It's because of that crash that I NEVER got to see The Smiths. I went to the Royal Albert Hall for tickets for the Artists Against Aparteid gig.....
http://foreverill.com/interviews/post87/trouble.htm
"The Smiths' year ended with the kind of grisly incident that a decent clairvoyant could perhaps have seen coming. After a drunken night out with Mike Joyce and his girlfriend, Marr crashed his BMW. The incident, if the wreckage was anything to go by, could easily have been fatal. "The pictures of the car... it was a write-off," says Andy Rourke. "He very nearly broke his neck."
http://foreverill.com/interviews/post87/marrview.htm
JR: In 1986, you had the car crash. Was that a pivotal point in telling you to take stock?
JM: Yes, it was really. I'd been out with Mike and his girlfriend and I went to take Mike home. He didn't live too far way, so I dropped him off. Then I got literally to 150 yards from my house. There are some lights stopping you and the road forks off one way. There was a cassette in the machine and it had gone round the other side; and just as I was at the lights, the other side had started up. So I thought I'd put my foot down and take a two-minute diversion around the block.
It was pouring with rain, and the car went completely out of control, then bounced off a couple of walls and ended up in the middle of the road. I jumped out and saw that the car was completely squashed. I couldn't believe that I was still alive. I did more damage running from the car to the house, falling over and stuff, than I did in the crash. It was the next day that I started getting stiff.
There was something I remember about the car crash which was a little sad. I don't want to make too much of this, but we were supposed to be playing an Artists Against Apartheid gig at the Royal Albert Hall. There was a letter from one of our fans saying the whole thing was a cover-up. I thought, "What kind of people are calling themselves our fans?" The top half of me was bandaged up and braced, and I had splints and all this kind of crap. The Smiths would have done anything to get to concerts under terrible circumstances. That was the first time I can remember feeling a separation between what the fans were believing and the truth. It taught me a lesson.
> "That controversy was soon replaced by the news that the Smiths were
> to record only one more album for Rough Trade and intended to transfer
> their operation to the major label EMI Records. Meanwhile, the light pop
> of "Ask' contrasted with riotous scenes during the band"s 1986
> UK tour.
> At the height of the drama, the band almost suffered a fatality when
> Johnny Marr was involved in a car crash. While he recuperated, guitarist
> Craig Gannon was fired, a decision that prompted legal action"
> Anyone got info on this car crash and legal action, i've never heard
> anything about it before.