Mike Joyce

Michael "Mike" Joyce (born 1 June 1963, Fallowfield, Manchester) is an English musician. He is best known as the drummer for The Smiths.

Career
Mike Joyce was recruited in late 1982, after original drummer Simon Wolstencroft left the band. Joyce served as the drummer for the band throughout its existence, from 1982 to 1987.

Immediately after the break-up of the band, Joyce and Smiths bassist Andy Rourke played with Sinéad O'Connor. They, along with Craig Gannon, also provided the rhythm section for two singles by Smiths' singer Morrissey – "Interesting Drug" and "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" and their b-sides. Work with Suede, Buzzcocks, Public Image Limited, Julian Cope, P. P. Arnold and Pete Wylie followed throughout the 1990s.

Joyce, Rourke, and Gannon reunited to work on a project with fellow Manchester musician Aziz Ibrahim (formerly of The Stone Roses), ex-Oasis guitarist Bonehead (as Moondog One), and Vinny Peculiar.

In 1989, Joyce and Andy Rourke sued former Smiths' colleagues Johnny Marr and Steven Morrissey for an equal share of performance and recording royalties. He won the case, recovering around £1 million from Morrissey and Marr. He was not invited to the Manchester v Cancer benefit concert was organised by Andy Rourke in January 2006 because Johnny Marr was playing. In the documentary The Importance of Being Morrissey, Morrissey describes it as a "terrible miscarriage of justice", declaring that he wishes "the very, very worst for Joyce for the rest of his life".

In July 2007, Joyce along with former bandmate Andy Rourke released Inside The Smiths, a DVD which chronicled their experiences of being in the band. Both speak highly of both Morrissey and Marr in the film and convey how special they believed The Smiths were and still are to them.