Johnny Marr

John Martin Marr (born John Martin Maher; 31 October 1963) is an English musician, songwriter and singer.

Marr was born on 31 October 1963 in Saint Mary's Hospital in Manchester, son of John Joseph Maher and Frances Patricia Doyle, Irish emigrants to England from County Kildare.

The family lived in Ardwick Green and moved to Wythenshawe in 1972.

Marr attended St Aloysius Primary School in Ardwick before moving to Sacred Heart Primary School.

From 1975, he attended St Augustine's Catholic Grammar School, which in 1977 merged with other schools to form St John Plessington High School.

Marr had aspirations to be a professional football player.

He was approached by Nottingham Forest and had trials with Manchester City's youth team.

Marr's said his family's move to Wythenshawe was "like we'd moved to Beverly Hills", and that the move led to him meeting "a bunch of guitar players" which "changed his life".

The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy was in a high school band that practised across the street from Marr's new house, and Marr would hang out listening to them rehearsing.

He learned to play the guitar with LP vinyl records and a guitar chords dictionary without a teacher.

Marr formed his first band, the Paris Valentinos, at the age of 13, with Andy Rourke (who had gone to the same high school as Duffy) and Kevin Williams (later an actor, known as Kevin Kennedy), performing for the first time at a Jubilee party in Benchill in June 1977, playing Rolling Stones and Thin Lizzy covers.

In 1979, he played a single gig at Wythenshawe Forum with a band called Sister Ray and re-united with Rourke in a band called White Dice.

White Dice entered a demo-tape competition organised by NME and won an audition for F-Beat Records, which they attended in April 1980 but were not signed.

Around the age of 14, he began spelling his name "Marr" to simplify the pronunciation for those who had difficulty with his birth name "Maher", and to avoid confusion with Buzzcocks drummer John Maher.

In October 1980, Marr enrolled at Wythenshawe College, and was President of the school's Student Union.

White Dice dissolved in 1981.

Marr and Rourke then formed a funk band, Freak Party, with Simon Wolstencroft on drums.

Around this time, Marr first met Matt Johnson, with whom he later collaborated.

He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987.

He has since performed with numerous other bands and embarked on a solo career.

Born in Manchester, to Irish parents, Marr formed his first band at the age of 13.

He was part of several bands with Andy Rourke before forming the Smiths with Morrissey in 1982.

By early 1982, Freak Party had fizzled out, being unable to find a singer.

Marr approached Rob Allman, singer in White Dice, who suggested Steven Morrissey, a singer with the short-lived punk band the Nosebleeds.

Marr approached a mutual friend asking to be introduced and they visited Morrissey at his house in Kings Road, Stretford, in May.

Marr's jangly Rickenbacker and Fender Telecaster guitar playing became synonymous with the Smiths' sound.

Marr's friend Andy Rourke joined as bass player and Mike Joyce was recruited as drummer.

Signing to indie label Rough Trade Records, they released their first single, "Hand in Glove", on 13 May 1983.

By February 1984, the Smiths' fanbase was sufficiently large to launch the band's long-awaited debut album to number two in the UK chart.

Early in 1985, the band released their second album, Meat Is Murder.

It was more strident and political than its predecessor, and it was the band's only album (barring compilations) to reach number one in the UK charts.

During 1985 the band completed lengthy tours of the UK and the US while recording the next studio record, The Queen Is Dead.

The Smiths attained commercial success and were critically acclaimed, with Marr's jangle pop guitar style becoming a distinctive part of the band's sound, but separated in 1987 due to personal differences between Marr and Morrissey.

Since then, Marr has been a member of the Pretenders, The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse, and the Cribs, and he has become a prolific session musician, working with names such as Kirsty MacColl, Pet Shop Boys, Talking Heads, Bryan Ferry and Hans Zimmer.

Having released an album titled Boomslang in 2003 under the name Johnny Marr and the Healers, Marr released his first solo album, The Messenger, in 2013.

In 2010, Marr was voted the fourth-best guitarist of the last 30 years in a poll conducted by the BBC.

Phil Alexander, editor-in-chief of Mojo, described him as "arguably Britain's last great guitar stylist".

In 2013, NME honoured Marr with its "Godlike Genius" award: "Not content with rewriting the history of music with one of the world's greatest-ever bands, the Smiths, he's continued to push boundaries and evolve throughout his career, working with some of the best and most exciting artists on the planet."

His second solo album, Playland, was released in 2014, followed by a third, Call the Comet, in 2018.

Marr's autobiography, Set the Boy Free, was published in 2016.