Johnny Marr
Lindsey Buckingham, Johnny Marr Join The Killers in Los Angeles
The Killers‘ current North American tour has found the band frequently performing with their opening act, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, and last night (Aug. 27) at Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium, they were joined by another legendary rocker. On-again/off-again Fleetwood Mac member Lindsey Buckingham took the stage during the encore to guest on “Caution” from The Killers’ 2020 album Imploding The Mirage and stuck around for a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s classic “Go Your Own Way.” Buckingham and Marr then both joined The Killers for a show-closing “Mr. Brightside.” Earlier in the set, Marr lent a hand on a cover of The Smiths’ “This Charming Man”; the musicians have previously performed the latter band’s “Stop Me if You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” and “There Is a Light T...
Johnny Marr Joins The Killers to Cover Classic Smiths Songs
The Killers have started off the North American leg of their current tour with a little help from opening act Johnny Marr. At the opening gig Friday (Aug. 19) in Vancouver, Marr joined the band during its set for covers of The Smiths’ “Stop Me if You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” and “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.” The next night, Marr returned to help The Killers perform the latter song and The Smiths’ “What She Said,” and stuck around to lend a hand on the show-closing “Mr. Brightside.” Marr previously played The Smiths’ “This Charming Man” with The Killers at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival in 2019. [embedded content][embedded content] [embedded content][embedded content] [embedded content][embedded content] [embedded content][embedded content] Last month, Marr hopped on s...
Watch Alicia Keys Bring Out Johnny Marr to Cover the Smiths’ ‘This Charming Man’
Alicia Keys performed at the AO Arena in Manchester last night, and brought out hometown hero Johnny Marr to help her cover the Smiths‘ 1983 hit “This Charming Man.” Though the pairing may seem like an odd one, Keys and Marr actually have history together. In 2014, they recorded a song with Kendrick Lamar for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack and performed it together on Fallon. Watch Keys and Marr cover “This Charming Man” below. [embedded content][embedded content] Earlier this year, Marr released his fourth solo album Fever Dreams Pts 1 – 4, and chatted with SPIN about the project. “Well, it was probably when I was running, because I think about what I’m doing a lot, like all artists,” he recalled about how the album’s title came to be. “You can be walking tow...
Johnny Marr’s Fever Dreams Pts 1 – 4
“Your name comes up a lot around here,” I tell Johnny Marr during our virtual visit, me from the U.S., him on the outskirts of his hometown of Manchester, UK. He sits—smiling, warmly—in front of an enviable display of recording equipment, a far cry from the curious kid hanging around future Cult guitarist Billy Duffy’s teenage garage band, the youngster of the group. “I’ve known Billy since 1975,” Marr explains. “He was older…he was very kind because you know teenagers. I was so young. I was probably about 12. Pretty precocious, I guess, or pretty intrepid. I used to just go where the guitars were. He was a kid, 15-years-old himself, but seemed very serious about music. It was great. He still treats me like some little kid, which is sweet, really, at this age.” When I spoke with Duffy last...
Johnny Marr Addresses Reaction to Morrissey’s Open Letter: ‘You Have to Defend Yourself’
Last month, Morrissey set his sights on Johnny Marr in a scathing open letter where he accused his former bandmate of using his name as “clickbait” in interviews. “The fact is: you don’t know me. You know nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings. Yet you talk as if you were my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts.” Moz wrote in part. “Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin?” Marr addressed the statement on Twitter, writing: “An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now. Even Donald J Trump had that one down. Also, this fake news business…a bit 2021 yeah?” Th...
Johnny Marr Reveals Release Date for New Double Album and Livestream Performance
It’s a good day to be a fan of the non-terrible members of The Smiths. Johnny Marr just revealed the official release date for the full release of his upcoming Fever Dreams project after unveiling back in August that the first of its four parts would be out this Friday (October 15). “There’s a set of influences and a very broad sound that I’ve been developing – really since getting out of The Smiths until now, and I hear it in this record,” Marr said in a statement. “There are so many strands of music in it. We didn’t do that consciously, but I think I’ve got a vocabulary of sound. And I feel very satisfied that I’ve been able to harness it.” The 16-track double album is due out on February 25 via BMG and will be available in a number of collectible formats, including limited edition ...
Hear Johnny Marr’s Eclectic New Song ‘Spirit, Power And Soul’
Johnny Marr is back with an electro-rock gem, ‘Spirit, Power And Soul.’ The song is the Mancunian guitarist’s first bit of new music since 2019 and arrives with a trippy video of Marr meditating and a dancing go-go dancer that kind of seems like it was directed by Austin Powers. [embedded content] The song is part of an expansive project — a four-part double album — called Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, out on October 15 digitally and on limited edition 12” silver vinyl. Marr said that the new project fuses his past with personal and universal tones. “It’s a kind of mission statement,” Marr said of the song. “I had an idea about an electro sound with gospel feeling, in my own words … an electro-soul anthem.” The guitarist will mark his return to the stage in the UK next September, headlining a...
Morrissey Says He Would Sue The Simpsons If He Had ‘Funding’ and ‘Legal Practitioners Ready to Pounce’
After last night’s episode of The Simpsons, Morrissey’s official social media accounts put out a statement criticizing the show’s depiction of the aging crooner and a parody version of The Smiths. As it turned out, the statement was from Morrissey’s manager (which brought about another statement) and brought more attention to the legendary cartoon than it’s likely received in years. Now, Moz is back with another official statement — with this one seemingly coming from the man himself. “The hatred shown towards me from the creators of The Simpsons is obviously a taunting lawsuit, but one that requires more funding than I could possibly muster in order to make a challenge,” the statement says. “Neither do I have a determined business squad of legal practitioners ready to pounce.” A...
New Joy Division, New Order Podcast to Feature Original Band Members, Liam Gallagher, Bono and More
Joy Division and New Order’s interconnected histories will be shared in a new podcast called Transmissions: The Definitive Story. The first eight episodes of the series will go through Joy Division’s birth, rise, then the 1980 death of Ian Curtis. The podcast will then explore the formation of New Order and run till the release of their hit 1983 song, “Blue Monday.” “Nothing would’ve stopped us—nothing did stop us, did it?” Joy Division’s Bernard Sumner said in the trailer, which you can hear below. “Ian’s death didn’t stop us, Martin’s death didn’t stop us, getting all the equipment stolen didn’t stop us. There was nothing to go back to. There was no plan B.” Aside from Sumner, band members Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert and Peter Hook will be featured on the pod along with intervie...
Peter Frampton, Cat Stevens, Johnny Marr and More Pay Tribute to Peter Green
Peter Green died “peacefully in his sleep” over the weekend at the age of 73, and when news broke on Saturday musicians took to social media and paid tribute to the Fleetwood Mac founding guitarist, while Mick Fleetwood remembered his “dearest friend” and bandmate in a statement. “For me, and every past and present member of Fleetwood Mac, losing Peter Green is monumental!” he wrote. “Peter was the man who started the band Fleetwood Mac along with myself, John McVie, and Jeremy Spencer. No one has ever stepped into the ranks of Fleetwood Mac without a reverence for Peter Green and his talent, and to the fact that music should shine bright and always be delivered with uncompromising passion!!!” “Peter, I will miss you, but rest easy your music lives on,” he continued. “I than...
