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Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher on 31 October, 1963 in Ardwick, Manchester) is an English guitarist, keyboardist, harmonica player and singer, and is best known as the man behind the music of The Smiths.

Early Career

Like many Mancunians - including his bandmates in The Smiths - Marr is of Catholic Irish descent; his parents emigrated from County Kildare to Manchester in the 1950s. Marr started out as a footballer, being approached by Nottingham Forest F.C. and also having had trials with Manchester City F.C..

Musical Career

With The Smiths

In 1982, Marr began writing songs with Steven Morrissey, after forming The Smiths with him. To complete the lineup, they recruited Mike Joyce on drums and Dale Hibbert on bass guitar. After two gigs, Hibbert was replaced by Marr's friend Andy Rourke. By then, Morrissey had dropped his first name and Maher had changed his name to Marr to avoid confusion with the Buzzcocks drummer.

Having achieved commercial and critical success with landmark albums such as The Queen is Dead, The Smiths were soon stars in The UK and Ireland, but never enjoyed the same amount of success elsewhere. This success would not be met while the band was still together; Marr eventually left the band due to his frustrations with Morrissey, stemming from Morrissey's infatuation with 1960's pop artists such as Cilla Black.

From The Smiths' year of inception to the breakup of the band 5 years later in 1987, Marr and Morrissey co-wrote enough material for 4 albums, as well as numerous B-sides and other unreleased materials that eventually appeared on one compilation or another. Today, the Morrissey-Marr songwriting duo is held in the highest esteem among critics and fans alike, due to Morrissey's groundbreaking lyrics and Marr's highly melodic and harmonious music.

With The The and Electronic

After the demise of The Smiths in 1987, Marr played guitar and harmonica for The The and also worked with New Order singer/guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner to form Electronic. He also became a sought-after session player and producer, writing, touring and recording with, among others, Bryan Ferry, The Pretenders, Kirsty MacColl, Talking Heads, Black Grape, Billy Bragg, Pet Shop Boys, Beck and Oasis.

With The Healers

The Healers first appeared in 2000 when Marr started looking for musicians. He recruited the son of Beatle Ringo Starr, Zak Starkey, and Kula Shaker bassist Alonza Bevan. The band took two years to complete, because Marr wanted members to be chosen "by chemistry." The debut of the new band was released in 2003, where Marr sang and wrote the lyrics. The second LP was originally going to be released in April 2005 and a short tour was expected soon after that, but as Starkey currently is involved with Oasis, it is unknown when their next LP will come.

A Smiths 'Reunion'

It was announced in December 2005 that Marr would be performing with former Smiths bandmate Andy Rourke at the Manchester v Cancer benefit concert at Manchester's MEN Arena on Saturday 28th January 2006, which was also to feature New Order, Doves and Badly Drawn Boy — with whom Rourke plays bass guitar.

It was rumoured that Mike Joyce and/or Morrissey would play alongside their former bandmates for the first time since The Smiths split up in 1987, fulfilling the much hoped-for Smiths reunion. However Marr dispelled rumors of the reunion by posting on his official website that THE SMITHS WILL NOT BE RE-FORMING AT * CONCERT. However, Andy Rourke did join Marr onstage to play The Smiths' classic "How Soon Is Now?"

With Modest Mouse

In 2006, it was confirmed that Marr was a member of the American band Modest Mouse. It has been revealed he not only wrote some of the songs on the album that the band is working on, but is also playing guitar on the album. *

Musicianship

Marr, in The Smiths, was known for a delicate, angelically sweet guitar style that could evoke musicality from just a few well-chosen notes. While he would probably blanch at the comparison, Marr's playing is in many regards similar to that of idiosyncratic progressive rock guitarists such as Steve Hackett, Peter Banks, and Robert Fripp. Contrasted with the common rock guitar flashiness and speed of the time, best exemplified by Eddie Van Halen, Marr's playing was out of place in the usual pop mainstream.

Albums discography

Only those bands of which Marr was a regular member are included; his session work discography is extensive.

With The Smiths

With The The

With Electronic

With Johnny Marr and The Healers

External links

1963 births | Living people | English musicians | English songwriters | English guitarists | British record producers | Roman Catholic musicians | People of Irish descent in Great Britain | The Smiths | Mancunians | Music from Manchester, England

Johnny Marr | Johnny Marr | Johnny Marr | ジョニー・マー | Johnny Marr

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Johnny Marr".

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