Johnny Marr will be headlining the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on September 20th. If you’re unfamiliar with them, allow me to provide some brief backstory. Johnny Marr better known as Johnny Martitn is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He became relevant when he was a guitarist for the band “The Smiths” who were only active for a short period of time before ending the band. Since then, Johnny has performed with many other bands and started his solo career. It’s always great when I see people in a popular band find success on their own. It shows their unique solo talent and skills and also takes them out of the shadow of their bandmates and gives them an image of their own which they could turn into a brand and grow even more. Having your own identity is also crucial when creating a name and fanbase for yourself. A band that comes to mind when I think of separation is Fifth Harmony. They were a group of five talented girls but they sadly separated. The first to step out was Camilla Cabello who was kind of bullied out of it. After leaving, she skyrocketed on the charts and had a stable solo career unlike her other bandmates.
Focusing back on Johnny Marr, let’s take a look at his songs both in his solo career and in his bands: There is a light That Never Goes Out, Back to the Old House, How Soon Is Now, I’ll Stand By You and “I’m Spider-man”. It shocked me when I first saw that he was in the song “I’m Spiderman” from the movie “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”. Being featured in a movie that big is insane and really shows how successful you truly are. It’s always an honor for an artist to have a song featured in a movie with such high class IP’S. Another interesting fact is that the songs from the band “The Smiths” are mostly written and co-written by Johnny Marr. I guess his pen work is very strong. Whenever I see artists that write their own music it grants them respect in my heart, I just admire it and notice the talent.
Johnny Marrs first solo piece of work was his album “The Messenger” in 2013. His second album “Playland” was released a year later in 2014. Both albums were decent, nowhere near perfect but they had some great songs that resonated with fans. Personally, they weren’t my cup of tea.
