The Smiths releasing new 45 single (with unreleased versions of old songs)

The Smiths remain broken up but there’s an official new 7″ coming out featuring a demo version of “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” on the A-side, and a “previously unissued” version of “Rubber Ring” on the flip. (“Rubber Ring” was, along with “Asleep,” the b-side to the original “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side” 12″.) That’s the artwork above, featuring a young Albert Finney and design by Morrissey. As usual, news broke via TrueToYou, though no other details (like release date) have been shared. You can listen to the original versions of both songs below.

In other news, Morrissey postponed some November shows and scheduled new ones.

Further reading: Johnny Marr‘s just-published autobiography, Set the Boy Free, is a fun, if a little light, read, that takes you from his childhood in Manchester, England through The Smiths’ rise and fall, his time with Electronic, The The, Modest Mouse, The Cribs, and his solo years. Favorite anecdote: hoping for a heart-to-heart about the pressures of following up being in an extremely popular group, Paul McCartney offers up this sage wisdom: “That’s bands for ya.”