For most bands on an upward trajectory, their debut London gig is an important milestone, but in The Smiths’ case, it proved momentous. Staged at The Rock Garden, in Covent Garden, on 23 March 1983, the Manchester quartet’s first ever show in the Big Smoke was only their fifth proper live performance, yet it significantly advanced their career.
The backstory: A hip name to drop
Even at this early stage, The Smiths were a hip name to drop. By this point, the group had existed for barely five months, yet they’d scooped a feature in i-D magazine and a positive review in prestigious Manchester publication City Life. They’d also come to the attention of Rough Trade Records after guitarist Johnny Marr and bassist Andy Rourke journeyed to London to press a demo tape of what would become their debut single, Hand In Glove, into the hands of the label’s boss, Geoff Travis.
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In fact, on the very same day The Smiths took to the stage at the Rock Garden, NME ran a rave review of the band’s recent show supporting Factory Records dance-pop act 52nd Street at The Haçienda, in Manchester. The review’s writer, Jim Shelley, observed that frontman Morrissey “thought The Haçienda was too grey and had the place filled with flowers, beginning a recognisable tradition”, but also declared, “It was already clear that they were destined to become a great band.”
The venue: A popular haunt for the industry’s movers and shakers
With the buzz building, The Rock Garden was the ideal choice for The Smiths’ first London gig. A basement venue situated at 6-9 The Piazza, in Covent Garden (now below the Apple HQ in central London), the club had already hosted significant early soirees from singular bands such as U2 and Talking Heads, and – along with the likes of The Marquee and The Venue, in Victoria – it was a popular haunt for the industry’s movers and shakers in the early 80s.
The show: “Morrissey was fully-formed… it was great”
On the night The Smiths performed, The Rock Garden was hardly heaving with punters, though the audience was swelled by a small contingent from Manchester. Some of the locals in attendance, however, went on to play crucial roles in the band’s immediate future – not least Mike Hinc, from Rough Trade’s spin-off booking agency, All Trade, who was searching for Rough Trade’s answer to Echo And The Bunnymen – what he later described as “a credible live act that could tour without that much support from a record company”. Hinc had also heard the Hand In Glove tape, and he played it to some more industry insiders, including such diverse figures as Sisters Of Mercy frontman Andrew Eldritch and Aztec Camera’s Roddy Frame. “And they both liked it,” Hinc recalled in Tony Fletcher’s A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga Of The Smiths.
