The Smiths have launched a Twitter account.

Maintained by the band’s current label, Warner Music, the only post to date notes it “Is purely to celebrate the history and the music of The Smiths”.

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At the time of writing, the account has 12.8k follows.

https://twitter.com/Smiths_Official/status/717634579063037952

Meanwhile, Salford Gallery The Lowry have revealed plans to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of The Queen Is Dead, displaying rare photographs and playing the band’s music as a backdrop to interviews with ordinary people named Smith.

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The Queen Is Dead was released in June 1986, and features an image of The Smiths taken outside Salford Lads Club on the inside gatefold cover of the vinyl. While the album was recorded in Farnham in Surrey, Morrissey is known to be particularly fond of the Queen Is Dead image, and the Salford site remains something of a pilgrimage site for fans of the band.

Stephen Wright – who took the Lads Club image – is to hold an exhibition at the Lowry, featuring the famous image alongside some other ‘seldom seen’ images in a show that opens on April 9.

Photo by Pete Cronin/Redferns/Getty Images

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.