The Smiths is dead was Forsyth & Pollard’s first ICA Live Art Commission, and was presented in the ICA Theatre on 1st August 1997.
Again, turning their attention to The Smiths and enlisting the tribute band who had worked with them on The World Won’t Listen, the event was presented precisely 10 years to the day after the infamous NME headline ‘Smiths to Split’ had shaken the pop world and broken the hearts of a million Smiths apostles, the work centred on the final performance by the tribute band, prior to splitting up themselves. The conceptual precision of the event, and the planning of every last detail, forged an event with a depth, emotion and power not previously achieved.
