The Smiths star Mike Joyce has announced his memoir, The Drums.
The 62-year-old sticksman for the legendary Manchester group – which was also comprised of Morrissey, Johnny Marr and the late Andy Rourke – has put pen to paper to share his “no-holds-barred” account of being in the Bigmouth Strikes Again band.
A description of the tome on HMV’s listing reads: “As a band, the Smiths need no introduction. Formed in 1982 and disbanded in 1987, all five of their studio albums reached the top five in the UK charts. They are widely lauded as one of the most influential groups of all time.
“Mike is the last member of the band to release their autobiography and this is his no-holds-barred story of what it was like to play the drums in the Smiths. Throughout his honest and witty reflections, Mike answers the question he and bassist Andy Rourke used to often ask each other: ‘Where did it all go right?’
“A lot of the Smiths’ past is already canonised. Rather than retelling those well-documented iconic moments, in The Drums, Mike conveys ‘the feeling’ of his time in the band. His off-piste, frank and witty perspective allows him to re-contextualise fan favourite moments through a beautifully vulnerable, human insight into his life.
“The written history of the Smiths is not missing an encyclopedic account of everything that happened over the years; but Mike’s honest, entertaining and deeply human memoir is what Smiths fans have been waiting for. This book truly conveys what it felt like to be a member of the Smiths.
“In The Drums, Mike Joyce finally gives us the perspective of the self-confessed biggest Smiths fan in the world who from the start was just some lad from the suburbs of Fallowfield who played the drums.”
It means all band members, expect bassist Andy – who died in 2023, at the age of 59, following a battle with pancreatic cancer – will have published memoirs.
Frontman Morrissey released the Autobiography, in 2013, while guitarist Johnny Marr dropped Set The Boy Free in 2016.
The Drums is released on November 6.
The Smiths disbanded in August 1987, just before the release of their final studio album, Strangeways, Here We Come.
Despite countless reunion rumours over the years, Marr has insisted Morrissey’s political opinions have put him off getting the band back together.