Excellent list John! Great work. I think you touch on a very important point: Morrissey-solo can be a powerful enabler to unearthing these ultra rare recordings if fans come together to share knowledge and materials.

I feel confident that many of the tracks you listed do exist. Some of the tracks *ARE* already in the hands of collectors (i.e "Striptease" & "Never Had No One Ever" (Truphet Version) & The complete recording of "Boy For My Birthday") I'm not sure of their motivation for keeping these dusty tapes to themselves but I believe even they would benefit by making them available to the rest of The Smiths community. How?

1) I can't imagine Smiths fans not being highly appreciative of another fan making available one of these "lost" recordings.

2) Through the goodwill of making a track they have available, they may discover that tracks they don't have also become available.

3) The general preservation of the track and continued existence of the recording if released will remain should the limited copies in existence ever become inadvertantly destroyed.

4) Based on the 30 second clip of "I Want A Boy For My Birthday", the recording has already become heavily worn. I'm certain that tracks like these could be restored somewhat if digital copies were made available to other fans with the appropriate audio equipment.

To add to our knowledge pool, following is some additional information I've found.

Mike Joyce had this to say on his web site:

"I Want a Boy" was played by The Smiths in the very early days, 1982. I don't have a recording of that, but I have a 1982 rehearsal tape of "What Do You See In Him?" Which eventually became, "Wonderful Woman". I also have about 100 tapes of assorted stuff including: Out- takes,instrumentals and unreleased material that I am thinking of taking to WEA. "Never had no one ever", with trumpet would you believe! Dale was playing bass with Johnny and Morrissey when I turned up at Spirit studio's in Manchester. he played the Ritz gig also."

The Dale that Mike is referring to at the end of his statement is the same Dale Hebert that auctioned off the original Smiths demo reels several years ago. Along with the demo reel the winning bidder received a complete copy of "I Want A Boy For My Birthday". To prove the legitimacy of the tracks, the 30 second clip that we have today was created. My understanding is a fan/collector from Denmark (who consentrates on one-of-a-kind Smiths collectibles) was the winning bidder. Anyone know this collector? The original demo reel supposedly also contained an alternate version of "Suffer Little Children" that contained the sounds of children playing on a playground in the background (with dogs barking).

Mike also seems to have cleared up some confusion about which track had the alternate trumphet version - "Never Had No One Ever" instead of "Frankly". Or does a trumpet version of "Frankly" exist as well?

My understanding is that "Harry Rag" by The Kinks was only covered by Morrissey during select sound checks on tour. I am pretty sure the song was never played before a live audience or recorded in the studio.

A couple of years ago I asked Morrissey in an online chat about the song "Kitt". He essentially responded that the song did exist but it would never see the light of day. Anyone that still has a transcript of that online chat may be able to cull his word for word reply.

When I asked Johnny Marr on his website about "Boy", here was his reply:

"The Smiths played that song at our first gig at The Ritz in Manchester but I don't think it was recorded."

James Maker danced on stage at that first Smiths performance. Maker also recalls the "Boy" track but says he has no early recordings of any Smiths material. However he has confirmed that Morrissey at one point did want to cover his song "No One Can Hold A Candle To You" (A brilliant song that Morrissey should still consider covering) but Morrissey later changed his mind about the

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