Club NME feat Andy Rourke (The Smiths)

So, bassist-to-DJ: are you just trying to rip off [Joy Division/New Order bassist-turned DJ] Peter Hook's shtick now? No, I've been doing a lot of DJing over in America – well, all over the place really, all over Europe, its kind of part of a very small world tour. So over the next two months I'm playing all over Europe and South America and after a few gigs in America. It gets me out of the house, keeps me out of trouble.

What kind of stuff do you play? I know you're a great aficionado of funk and soul. Yeah well, not so much of that. It's a real eclectic mix, anything from the Rolling Stones to Primal Scream, there's a lot of what we call ‘Britpop'. I play a lot of that stuff, kind of old and new, and sort of more contemporary, New Young Pony Club, CSS, bands like that. Basically whatever grabs me on the night. I think you have to kind of read the audience rather than have a set idea of ‘I'm gonna play this at every venue'. You have to read the audiences' reaction and try and work it out from that.

How did you get into DJing in the first place? It started about five years ago, I had a friend who asked me, he had a night in Manchester, he had different guest DJs on from bands like Clint Boon [ex-Inspiral Carpets organist], in fact it was Clint who asked me. Then Mani [Stone Roses/Primal Scream bassist] started DJing and it was kind of inevitable that one day they would ask me, and I did OK.

So is it just a matter of having a voluminous knowledge of music, or is there something that is unique to Manchester-based bassists? [laughs] I don't know. I mean we've got a certain amount of knowledge about a certain type of music I think. I'm not under any illusions that people book me because I'm the best DJ in the world. A lot of Smiths like to come along and say hello and blah blah; they're just curious as to what I'm gonna play. Inevitably they ask for some Smiths songs, but I have to kind of limit it a bit because otherwise if you're not a Smiths fan it's going to get a bit tedious.

After your late-80s work on Morrissey's solo stuff you seemed to drop off the radar completely for a good long while. I did: I got married and settled down, for ten years anyway, and then got divorced, I've been doing bits and bobs since, I'm still playing bass, I'm doing stuff with Mani and Hooky [the aforementioned Peter Hook] as Freebass, and I'm also doing some stuff with Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, I've been keeping busy.

Johnny [Marr, former Smiths guitarist] is out here at around the same time as you, touring with the Cribs. Yeah! He emailed me: "How's things, what are you up to, I'm in Australia and thought you might be here, Johnny." Yeah there's a good chance [we'll catch up], but I think I'm only over there for a week, just as I'm getting used to the jet lag I've gotta head back again.

So relations between you and Johnny are still solid, then? Yeah, and Mike [Joyce, Smiths drummer] for that matter. Things went a bit shaky when Mike started the court case against Morrissey and Marr [in the 90s, claiming unpaid mechanical royalties and touring revenue]. I was subpoenaed to give evidence, it went a bit shaky. But we're back on track now, which is good.

So the only one still bearing a grudge is that other guy, the weird singing fellow... Yeah I can't remember his name right now... [laughs] Andrew P Street