ROCK’N’ROLL CONFIDENTIAL
JOHNNY MARR
Manchester’s greatest living guitarist talks momentum, forbid-den visions and The Queen Is Dead.
Show of hands: Johnny Marr, still doing what he does.
Andy Cotterill
WHEN MOJO calls, Johnny Marr’s on tour with The Killers in Cleve-land. Today, while his bandmates went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he sequestered himself to marshal his energies and work on new songs. It’s a single-minded attitude that’s sustained a career now in its 40th year, from the still-resounding boom of The Smiths on to collaborations in bands (including Elec-tronic, The The, Modest Mouse) and as guest star (Bryan Ferry, Pet Shop Boys, Oasis and many more). A solo artist these past nine years, now the guitar stylist’s latest LP Fever Dreams Parts 1-4 is one of MOJO’s picks of the year. “I kind of wish I’d seen John Lennon’s guitar,” he reflects of his Rock Hall no-show, “but we have to make our sacrifices whenever we can…”