The Smiths' drummer opens up ahead of Wolverhampton date

And today, almost 30 years after performing in Wolverhampton at Morrissey’s first ever ‘chaotic’ solo gig, Mike Joyce will return to the city. He will be at the Light House in The Chubb Buildings tonight telling his story for the first time – followed by a DJ set and disco filled with indie anthems and Manchester beats.

In an exclusive interview with the Express & Star, the utmost Charming Man Joyce said he couldn’t wait to get back to the Black Country and ‘party’.

“I’m really looking forward to it ‘cause I’ve not done anything like this before,” he said. “I don’t know what people can expect. It will be quite raw and I’ve said there’s nothing I don’t want to discuss – whatever people want to ask. I’m open to any questions. I wanted to do it because when I’m DJing people come up and ask me when I’m trying to play records so I thought ‘what if we separate the two?’”

The Smiths brought their much-loved classics like There Is a Light That Never Goes Out and How Soon Is Now? to the Civic Hall in October 1986. Two years on after splitting up, they returned without guitarist Johnny Marr for what would be an unofficial Smiths farewell gig – and Moz’s first solo show.

With Craig Gannon (known as the fifth Smith) filling in on guitar, entry to the night was free to fans wearing a Smiths shirt and only half of those who travelled actually made it inside the venue.

“Me and Morrissey had discussed a concert but decided it shouldn’t be a Smiths one because Johnny wasn’t there. So we decided play his solo stuff and there were Smiths songs we’d never played live before,” said Joyce. “It was a one-off gig and free to get in with a Smiths shirt on but it was chaos. Maybe not on the level of Beatlemania but I found it quite disconcerting. I didn’t really embrace it.

“It was so chaotic and leads were being pulled out but it was still a good gig anyway. It’s [Wolverhampton] always treated me well. It reminds me of Glasgow – you didn’t have a bad gig there and the crowd was always up for it. Playing a DJ set its going to be a party and you want people like that there.”

During an illustrious career, Joyce has played with the Buzzcocks – which he claims were his first love and got him into drumming – as well as Sinead O’Connor, John Lydon’s Public Image Limited, The Stone Roses and Bonehead from Oasis, among others.

And he even linked up with Bez from the Happy Mondays years ago. “I did some radio a while ago and Bez was one of the presenters and we got on really well,” said Joyce. “Me and him went to Ayia Napa and as you can imagine it was brutal. It ‘s bad enough going there with your mates on the lash but as you imagine it was triple X-rated with Bez.”

For his former counterparts Morrissey and Marr, who he endured a lengthy court case against over royalties in the late 90s, the question of reforming the seminal Manchester group isn’t always welcome. But not for Mike: “No. It’s a question that if Buzzcocks split up it’s the first thing I’d be asking. To me, I’ve played with loads since. If I was a songwriter it might be a different matter.

“If I’d written a song and produced it and released it – then someone said ‘are you gonna get that other band together?’ I can understand how that can hit a nerve.

“I’m not known as Mike Joyce from Victim, it’s Mike Joyce from the Smiths. You can treat it as something precious. I haven’t seen Johnny or Morrissey play solo but I would have thought when they’re playing, and then they play The Smiths, I presume the place explodes.” Today, aged 54, Joyce enjoys growing vegetables in his allotment, watching Man City and has recently fallen in love with playing the drums again after helping actress Maxine Peake and Radio 6 Music DJ Marie Anne-Hobbs get behind the kit.

He has also been working with schoolchildren in music classes and raiseing awareness for tinnitus sufferers following the tragic death of Inspiral Carpets drummer Craig Gill.

His favourite Smiths song was their first release Hand In Glove – but it’s always changing. “I don’t have a definitive favourite Smiths song,” he said. “It would have to be Hand in Glove and that was the first time I heard The Smiths. I’d never heard of them before, nobody had. None of the band had. We couldn’t really hear what was going on in the rehearsal room but to put it on vinyl, listen back to it and think ‘yeah that sounds pretty interesting’. The Smiths didn’t sound like anything I’d ever heard before.”

An Evening With Mike Joyce starts at 8.30pm. Tickets are available at £20. Visit www.light-house.co.uk or call 01902 716055