiths - Suffer Little Children [Rhino]
The Smiths - Panic [Rhino]
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead [Rhino]
The Smiths - I Won't Share You [Rhino]

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS - 7. I KNOW IT'S OVER (320kbs-m4a/41mb/17mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

They were recording what would turn out to be their final album, and by all accounts Strangeways, Here We Come was going remarkably well. Laughter, in-jokes, and some of the best music The Smiths ever made.

But beneath the surface, Johnny Marr had reached his limit. Five relentless years without a holiday, without a proper manager, and without any resolution to the tensions quietly pulling the band apart. Something had to give.

Spring 1987: the four of them sit down in a fish and chip shop in Notting Hill, and Johnny drops a bombshell.

The story of The Smiths' break-up, in the words of the band and the people who watched it unfold.

The Smiths - I Know It's Over [Rhino]
The Smiths - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me [Rhino]
The Beach Boys - Barbara Ann [Capitol]
The Smiths - A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours [Rhino]
Cilla Black - Work Is A Four Letter Word [Parlophone]
The Smiths - I Keep Mine Hidden [Rhino]

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SMITHS - 8. A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT (320kbs-m4a/47mb/20mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 5th July 2026

The band was over. But the drama wasn't. In the years after The Smiths split, the financial fallout left some members struggling. Eventually, the four of them found themselves reunited, not on stage, but in a London courtroom.

Joyce versus Morrissey and Others.

This final episode traces the aftermath: the court case that divided old friends, the careers that followed, the glimmer of a reunion that never quite materialised, and the death of beloved bass player Andy Rourke in 2023.

Through archive testimony and the words of the band themselves, Steve and Elizabeth ask: what is the true legacy of The Smiths? And is there any chance, even now, that the story isn't quite over yet?

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now [Rhino]
Morrissey - Suedehead [Parlophone]
Talking Heads - (Nothing But) Flowers [Parlophone]
Pretenders - Don't Get Me Wrong [Rhino/Warner]
The The - The Beat(en) Generation [earMUSIC]
Electronic - Getting Away With It [Parlophone]
The Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out [Rhino]