Johnny Marr:

"I always liked the last album more than any of the others. I think it has got a completeness about it and hangs together in an atmosphere really well. Also, I was confident enough to leave spaces and let some of the music breath, which is one of the reasons that it has dated so well."

Would Johnny like to have made more albums with The Smiths after Strangeways…?

"If I would have done, I wouldn’t have left would I?"

Read the full 2003 interview here.

Stephen Street:

The producer discusses the making of Strangeways, Here We Come – and the band's eventual split...

“Some people might think that they were falling apart and there were terrible tensions in the studio, but there wasn’t at all. It was actually quite a happy time making the record. The only problem on the horizon was the management situation. I think Morrissey had gone through a few years of hiring and firing people, and Johnny'd had enough of that, because it always came back to him to take on all the management pressures.

“At the time, there was this American guy called Ken Friedman who’d been given the job, and he was trying to manage the band while we were in the studio. And then Morrissey just decided that he didn’t want him to be part of The Smiths gang anymore. But Johnny did, ’cos they were due to tour America, and you’ve got to have a manager taking on responsibilities. I think it was that, more than anything else, that led to the final problem, where Johnny said, ‘I can’t handle this anymore, I’ve got to go'.

"But certainly, while we were in the studio, everything was absolutely fine.”

Johnny Marr finally announced that he had left the group in August 1987, and by the time Strangeways was released the following month, The Smiths had decided to go their separate ways. Was Street surprised by the split?

“Absolutely. I really thought it was just a little argument and that they were going to be back together in a few months. The only reason I got involved in the songwriting side of things was that, when we finished Strangeways, there was nothing else in the can. Whatever we’d recorded was used on the record.

“Obviously, there were some more singles to come off the album, so I just sent a cassette to Morrissey of some ideas I had, along the lines of, ‘Look, if there’s anything here that could be used as a b-side, let’s do it. If you’re interested, that is'. I actually said, ‘Forgive me if I’m being presumptuous, but I’m just trying to help out'.

“They’d tried a session with Ivor Perry, the guy who was in Easterhouse, and that was terrible, it didn’t work at all. So I decided to put my tuppence worth in, and sent off this cassette to Morrissey, and he got back to me and said, ‘I’m going to do a solo album, would you like to do it with me?’"

Read the full 2007 interview here.

Listen to Meat Is Murder below: