The Smiths are on Twitter.
The ‘How Soon Is Now?’ indie rockers, who broke up in acrimonious circumstances in 1987, have suddenly emerged on the social media site under the handle @smiths_official and the account has been verified.
The official bio for the account reads "Official Twitter for The Smiths, managed by @warnermusicuk"
Warner Music are the label that own the rights to the entire Smiths back catalogue.
The account has already attracted 11,500 followers, with many fans hoping the social media activity would be a sign the group is going to reform.
However, the first tweet sent from the account dashed their hopes.
It read: "Please note this account is purely to celebrate the history and the music of The Smiths."
The band consisted of frontman Morrissey, lead guitarist Johnny Marr, drummer Mike Joyce and bassist Andy Rourke and although they have been offered massive money to get back together to play live they’ve never come close to reuniting.
Marr previously revealed "I think we were offered $50 million for three … possibly five shows."
Relations between the band members has been poor since 1989 when Joyce and Rourke successfully sued Morrissey and Marr to get more than 10 per cent of the group’s royalties.
The next milestone for The Smiths is the 30-year anniversary of their third studio album ‘The Queen Is Dead’ which arrives in June.
The Lowry Gallery in Salford, Manchester, is hosting an exhibition organised by Stephen Wright who is displaying rare photographs of the band and his iconic image of the foursome standing outside Salford Lads Club which featured in the LP’s vinyl cover. It opens on April 9.
Elsewhere, Marr and Morrissey – who admitted he has been treated for Barrett’s oesophageal cancer since late 2014 – are busy with their own projects.
Marr, 52, has released two solo albums in recent years and will appear as a guest performer on composer Hans Zimmer’s forthcoming tour.
Morrissey, 56, has been busy touring in the last several months but is currently without a record deal since Capitol Music and Harvest Records ended their contracts with him.
It was recently revealed that a biopic about the early life of the ‘Big Mouth Strikes Again’ singer – full name Steven Patrick Morrissey – is in development and ‘War and Peace star’ Jack Lowden will take the lead role in ‘Steven’.
The Smiths join Twitter
