Marr's attacks

Johnny Marr revolutionised guitar pop with his meticulous arrangements and intricately layered guitar compositions, acting as the perfect foil for Morrissey’s lyrical forays into loneliness, love and alienation. Despite being best known for turning music on its head in the eighties, he has also played with a veritable galaxy of others, including The The, Electronic, the late Kirsty McColl, Talking Heads, Oasis, while his spanking new outfit enlisted Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey on drums and former Kula Shaker bassist Alonsa Bevan.

"I am aware that I am going to be judged by my past work and some mythology," Marr concedes. "I can’t do anything about that and even if I could, I wouldn’t because it’s better to be heard. There is a lot to live up to and that’s always going to be in your mind no matter how hard you try to ignore it. I’ve got a lot of fanciful notions about music and sometimes that makes it the hardest bit. A pop song can bring you to another place in four minutes and it evokes an entire world. That’s a powerful thing. I got the touch since I was eleven or twelve and its not something you can ever get from religion, drugs, exercise or sex."

The young John Maher got that magic touch from an extended Irish-Mancunian family obsessed with music. "T-Rex completely turned me upside down," he recalls. "The David Bowies single as well. That may all sound very credible, but they were followed by Gary Glitter and The Sweet! I’d always been around music because my family, who moved over from Ireland in 1960/61, were totally obsessed with rock n’ roll and American music."

"My parents would play a record several times over," Marr continues. "It was their main interest in life aside from the family and still is. Later there was Thin Lizzy, Jimi Hendrix, Patti Smith and The Rolling Stones. My sister was a big Motown freak so that’s how I discovered The Supremes and The Ronnettes. I felt like the big cheese because I was the only one who listened to them. The head of a gang of one! I didn’t so much listen to the records so much as study them. I’d listen to the whole picture rather than just the guitar whereas a lot of my mates would listen to a Mott the Hoople record and try and get the guitar licks off."

That all-encompassing almost orchestral guitar touch informed a classic career in The Smiths, not to mention many others. Amidst all the avant-soundshapes of Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac axis of albums, there was a startling guitar-based single entitled ‘Knives Out’. Johnny Greenwood stated that its melodic guitar parts were written and recorded as a direct homage to The Smiths. "Ed O’Brien sat me down on top of a cliff in a place called Peahen in New Zealand while the sun was setting," Johnny remembers. "Rather sheepishly, he asked if I didn’t mind listening to one of their new songs that was yet to be released. Of course, I felt privileged, but then when he explained the idea behind it I was totally dumbstruck. It was a very humbling experience. When I heard it, I didn’t know what to think because it is such a beautiful song and a huge compliment. I was lost for words then and I am at a loss for words now."

Johnny is attracted to other kindred spirits in contemporary music. "I like music made by mavericks and put out by mavericks," he asserts. "Some of the electronica stuff on the Warp label, bands like Lemon Jelly, Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Low. It is no coincidence that the hand of the accountant does not touch all this modern music I like. There are plenty people sitting 11.30 at night with a spliff listening to that stuff. They can spot someone who is in it for the right reasons or someone who is cow towing to the record label. But I’ve got no truck with someone trying to get into the charts, that’s absolutely cool. It is fantastic to get into the mainstream with a decent tune and it is one of the great traditions of British music from Bowie to Doves. You can infiltrate the mainstream with a good idea and I love that. You don’t need to be elitist for the sake of it."

Marr also believes the punk ethos hit Manchester harder than most other places, causing reverberations that created one of the most vibrant music scenes in the world. "The punk explosion hit Manchester very, very hard because people up here took the ethics and the political message to heart," he believes. "I got the feeling that a lot of the blah blah and rhetoric around punk that was coming out of the music press was a little more of a fashion thing in London. The Pistols were very much a fashion band, as amazing as they were and I still consider them the most important band at that time. People here took on the message about social change because everyone was skint and pissed off.

The idea of getting up, playing three chords and forming your own band really inspired the whole city. We ended up with our own noise. When you saw The Buzzcocks on Top Of The Pops that sent out a powerful message because these were people from your neighbourhood. That knock on effect is still going on today. Without being too fanciful about it, its like what Memphis is to the States. It’s our place away from the corporate bullshit."

Johnny’s new Healers’ record Boomslang directly deals with being a maverick and resisting the compulsive modern tendency to be labelled. "‘In-betweens’ is me holding up my flag for someone who is outside a demographic," he explains. "I don’t want to be labelled as ‘bloke’ or ‘lad’ or ‘thirty-something’ or ‘average male’ or ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ – whatever box we’re all meant to be put in. Plenty of us are happy not to be cultural stereotypes. One who lives in-between is in a very, very colourful area as opposed to a so-called grey area. One of the lines of that song concerns the phrase "I’m running amok". When I was in my teens, a schoolteacher accused me of that and I wore that description like a badge of honour. Over the years as an adult, I think it’s important that people run amok if it means you feel free and you are hearty and spirited. Obviously, running around bashing people in shopping centres is a different thing."

"I’m not one for conspiracy theories but I think it is obvious that the media is trying to control us in every single way," Marr continues. "Unfortunately, a lot of society is more than happy to go along with that. We’re not happy to sit with our own minds for three minutes before reaching for our mobile phone or channel-hopping or running out to the shopping mall to purchase something which is going to make us feel better for all of thirty seconds. It is trying to make suckers of us but I think that people are beginning to get sussed to what’s going on. I’ve developed a pretty good filter to deal with the aspects of culture that I don’t want to deal with. For example, a couple of years ago I decided as an experiment to avoid magazines and I also made a point of avoiding the news to see what effect it would have on my life and particularly my creative life. I don’t feel any less informed, I feel less mis-informed. I’d strongly recommend it."

Avoiding the mass media means that Marr has been more in tune with his own thought and dreams, directly inspiring his current album title. "Boomslang is a snake," he says. "I dreamt about a snake that was talking to me. I woke up and wrote down ‘I am Boomslang’. I thought it was a good riffy word. A Japanese person told me the other day that if you dream about a snake it means that you will receive good fortune so I was pretty happy. I was pleased I didn’t dream about a duck because mallard or Donald isn’t such a great album title."

Johnny believes that if he had released this record in the late ’80s in the immediate aftermath of the Smiths split, it would have never been given a chance. He is delighted with how his career has diversified since then. "To get a chance to form a band with one of the most influential musicians in Manchester, which was Bernard Sumner, was perfect," he admits. "Similarly, if I formed a band at that time it would have been The The anyway because they were my favourite band at the time. Being in The The as a full-time member for four years 24/7 was perfect for me as well. Not to mention the close friendship I had with Matt Johnson since before The Smiths."

Very recently, Monsieur Marr earned his place in a VH-1 Guitarists Hall of Fame alongside many of his heroes. "Obviously polls and awards are kind of ridiculous," he muses. "They’re not something I took seriously even when I was in school. But it is nice to get recognition because of the times I slept in rehearsal rooms so another band couldn’t get in. Or going into a demo studio on New Year’s Eve when all my mates were partying because I knew I could get free downtime. I see that recognition as a sort of reward for good effort."

The good effort goes on, and Marr feels lucky to be able to still write and record. "I do really feel that this record is just another step on the journey," he offers. "Please God it will be nice and long and interesting. I was only 23 when The Smiths split, and at the time in my home city there was an explosion of music, fashion and culture. I had been waiting for my generation to have their own thing for years. I wasn’t about to put my feet up and rely on some well-worn style like a 55-year-old blues or funk musician. I was a young man who was excited about what was going on around me."

"I didn’t want to become a stereotype and I was getting tired of the Keith Richards comparisons, as much as it was flattering when I was 19," he reveals. "I didn’t want to be conducted about how to live my life or musical career. But it has worked out perfect for me. Its not like I’ve been sitting and waiting for a shift in people’s perceptions. I’ve just been making music with my friends and hoping that it was interesting to people who like what I do."

A Marr a day...
Is Johnny the hardest-working man in showbiz?

Kirsty MacColl
Johnny started working with the late Kirsty MacColl in 1989, playing and writing on the Kite album. He also joined her for a complete world tour and wrote the hit ‘Walking Down Madison’ in 1991.

Talking Heads
Marr performed with David Byrne and company on their 1988 album Naked.

The The
A long time friend of Matt Johnson, Marr became a full time member in October 1988 and played on two of their most acclaimed and popular albums, Mind Bomb and Dusk.

Linda McCartney Tribute
Performed at Linda McCartney Tribute Concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall with Marianne Faithfull, George Michael and The Pretenders.

Marion/Haven
In addition to producing The Smiths’ albums from Meat is Murder onwards, Marr manned the desk
for the Marion album The Program and Haven’s debut Between the Senses.

Oasis
Johnny played on last year’s album Heathen Chemistry and toured with the band in 2000 with The Healers. He’s also recorded ten songs with Liam Gallagher which haven’t seen the light of day yet.

Electronic
The other major group Marr has been a member of aside from The The and obviously The Smiths. Released the eponymous debut that featured the US Top 40 hit ‘Get The Message’ and second album Raise The Pressure.

Pet Shop Boys
Played on PSB album Behavior. To return the favour, Neil Tennant contributed backing vocals to Electronic.

Neil Finn
Toured with Neil Finn and recorded his live album. Guested at Witnness 2001 to perform The Smiths’ classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’.

Beck
If all that wasn’t enough, Marr also somehow found the time to play on Beck’s great 1999 album Midnite Vultures…

Beth Orton
…And also co-wrote the Beth Orton single ‘Concrete Sky’. Does the man ever sleep?