Andrew Michael Rourke

Andrew Michael Rourke was born in Manchester, England. Meeting guitarist Johnny Marr in secondary school at age eleven, the two bonded over music and played together in early bands. In 1982, Marr invited Rourke to join The Smiths alongside lead singer Morrissey and drummer Mike Joyce.

Rourke's bass playing was a cornerstone of The Smiths' revolutionary indie-pop sound. Instead of merely anchoring the root notes, Rourke played fluid, melodic counter-harmonies and funk-inflected syncopated lines that danced beneath Marr's shimmering guitars, most notably on "Barbarism Begins at Home," "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out," and "The Headmaster Ritual." Following The Smiths' 1987 dissolution, Rourke recorded with Sinéad O'Connor, The Pretenders, Badly Drawn Boy, and Ian Brown, and co-founded Freebass with fellow Manchester bassists Peter Hook (New Order) and Mani (The Stone Roses).