Mike Joyce - The Drums cover art

Mike Joyce - The Drums

A Times Book of the Year 2025

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About this listen

 A Times, Resident and Rough Trade Book of the Year

Longlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize 2026

“A warm and engaging memoir” Guardian

“A beautifully told odyssey” Daily Express

“A brilliant book” Mark Ellen, Word in Your Ear

The long overdue reflection of life in The Smiths from their legendary drummer.

As a band, the Smiths need no introduction. Formed in 1982 and disbanded in 1987, all four 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. Entertainment & Celebrities Music Thought-Provoking Witty
All stars
Most relevant
Great stuff. Bit disappointed nothing on his later work. Especially with the much missed Gwilo.

Top fella

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What more can I say? Well written and read, Mike was there and made it happen

Brilliant book

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I liked the fact that Mike Joyce personally narrated this. A lot has been written about The Smiths but this tells the story of the band in a no nonsense authentic way.

Refreshingly different

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Mike starts the book off by stating that he is a positive sort of guy and this comes across throughout this audiobook. He hardly has a bad word to say about Morrissey or Marr and it’s well documented that they both tried to minimise the money that he and Andy Rourke made from The Smiths. There is lots about his life before the Smiths which I enjoyed because it echoed with my own Irish Catholic upbringing in the north west but there was very little about his post Smiths life other than his final meetings with Andy Rourke and when he recorded again with a solo Morrissey in 1989. I’d like to have learned about his life following something as significant as The Smiths.

Magnanimous Mike

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I love his appreciation and wonderment for everything that being in the Smiths gave him. Not a bitter word against any of his band mates, and such genuine affection! He’s a good ‘un!

Such genuine affection for his band mates.

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