New Order and Pleasure Division co-founder Peter Hook ran the AJ Bell Nice Manchester Run this morning (Could 21) in honour of The Smiths’ Andy Rourke.
Rourke died earlier this week after “a prolonged sickness with pancreatic most cancers”. He was 59.
Chatting with BBC Sport after finishing the Nice Manchester Run, Hook advised host Jeanette Kwakye that: “I misplaced a very good buddy this week, Andy Rourke from The Smiths. I ran for you Andy, relaxation in peace.”
Hook has recurrently taken half within the Nice Manchester Run, elevating cash for the Manchester-based The Christie, which is the biggest single-site most cancers centre in Europe. Talking about elevating cash for charity, Hook stated: “We shouldn’t need to do it however we do, and we do it with nice pleasure.”
Mo Farah crosses the end line in Manchester for the ultimate time 💨
Yet one more race to go earlier than retirement for the four-time Olympic champion.
Watch the Nice Manchester Run LIVE now on @BBCOne & @BBCiPlayer: https://t.co/14guta59fu pic.twitter.com/Yiv0Jkb69w
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 21, 2023
“I lived in Withington on Round Street subsequent to The Christie for years and received used to seeing individuals entering into for therapy. Round that point, I visited two nice buddies of mine there, who had been being handled and noticed the nice work The Christie did. Sadly, neither Tony Wilson [Hook’s former manager] or [musician] Dave Dee survived, however the therapy they obtained helped them and their buddies and households lots,” Hook stated in an interview with race organisers.
“Collaborating within the race helped me realise the ability of so many individuals coming collectively to assist. We shouldn’t need to do it, however we have to for the time being. That feeling of hope and solidarity is actually implausible, by no means thoughts the sense of feat once you end.”
Whereas Pleasure Division thought of The Smiths rivals of their early days, Hook and Rourke went on to develop an in depth friendship. The pair shaped bassist-supergroup Freebass in 2005, alongside Primal Scream and The Stone Roses’ Mani. Rourke additionally joined Peter Hook And The Gentle onstage a number of occasions to carry out New Order tracks.
Chatting with inews, Hook stated that Rourke was “in a totally totally different league and in a unique model. He picked up our music ‘True Religion’ with none rehearsal. To see him in motion was completely fantastic.”
“Andy was an important a part of The Smiths, together with drummer Mike Joyce. With out them, the band wouldn’t have been what they had been,” Hook added.
Paying tribute to Rourke, Morrissey stated: “He won’t ever die so long as his music is heard. He was additionally very, very humorous and really completely happy, and post-Smiths, he saved a gentle identification – by no means any manufactured strikes. I suppose, on the finish of all of it, we hope to really feel that we had been valued. Andy needn’t fear about that.”
Johnny Marr introduced the information of Rourke’s passing in an announcement that stated: “Andy will likely be remembered as a sort and exquisite soul by those that knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music followers.”
