While all things around him seemed under increasing pressure he produced what many observers still rate as his finest work, not only the most likely contender for ‘best Smiths album’, but also a heavyweight in the stakes as one of the best rock or pop albums ever made. The year began with the band appearing as part of the Red Wedge tour at the invitation of its progenitor Billy Bragg, who had of course toured with them in the States. The band also played a gig in Liverpool alongside The Fall and New Order in support of a group of the city’s councillors who were head-to-head with the Thatcher government over their failing to establish legal rates for the city. While Rourke and Joyce had already appeared in a Smith-free role earlier in the Red Wedge tour, this was the first appearance of The Smiths proper as part of the dates, their first direct alignment to a political party cause. Red Wedge was pop music’s answer to another year of stifling Thatcherite brutality being administered to the British public like a dose of vile medicine that promised to heal the nation but only made the ailing populace sicker than ever.
