Johnny Marr
- Johnny Marr
- Upcoming gigs: 0
- Genres: folk, british, britpop, 90s, johnny marr
About Johnny Marr
Born John Martin Maher on 31 October 1963 to Irish immigrants in Ardwick Manchester. Johnny Marr is a guitarist, singer, song-writer and producer.
He is best known for being the founder member and guitarist in eighties cult band The Smiths.
The Smiths released 4 studio albums between 1984 and 1987 when Marr broke the group up.
Their major hits in the UK, were Heaven knows I’m miserable now which reached #10 in 1984 and Sheila Take a Bow which reached the same number in 1987. Whilst their popular songs include This Charming Man, How Soon is Now and There is Light that Never goes out.
When he ended the band in 1987, Marr focused mainly on contributing to the work of established bands. He played session guitar and or wrote music for artists such as The Pretenders, Talking Heads, Billy Bragg and Kirsty Maccoll (among others).
He also became a member of The The briefly due to his friendship with singer Matt Johnson.
In 1989 He teamed up with New Order lead singer Bernard Sumner to form synthesiser/guitar super group Electronic. Combining at first with Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe the duo released Getting Away with it which peaked at #12 in the Uk charts.
The foursome then released the song Disappointed. This attained them their top UK chart placement of #6, as well as featuring on the soundtrack to the Brad Pitt film Cool World.
Electronic soon solidified as just Sumner and Marr and between them they released three albums. Self titled debut, Electronic, Raise the Pressure and Twisted Tenderness were released in 1991, 1996 and 1999 respectively. As Sumner returned to fronting New Order Electronic dissolved.
In 2000, Johnny formed his own band called the Healer’s. He quickly enlisted Zak Starkey the drumming son of the Beatles’ Ringo Starr.
In 2003 the Healer's released an album called Boomslang, which featured Johnny writing lyrics and on vocals which was an unfamiliar role for him.
Despite previously voicing intentions to release a second Healers album sometime in 2006 this would appear to be unlikely. In September 2006 Marr announced his membership of the US band Modest Mouse on his website. Modest Mouse frontman, Isaac Brock has since described Marr as a "full-blown member of the band" and has said he is playing guitar and providing vocals on their upcoming album "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank".
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