Born October 31: Johnny Marr, the guitarist of The Smiths, doesn't look back

Johnny Marr was born in 1963 in Manchester and, even though he has no reason to be ashamed of his already long solo career, his few years with The Smiths forever mark the history of rock.

Like many kids his age in the mid-70s, John Martin Maher (his real name) dreamed of only one thing: forming a band and rocking the stage. He only half-heartedly admits it in his 2016 autobiography, "Set The Boy Free" (also available in French translation), that music was also a way to more easily attract girls.

From the age of 13, he flitted from one short-lived band to another. It was also around this time that he chose the stage name Johnny Marr to avoid, believe it or not, being mistaken for the drummer of Buzzcocks! At the time, he was already performing regularly with bassist Andy Rourke, who would soon join The Smiths and bring the indefinable rhythmic magic that the quartet would perpetuate for about five years. Singer Morrissey, who also wrote the lyrics, and Johnny Marr, largely responsible for the melodic framework, produced gems together such as "This Charming Man" and "Hand In Glove" (1983), "Heaven Knows I'm Misérable Now" and "What Difference Does It Make?" (1984), "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" and the iconic "Meat Is Murder" (1985), as well as "Panic" and "Ask" (1986). Interestingly, "Panic" never became the anthem of Tomorrowland, the largest gathering of its kind in Europe, because Morrissey endlessly repeated "Hang the DJ" there! But all good things must come to an end, and the painful, still-raw split occurred in 1987 after the release of "Strangeways Here We Come," a fourth album that was far from their best.

Johnny Marr now has free rein to accept (or not) the flood of invitations. Briefly hired by Chrissie Hynde to tour with the Pretenders, he then joined Matt Johnson in The The. His association with Bernard Sumner of New Order in Electronic might seem less natural since, on their two albums, while not entirely absent, the guitar plays a secondary role. Content with a certain discretion, he plays on recordings by Bryan Ferry, Talking Heads (on their latest album "Naked"), Beck, Billy Bragg, Jane Birkin, Pet Shop Boys, and even Oasis. He also collaborated with Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr's son, on a project called The Healers and then, among others, with The Cribs.

But it wasn't until 2013 that he finally released an album under his own name, "The Messenger." His latest and fourth album, "Fever Dreams Pt. 1-4", proves that Johnny Marr still has something to say with some hard-to-forget scorchers like "Easy Money" and apocalyptic concerts whose atmosphere is perfectly captured on the recent "Look Out Live!".

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : Christophe Dehousse/Music Belgium Photos)

Photo: Johnny Marr at OM Seraing (Belgium) on October 24, 2025