It's been brought to my attention that there are a few files being circulated on the web purporting to be unreleased Smiths instrumentals, specifically two from The Queen Is Dead sessions.

Having heard these files for myself, I can verify that these are definitely NOT unreleased Smiths tracks and bear no relation to the wealth of outtakes and untitled instrumentals I had access to when researching Songs That Saved Your Life.

Rather, these are most likely working demos from the solo Whyte/Boorer years circa the mid 1990s. I say this because I've heard working roughs from the Vauxhall to Maladjusted period and they're all in this same vein, both musically and in terms of recording quality. The unreleased Smiths tracks sound very, very different.

There are numerous Whyte and Boorer demos of this nature, many of which were given titles which have since become notorious 'lost Morrissey songs' - eg; "Stay As You Are", "Laughing Annie" etc. Other unreleased/working titles for solo Morrissey songs that I know of but which have yet to surface include "Nightmare", "Hanratty", "Fast Car, Sharp Bend, Goodbye" and "The Leeches Go On Removing" (the latter a Maladjusted demo which of course became a lyric on Quarry instead).

So, purely in the interests of people not being duped or paying daft money on eBay for alleged Smiths outtakes that are actually something entirely different, I hope this information is of some use.

Best wishes,
Simon Goddard