MARR-VELLOUS!

I recently went to see Johnny Marr perform at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. All I can say is, what an inspirational guitarist. I strongly advise each and every reader to stop reading this and go and purchase a copy of The Smiths’ Hatful Of Hollow (if they don’t already own it!) to allow them to hear for themselves. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Johnny doesn’t even sound like a guitar - or any other instrument for that matter! I don’t know where you’d begin writing a Steal Their Style feature on Marr! He just blends acoustic and electric parts sublimely on his records and manages to pull off this innovative sound live, too. Combine that with his genius songwriting and you have a virtuoso musician who, for me, will always be up there with Hendrix and Clapton. Now, I must begin to save for that lovely signature Jaguar of his! Alfie Williams Johnny Marr is indeed a spectacularly creative and able guitarist. While Morrissey’s monotone vocals never really did it for me, I was always struck by the cleverness and complexities within The Smiths’ backing tracks (ironically, the guitarists that have worked with Morrissey since his Smiths days have often trod a similar musical path to that of their illustrious forbear). Other projects with which Marr has been involved have always exuded an air of class, too – I loved his work with Kirsty MacColl, for instance. I’ve not seen Johnny live, but it would seem like it’s something we should all do, so thanks for the heads up. I saw a Johnny Jag in Sounds Great in Cheadle last week and it looked fab – I may even revisit Hatful Of Hollow too, now you’ve reminded me! Anyone got any other great guitarists that we should be taking more heed of?