Ahead of his support slot for Noel Gallagher at Castlefield Bowl as part of Manchester’s ‘Summer in the City’ on July 11th, Johnny Marr announced a couple of warm up shows on the two days prior to the homecoming show of both Mancunian legends. The July 9th show was at Warehouse23 in Wakefield and it was a sweaty affair to say the least, rammed with eager fans that’d most likely come out of Post Marr Tour depression since his well received handful of warm up dates back in March, leading up to his Teenage Cancer Trust support slot for Paul Weller at the Royal Albert Hall.
Johnny and his band opened with the track ‘Playland’ from his latest album of the same title; an absolutely perfect track that allows Johnny to psych the crowd up as he faces the opposite way before throwing himself to the edge of the stage for some of his best guitar genius work. The next track was ‘The Right Thing Right’ from Johnny’s first solo album ‘The Messenger’ which received a great reaction from the crowd. Other tracks Johnny played from ‘The Messenger’ included the fast paced ‘Generate! Generate!’ and the mellow single ‘New Town Velocity’, which sounded as sublime as ever live. Johnny played a handful of singles from the ‘Playland’ album including the crowd pleasing ‘Easy Money’ with it’s guitar riff that you just can’t help but sing along to, and his new single ‘Candidate’. Johnny was radiating with passion for his music during ‘Candidate’; “mystery always hides in your eyes” could’ve given everyone in that sauna of a room goose bumps as if they were outside in a cold December.
Johnny recently announced in an interview that he’d be releasing a handful of EP’s in the near future, before taking some time off to work on his autobiography. The lucky Wakefield crowd were treated to the debut of two new songs; the melodic ‘My Monster’ and the irresistibly catchy ‘Spiral Cities’, with Johnny apologising in advance if he messed them up (forever the perfectionist, though forever playing perfectly!) It was also pleasing to see his Record Store Day release Depeche Mode cover of ‘I Feel You’ still in his set list; as intense as ever it really was astonishing live. Another set list highlight was Electronic song ‘Getting Away With It’, introduced as a disco song by Johnny himself it had everybody in the room going and was a stunning rendition. Johnny truly brought a bit of disco to Wakefield, not only beginning the song with the introduction of him singing “ah ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah”, but also with the shaking of his hips. It’s always great to see Johnny enjoying himself on stage, his enthusiasm was causing the sweat to drip off him from incredibly early in the show. Though the heat didn’t spoil Johnny’s mood as his comments were as witty as ever, including his fake stage introduction of Kanye West and how he’d just been on tour in South America and it wasn’t as hot as Warehouse23!
There’s always going to be some people that go to Johnny’s solo gigs with the tunnel vision concept of him being ‘Johnny Marr from The Smiths’. I mean come on, it’s been over 30 years since they formed and they’re still one of the most influential bands out there. Not to mention just as detrimental to the music scene as ever! But there’s no way that these people don’t go home and instantly purchase Johnny’s entire back catalogue based on his performance. Johnny played The Smiths tracks ‘Panic’, ‘Big Mouth Strikes Again’, ‘Stop Me If You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before’, ‘How Soon Is Now’, ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ and an extremely moving version of ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’, which replicated the beauty of the live version that features as a B-Side on the ‘I Feel You’ Record Store Day release.
Johnny Marr definitely puts the ‘M’ in Manchester – unfortunately there isn’t an ‘M’ in Wakefield, but if there was…
