The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr proves it’s never too late to go solo

LEGENDARY Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr used to hate touring. Now he’s determined to keep the rock flag flying at festivals such as Splendour In The Grass.

Johnny Marr

REVERED English musician Johnny Marr likes his old stuff as much as his new stuff which is good news for fans as The Smiths founder kicks off another Australian tour.

Marr, who kicked his solo career off two years ago after a lifetime playing in bands rather than fronting them, said his audience’s embrace of solo records The Messenger and Playland had made playing hits from three decades ago feel “celebratory”.

Although he credits his Australian audiences for “not giving you a free kick”.

“I look out into the audience’s faces and they look like people I like so I want to make them happy,” he said before his Sydney concert.

“If you are lucky enough to have come up with a riff as good as How Soon Is Now? why not share it with people?

“But if my new stuff wasn’t going down well, I wouldn’t be out here playing.”

Marr remains determined to keep the rock flag flying even at festivals such as this weekend’s Splendour In The Grass, where the genre struggles to hold its own against hip-hop, dance and pop these days.

“God bless festivals because I don’t know how bands would have survived as the record-buying culture started to disappear. Festivals and live performance have become the economic lifeblood of bands,” he said.

REVIEW: Morrissey struts for grateful Sydney Opera House crowd

Marr’s signature jangly guitar playing has been imitated by hundreds of bands since The Smiths quit in 1987, even after he went on to play with Paul McCartney, The The, Modest Mouse, The Cribs and Neil Finn.

Working on the soundtrack to the Leonardo DiCaprio film Inception inspired him to explore his ideas for a new sound and lyrical concepts by forming his own band.

Named a “Godlike Genius” by British pop bible NME after releasing his solo debut in 2013, the 51-year-old rocker has scored universal acclaim for both his studio and live efforts.

He said he has come to embrace the “theatre of performing” in the past couple of years after not being fond of the touring life as a young musician who preferred to spend his time in the studio.

“I hated touring when I was younger, and in The Smiths particularly, there was this idea of me being the little rock’n’roller swinging from the chandelier and Morrissey being locked away in the library,” he said.

“Over 30 years now, you can see those were not entirely accurate caricatures. Morrissey was just more comfortable on the stage than me but now I can appreciate the theatre of performing.”

In between gigs, you may find keen runner Marr pounding some of the more scenic routes of the Australian cities he is playing.

Johnny Marr performs at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney on Monday, The Gov., Adelaide on Tuesday, the Forum theatre, Melbourne on Wednesday and Splendour In The Grass, Byron Bay on Friday.