Free Republic

Former bandmate Johnny Marr revealed that Rourke's death comes after a "lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer"Andy Rourke, bassist for The Smiths, has died. He was 59. Rourke’s death was announced today (May 19) by former bandmate Johnny Marr on social media. Per Marr’s statement, Rourke died following “a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer”. Marr also paid tribute to his former bandmate, writing: “Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans.” Rourke was best known for being the main bassist for The Smiths between 1982...

Ian Brown, Van Morrison and Noel Gallagher have been objecting to lockdown rules, is this the start of a dangerous trend?The timing looks a bit suspicious, right? Just days after I published a column about the dangers of falling for Ian Brown’s Covid conspiracy rants on Twitter, Noel Gallagher – a man never knowingly muffled – joined the anti-mask fray, insisting that going maskless could only affect himself, like a resident of Bethnal Green in 1941 arguing “well, if everybody else has got their lights off I’m not going to be hit by any of their bombs, so if I...

Just a week after a scandal was sparked by a preacher slating Islam as "satanic", a second preacher has launched a broadside against the faith. The minister at Lord Bannside's former church, Martyr's Memorial Free Presbyterian in east Belfast, has blasted Islam as a "violent intolerant wicked religion". The Rev Ian Brown was speaking at a recent Sunday evening service in defence of Pastor James McConnell, whom he described as a "prophet". The Free Presbyterian minister told his flock last Sunday evening he felt the situation had become "thoroughly ridiculous". In an sermon posted on the Martyr's Memorial website, Rev...

Former STONE ROSES frontman IAN BROWN told prison authorities that he was Muslim so he could get better food in jail. The rocker, who in 1999 served two months in a Manchester, England, jail for threatening an air stewardess, didn't fully convert to Islam - he just wanted to eat the food on the Muslim menu. Brown says, "My sister bought me the Koran in 1990. I always thought the stories in it were magical. "So I'd already had a love affair with it, but when I got in jail the first day, I saw what everyone else was eating....