Nick has written The Beatles in Bournemouth and it's still available here.
I'm not sure why it was a surprise when
Johnny Marr was co-opted by The Cribs in 2009 because it shouldn’t have been.
Never one to let the grass grow too long, Johnny had been plying his trade with
Modest Mouse and a host of other passing collaborators – a year or so earlier
I’d found him quite by chance hanging out with Peter Buck when the REM
guitarist passed him the phone mid-interview.
Gamely playing the willing interviewee
ahead of The Cribs’ theatre tour in support of the still-breathtaking album
Ignore the Ignorant, Johnny was in a happy, chatty mood, talking up the Jarman
brothers’ increasingly valid contribution to contemporary music and playing
down his own legacy – athough he still found time to call the record his best
in 25 years. Only when I asked about a Smiths reunion
did he lose his patience and who can blame him? He later had the good grace to
acknowledge he could understand why I’d asked, just that he wished people
wouldn’t. Fair enough. Anyway, top bloke Johnny Marr, one of the
best.
If we get the heroes we deserve, we must
have done something right to end up with Johnny Marr. I find the former Smiths guitarist in
expansive, expressive mood as he prepares to go out on the road for the first
time as a full-time member of The Cribs, the punky indie noise factory from
Wakefield, fronted by twin brothers Ryan (guitar) and Gary (bass) Jarman, with
younger brother Ross on drums. “What I like about them is they’re not
insecure,” says Johnny, who’ll turn 46 a couple of weeks after The Cribs play
Southampton Guildhall on October 7.
The age gap – Ryan and Gary turn 29 ten
days before Johnny’s birthday; Ross is nearly 25 – doesn’t concern the members
of the band.
“It doesn’t come up. You know, they’re not
babies,” says Johnny.
“We all like the same songs, we like the
same sneakers and we like the same guitars… they’re pretty ballsy and I like
that about them.”
Having founded The Smiths in 1982, Marr
forged a fruitful songwriting partnership with singer Morrissey until their
acrimonious split in 1987.
Since then he has worked with a host of
talented singers and writers including Matt Johnson’s The The, New Order’s
Bernard Sumner in Electronic, Chrissie Hynde in The Pretenders, Beck, Black
Grape, Billy Bragg, Talking Heads, Pet Shop Boys and Neil Finn of Crowded House.
But as Johnny speaks it’s immediately
clear how much he’s genuinely excited about being in The Cribs.
“I liked their lyrics from when I first
heard the band. I like the sound of two guitars as well.”
Crucially, the other three Cribs also
conform to Johnny’s philosophy on good rock and roll haircuts – the fringe
should always head south.
I had to ask – will The Smiths reform?
“Why do you have to ask that question? What
do you think would happen if you didn’t ask that question? Nobody’s really that
bothered, only journalists,” he bristles.
He’s been answering that question for more
then 20 years now. The answer is always the same and, to his credit, Johnny is
fairly gracious in dismissing the notion.
“No, it doesn’t annoy me, and it’s a shame
there’s a cloud of negativity around that issue.
“But thinking about playing in that
situation doesn’t get me excited, unlike playing what I’m playing now, which
does.
“I can’t see it happening, because I don’t
think it would be anything of value. If it were going to happen, it would have
done so by now.”
The Smiths – like The Jam directly before
them, and The Stone Roses immediately after – meant the world to a lot of
people.
“A lot of this thing that goes on with
bands re-forming is to give people another opportunity to relive a past they
had, or think they had, or never had, and I’m just not into that,” adds Johnny,
his irritation subsiding.
“The Cribs sound inspired, full of life and
energy, and that’s what I’m into... I’m not into cabaret.”
For him, the thrill of music making
remains the same today as when he first strapped on a guitar after hearing
Metal Guru by T-Rex.
“It’s a lot of things, but the chemistry
has to be right. I never used to like touring when I started, but I really like
it now.
“I like standing in front of people with
an amplifier behind me and helping people enjoy themselves.
“You know, nobody’s trying to reinvent
their own wheels here, we’re just doing what we do instinctively.”
Nick Churchill
First printed Bournemouth Echo, 3 October
2009
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