The Smiths – Absolute Panic! 86' Irvine Meadows!

Title: The Smiths - Absolute Panic! Irvine Meadows 1986
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1986, Rock, Indie Rock Post-Punk, Manchester, England 8/26
Condition: New (BC) | Members: The Smiths (N/A)
Cultural Facts:

1. Five-Piece Smiths: The 1986 tour caught one of the strangest lineups in Smiths history. After bassist Andy Rourke briefly left the group, Craig Gannon was recruited and eventually stayed as a second guitarist after Rourke returned. For a short period The Smiths were actually a five-piece, and Gannon became jokingly known as “the fifth Smith.”

2. Brutal Firing: Rourke's heroin problem had become serious enough that Morrissey temporarily fired his childhood friend in early 1986 with a note reportedly left on his car windshield reading, “Andy, you have left The Smiths. Goodbye and good luck, Morrissey.” Rourke cleaned himself up enough to return only weeks later, putting him back onstage for this turbulent final touring era.

3. Near the End: The Irvine Meadows show came during The Queen Is Dead era, when The Smiths were internationally successful but internally exhausted. Johnny Marr was only 22 years old and carrying an enormous amount of the band's musical workload. Within about a year the relationship between Marr and Morrissey had collapsed and The Smiths were finished, making these 1986 American shows some of the last chances audiences ever had to see the original band in full flight.