There is a light that never goes out: is a Smiths reunion genuinely impossible?

Relations between Morrissey and Johnny Marr seem at their lowest ebb following disagreements over trademarks and reissues. But fans will hold out hope nonetheless One of pop’s longest, coldest wars flickered with heat again this month, as Morrissey fired off a series of messages on his personal blog. First, he claimed that concert promoters AEG offered him and Johnny Marr “a lucrative offer” for a world tour, saying that he agreed to it but Marr ignored it. Then he claimed that Marr had blocked the release of a new Smiths best-of and reissue programme proposed by Warner Music, who had approached Morrissey and a sleeve designer “to assemble artwork for all four releases, all of which were rejected and halted out of hand by J Marr”. You can understand why Marr might have demurred, given the cover art featured the words Smiths Rule OK! in bright faux-painterly daubs above a photo of the band, and thus looked like a flyer for a soft play centre themed around 80s indie.