JOHNNY MARR

'Johnny Marr' (born 'John Martin Maher' on 31 October, 1963 in Ardwick, Manchester) is a virtuoso Irish/English guitarist, keyboardist, harmonica player and singer. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, where he formed a highly influential songwriting partnership with Morrissey. He is currently a member of Modest Mouse and residing in Portland, Oregon.

Contents

Early life

Musical career

With The Smiths

With The The, Electronic, and the Healers

With Modest Mouse

Discography

Albums (as band member)

Albums (as a guest musician)

Albums (as producer)

Singles

References

External links

Early life

Marr's parents emigrated from County Kildare, Ireland to Manchester in the 1950s. He attended St Augustine's RC Grammar School, which then merged with other schools to form a Comprehensive School. Marr had aspirations to be a professional football (soccer) player, and was approached by Nottingham Forest F.C. and had trials with Manchester City F.C. (whom he supports). In an interview with FourFourTwo magazine, Marr said that "I was good enough for City, but they didn't follow up because I was probably the only player out there wearing eyeliner."

Musical career

With The Smiths

Main articles: The Smiths

Billy Duffy, guitarist of The Cult, taught Marr how to play the guitar. In 1982, Marr began writing songs with Morrissey, after they formed The Smiths. To complete the lineup, they recruited Mike Joyce on drums, Dale Hibbert on bass guitar and Paul Lind on Triangle. After The Smiths live debut at the Ritz in Manchester, 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 did not have the same degree of success elsewhere. Although they were a fixture on American college radio, worldwide commercial success came after the band was split up. Marr eventually left the band due to his frustrations with Morrissey and the direction that the music of The Smiths was taking.
From The Smiths' year of inception to the breakup of the band 5 years later in 1987, Marr and Morrissey co-wrote four albums, as well as numerous B-sides and other unreleased songs that eventually appeared on compilations. Still today, the Morrissey-Marr songwriting duo is praised by critics and cited by musicians as one of the most influential rock bands of their era.
Amidst false press reports of a Smiths reunion, Marr performed "How Soon Is Now?" with former bandmate Andy Rourke at the Manchester v Cancer benefit concert at Manchester's MEN Arena on January 28th, 2006.

With The The, Electronic, and the Healers

After the demise of The Smiths in 1987, Marr played guitar and harmonica for The The and also worked with New Order's 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, Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk, Talking Heads, Black Grape, Billy Bragg, Pet Shop Boys, Beck and Oasis.
Johnny Marr and the Healers first appeared in 2000 when Marr started looking for musicians. He recruited the son of Beatle Ringo Starr, Zak Starkey, Cavewaves, Lee Spencer 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 and the Who, and Bevan has regrouped with Kula Shaker for a successful reunion, it is unknown when or whether a next LP will come.

With Modest Mouse

In 2006, Marr became an official member of the American band Modest Mouse. He wrote some of the songs with lead singer Issac Brock on their new album ''We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank'', in addition to being featured on guitar.^[1] Marr is curently touring with the band. ^{[2] [3]}
The new album peaked at number 1 on the American Billboard charts in late March 2007. For Marr this is the first time he has had a number one record in the U.S. The highest chart position before that one was with Electronic who went Top 40 in the singles chart with "Getting Away With It".^[4]

Discography

Albums (as band member)

The The

★ ''Mind Bomb'' (1989)

★ ''Dusk'' (1992)

Kirsty MacColl

★ ''Kite'' (1989)

Electronic

★ ''Electronic'' (1991)

★ ''Raise the Pressure'' (1996)

★ ''Twisted Tenderness'' (1999)

Johnny Marr and The Healers

★ ''Boomslang'' (2003)

Modest Mouse

★ ''We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank'' (2007)

Albums (as a guest musician)

Billy Bragg

★ ''Talking with the Taxman About Poetry'' (1986)

★ ''Don't Try This at Home'' (1991)

★ ''Bloke on Bloke'' (1997)

Bryan Ferry

★ ''Bête Noire'' (1987)

Talking Heads

★ ''Naked'' (1988)

Pet Shop Boys

★ ''Behaviour'' (1990)

★ ''Bilingual'' (1996)

★ ''Release'' (2002)

Banderas

★ ''Ripe'' (1991)

Kirsty MacColl

★ ''Electric Landlady'' (1991)

Moodswings

★ ''Moodfood'' (1992)

K-Klass

★ ''Universal'' (1993)

Electrafixion

★ ''Burned'' (1995)

M People

★ ''Fresco'' (1997)

Beck

★ ''Midnite Vultures'' (1999)

Tom Jones

★ ''Reload'' (1999)

Bert Jansch

★ ''Crimson Moon'' (2000)

Neil Finn

★ ''7 Worlds Collide'' (2002)

Oasis

★ ''Heathen Chemistry'' (2002)

Beth Orton

★ ''Daybreaker'' (2002)

The Charlatans

★ ''Live It Like You Love It'' (2002)

Quando Quango

★ ''Pigs and Battleships'' (2003)

Karl Bartos

★ ''Communication'' (2003)

Lisa Germano

★ ''Lullaby for Liquid Pig'' (2003)

★ ''In the Maybe World'' (2006)

Jane Birkin

★ ''Fictions'' (2006)

Transit Kings

★ ''Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God'' (2006)

Crowded House

★ ''Time On Earth'' (2007)

Albums (as producer)

Marion

★ ''The Program'' (1998)

Haven

★ ''Between the Senses'' (2002)

Singles

In addition to an extensive singles discography with the artists listed above, Johhny has appeared on singles by Sandie Shaw, Everything But the Girl, The Pretenders, Andrew Berry, A Certain Ratio, The Cult, Denise Johnson, Stex and Black Grape.

References

1. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001956909
2. http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2006/08/03/jeff/#more-426
3. http://www.jmarr.com Johnny Marr website
4. Former Smiths' guitarplayer reaches number 1 in this weeks American Billboard Chart

External links

★ jmarr.com- Official site

★ Manchester v Cancer official concert website