Featured image: Riaz Gomez
Johnny Marr has quite a storied history, most notably as guitarist with The Smiths. Despite his collaborations with artists and composers such as Modest Mouse and Hans Zimmer, he didn’t debut as a solo artist until a decade ago with his debut album, The Messenger. Fast forward to 2023 at the newly built Aviva Studios, where he treats us to a pleasant trip up and down memory lane.
Marr’s eponymous orchestra filters in alongside three separate guitarists and a spotlight shines on the conductor. As soon as we get our opening track, ‘Armatopia’, the room lights up with colour, the music echoes around the venue and kaleidoscopic imagery of clocks projects onto the back wall, towering behind the musicians.
“Hello there!” says the hometown boy. He details how Covid halted his plans to return to playing in Manchester, and expresses his honour to be the first rock act to perform at Aviva Studios. With the sentiments out of the way, we launch into the second track of the evening, ‘Day In, Day Out’.
Videos beam onto the wall throughout much of the set. During a redux of The Smiths classic, ‘How Soon Is Now,’ we see close ups of the instruments. Not that the crowd cares. They’re engrossed in their own singalong, despite staying quiet during the rest of the first half of the set, until we get to Marr’s rendition of ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’. All in all, the screen proves an asset, not a distraction.
After a brief shout out to Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of Pet Shop Boys, we’re given a performance of Electronic’s ‘Getting Away With It’ complete with a lively crowd, a disco ball, and video clips of people across the LGTBQ+ spectrum in clubs. An unexpected yet joyous change of pace.
This form returns for the encore, featuring a couple more Smiths classics: ‘Panic’ and ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’, both of which are avidly received by the crowd. “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny fucking Marr” indeed.
A cosy, candlelit performance? Not on the cards. A grand spectacle displaying why Johnny Marr is as influential an artist as he is? Absolutely.
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