In October 2004, the world was rocked by the sudden death of John Peel. To say ‘the world was rocked’ is no exaggeration – Peel’s death touched everyone who had ever heard of him, from mega-star bands who had received a leg up from him, to bedsit radio junkies who had listened to him under the duvet for decades. The BBC and the record industry in general went into justifiable overdrive in trying to pay tribute to a remarkable man, whose input into the pop music of the last thirty and more years was perhaps the greatest single contribution to the genre.
Johnny was understandably distraught at the news, Peel having been the early champion of The Smiths. He summarised his feelings at the loss thus: “John Peel was very important to The Smiths, particularly in the early days. He was the first person to play our single, and we would often try out new songs when we did sessions for his show. He knew what was going on, and went out of his way to promote good music, and the underdog.” Johnny added one more modest observation. “He was a nice guy too!”
While the world mourned John Peel, Johnny, who was appearing with the brothers Neil and Tim Finn, honoured the late DJ with an impromptu version of his favourite song at a couple of gigs, notably in Liverpool. Having already kicked the audience’s backside with ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’, Johnny introduced the classic Gerry and The Pacemakers’ ‘Ferry Across The Mersey’ in tribute to Peel. “A few people in the audience started shouting ‘Teenage Kicks’ (famously Peel’s favourite song)” remembered Marr. “I just went into it. Never played it before in my life! It was a good moment.”
By 2005, Zak Starkey had joined Oasis for their tour, an arrangement that Johnny appeared totally cool with. David Tolan had joined on drums, and Iwan Gronow of Haven was playing the bass. Johnny was back in his home studio, making demos for new Healers material alone. Some of the songs would appear in forthcoming gigs over the next couple of years, but at the point that this book went to press, no follow-up to Boomslang has appeared or been publicly scheduled. Early in the summer, Johnny played with a number of his teenage heroes at the Meltdown festival in London, this year (each season has a different curator who chooses themes and performers to appear) curated by Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye. Johnny was on the bill with Beth Orton, Bert Jansch and others, including fellow-Mancunian Roy Harper. The year 2005 was one of the most memorable of recent seasons, when American and British folk artists stole the show but where perhaps the guitar was the major star.
Bert Jansch played a beautiful solo set, and was joined on stage by Beth Orton, whose gorgeous, modest voice blended perfectly with Bert’s faultless playing. Johnny came on after Beth and, locked together as though there was only one guitar on stage, the seated pair played acoustic versions of ‘Pretty Saro’ and ‘Pretty Polly’ like old guys who had played together for years. The Healers replaced Jansch when he left the stage, and the band leapt into ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’. After Neil Finn had sung a cappella, Johnny returned with Tony Shanahan to join him on ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ and sang a verse of ‘Lay Me Down’ with the all-star line-up for a finale.
While Johnny was busy working, The Smiths continued to be a part of the present as much as the past. While Smiths conventions have become de rigeur on both sides of the Atlantic, in April of 2005, Manchester Metropolitan University and the city’s Institute of Popular culture ran an academic conference with The Smiths as the subject of the two day brain-fest. The supposed purpose of the event was to redress the lack of ‘serious examinations’ of the band over the years. ‘Why Pamper Life’s Complexities?: A Symposium On The Smiths’ was opened by author Dave Haslam, and included seminars with titles like ‘Architecture Through Music: Experiencing Manchester and Expressing Manchester’ and ‘When In Hulme Do As The Humans Do: Remapping Manchester and The Smiths Using Psychogeographics’, the latter chaired by the redoubtable CP Lee. The event was rounded off with a gig by The Smyths tribute band and an exhibition of Stephen Wright’s photos at Salford Lads Club. It was nice to know that a band dedicated to the memory of Morrissey, Marr, Rourke and Joyce could still, nearly twenty years on, turn the toe of a psychogeographicisist.
In December, Johnny appeared on another collaboration, this time providing guitar and harmonica to Fictions, the new album from Anglo-French chanteuse Jane Birkin. His contributions were amongst others on a variety of songs both original and covers, provided by Rufus Wainwright, Beth Gibbons, Neil Hannon, Kate Bush and others. Rumours started to appear towards the end of the year that, while the band were booked onto the bill for a charity concert in Manchester, The Smiths would be reforming for the event. While these were pretty quickly scotched, the line that at least Andy and Johnny would play together was not.
By 2006, even the most ardent of rock ’n’ roll rumour mongers had realised that the ‘Beatles To Reform’ stories were unlikely to have any credence. Despite the deaths of both Keith Moon and John Entwistle, however, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend would still appear billed as The Who. It was no surprise then, that the Eighties band least likely to reform was still under pressure to do just that. While any remaining wounds between Johnny and Andy Rourke seemed healed, the various relationships between the four members were simply not active enough for a reunion to take place. Johnny wouldn’t confirm the amounts on the table, but it was rumoured that they were offered $5 million to play the Coachella festival in the USA. “I was offered twice as much for us to play in New York,” he confirmed. “And Hyde Park. And God knows where else.” It was nice to know that money at least would not be the deciding factor in whether The Smiths ever did reform.
Just as the Linda McCartney tribute concert had involved agendas bigger than simple issues of pop music, it was for similar reasons that Johnny played a gig in Manchester in January of 2006 that warmed the hearts of Smiths fans everywhere and did give them a little taste of what a reunion might have offered. Manchester’s MEN Arena was the venue for the Manchester Versus Cancer Concert. The bands that appeared were booked by Andy Rourke. He drew on the great and the good of the Manchester music scene and beyond over twenty and more years, bringing in New Order, Badly Drawn Boy, Shaun Ryder and Bez from The Happy Mondays, Doves, Elbow, 808 State and more. One of the acts booked to appear was, of course, Johnny Marr And The Healers. Johnny was introduced by Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy. The first song that the band launched into was ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’, and the audience joined Johnny and the band in singing every word of the classic Smiths song. The Healers premiered two new songs, slated to appear on the next album, and reprised ‘Down On The Corner’ from Boomslang. When Johnny spoke to the crowd, he confirmed his support for the cause for which they were all there, before introducing “someone I first played in school with in 1978,” and followed that up with “tonight seems like a good time to play together again.” Andy came on stage to join the band, who hit into the opening bars of ‘How Soon Is Now?’, and the crowd went beserk.
“It was beautiful really,” said Johnny after the show. Before packing his gear and moving on to the after-show party, Johnny and Bernard Sumner joined Doves on stage and played through the Lou Reed classic ‘Vicious’, from Tranformer, and the Motown standard, ‘There’s a Ghost In My House.’ In three songs he had covered his love of Seventies glam, Sixties soul and reprised The Smiths – from a fan’s point of view, not a bad night’s work. While New Order limited their set to a Joy Division-only collection of songs, there was a Live Aid-style crowd on stage for the closing number, as Johnny rejoined Hook, Sumner, Rourke, Ryder and Bez, with the Doves, for a rousing finale of ‘Wrote For Luck’.
Still contributing wherever he can, Johnny also appeared on Lisa Germano’s first album since Lullaby For Liquid Pig, his appearances on In The Maybe World receiving critical acclaim once again.
Throughout 2006 Morrissey was in evidence everywhere. His latest album, Ringleader Of The Tormentors was rightly praised by reviewers worldwide as perhaps his strongest collection of songs since The Smiths. One thing was for sure, while Johnny continued to experiment and develop his work, Morrissey showed no signs of slowing down either. It was a fantastic, trenchant, savage album. Morrissey continued to develop as a writer and as a vocalist, and finally seemed to receive the independently earned plaudits he deserved. Over the course of 2006, Morrissey presented himself with decorum and grace. One would guess he would hate to be described as an ‘elder statesman of rock,’ but he appeared with great dignity, a stylish, mature man with a more-than-stylish talent. Brushing off questions about Smiths reformations and court cases with ease, it seemed that we had got the original Morrissey back amongst us – witty, urbane, articulate and entertaining, but serious about his work.
Summer 2006 saw the twentieth anniversary of the release of The Queen Is Dead, widely seen as the most important Smiths’ release. The music press had a field day. One of the most entertaining spectacles was the visit to the UK of Sweet And Tender Hooligans, the California-based Smiths tribute band. The Hooligans career was, by 2006, far more long-lived than that of the band they recreate on stage: formed in 1992, the original line-up performed their own material and threw Smiths songs into the set as crowd pleasers. They were soon exclusively playing Smiths songs, appearing at conventions, and attracting the attention of members of the band themselves. Their act is convincing and – oddly – moving. Jose Maldonado almost seems inhabited by Morrissey, as he throws the singer’s shapes and tugs at his ever-loosening shirt in a perfect recreation of the master. Visually, it is sometimes easy to forget that it is not Morrissey behind the mic at all, though off stage only the haircut would perhaps betray Jose’s chosen profession. David Collett, on guitar, doesn’t look like Johnny Marr, and neither does Karey DeLeon on second guitar, but between them they emulate Johnny’s sound with precision.
The band played a short UK tour, culminating with a gig in Manchester on the anniversary of the very day of The Queen Is Dead’s original release. The Hooligans’ set consisted of the entire album, track by track, followed by a selection of Smiths and Morrissey solo numbers. The audience reception was ecstatic – ‘Cemetry Gates’, ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ and ‘Panic’ were the biggest audience pleasers. Dancing started shyly towards the back of the hall, and by the end of the gig Smiths fans ranging in age from twenty to fifty were at the front of the stage, waving wildly and singing along to every song. Suitably, there was an affectionate stage invasion, and Jose tugged back at the outstretched hands, visibly moved by the reception in the home town of The Queen Is Dead on its anniversary. It is clear that, while The Smiths are no longer with us as a performing entity, they are treasured with a remarkable affection by a broad population of fans old and new. “For me,” says Maldonado, “it’s like when I was seven-years-old and put on my Superman cloak. I could fly. Today I put on my Morrissey cloak…”