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UNBELIEVABLE: Johnny marr | History Defined

Guitar World Editors’ Picks – our favorite tracks this month: “Who doesn’t like off-kilter, avant-garde, guitar-based pop that not only uses alternate tunings but is also microtonal?”

Featuring a tongue-in-cheek single from a certain Rivers Cuomo, a dash of microtonal pop, and jangly riffs from a very charming man

Guitar World

The best music of autumn 2026: Johnny Marr, Phoebe Bridgers, Rachel Chinouriri and more

Irish noisemongers Gilla Band, shadowy producers Two Shell and lovable band the Big Moon have new records, and there are tours from Bob Dylan and Kelela – plus the best of jazz, global and classical

The Guardian - UK

Bigmouth strums again: was Andy Burnham’s Smiths jam in Kyiv the perfect soundtrack to a Britain in freefall?

The UK prime minister clearly still adores the band. Perhaps he’s attracted to songs about sham justice and murderous meat factories, shot through with nihilism and exquisite despair

The Guardian - UK

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Noel Gallagher 'writing songs for fun'

Johnny Marr has revealed his friend Noel Gallagher is currently "writing stories for fun".

BANG Premier

Johnny Marr responds to UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham serenading Ukrainian soldiers with the Smiths riff: “It’s a victory for the guitar”

Burnham played The Smiths’ Rusholme Ruffians to soldiers in a mobile recording studio in Kyiv, and the man who wrote the song couldn’t be happier

Guitar World

Johnny Marr reacts to British PM Andy Burnham playing a Smiths song on a guitar for soldiers in Ukraine: “I can’t quite get my head around it... for me, it’s like a victory for the guitar”

The prime minister busted out a few bars of the Smiths classic Rusholme Ruffians during his visit to Kyiv

MusicRadar

The Smiths held their label to ransom until Johnny Marr got this guitar: “As soon as I got that back to the hotel, I wrote Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now in about 10 minutes”

Marr will be auctioning off his four-decade guitar collection next month, including a Gibson ES-355 that played a pivotal role in The Smiths’ repertoire

Guitar World

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Reissue, Repackage, re-evaluate the songs: Morrissey And Marr have collaborated on new Smiths Rough Trade archive release

Both contribute sleeve notes to Rough Trade 45s box set

MusicRadar

“It’s insane. He died aged 25, only guitar players remember him, and yet he was the sound of the Pretenders”: Chrissie Hynde on the underrated guitar hero who defined the Pretenders

The guitarist died just a few years after the band’s debut album, but his imprint on their sound can still be felt today

Guitar World

The Smiths album The Queen Is Dead to be celebrated on new UK tour with Mike Joyce and Stephen Street

Former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce and producer Stephen Street will mark 40 years of The Queen Is Dead with a nationwide UK tour featuring stories, memorabilia and a full track‑by‑track breakdown.

BANG Premier

“I always said I was a genius, but nobody listened”: Previously unseen archive of pre-Smiths Morrissey correspondence heads to auction

The collection of letters were penned by the future Pope of Mope between the ages of 14 and 20, and expose the young Morrissey’s flair for the written word

MusicRadar

Letters written by young pre-Smiths Morrissey expected to sell for £22,000

The letters were written to a Birmingham pen friend, Simon Pitt, who would go on to become the city’s poet laureate, between 1974 and 1979.

Evening Standard

Johnny Marr London gig postponed with ‘great regret’

The former Smiths guitarist was due to perform at the OVO Arena Wembley.

Evening Standard

“Morrissey sent me one of his famous letters which I’ve framed on the wall. It just read, ‘Dear Bernard, I’m sorry - I can’t’”: Bernard Butler shares with us the events that almost led to a team-up with Morrissey

Bernard Butler shares with us the odd events that lead to him almost teaming up with Morrissey

MusicRadar

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Louder

"He came into the kitchen, gave me a tape and said, 'Listen to this. It’s not just any tape'." How a mouthy teenage guitarist scored his band a record deal with Britain's coolest indie label, and kickstarted a musical revolution

How the career of one of Britain's most influential bands was launched in a London warehouse

Guitar World

“I knew the guitar was valuable, but this was before Slash blew up, so nobody really wanted Les Pauls. They all wanted Charvels”: Billy Duffy on his greatest guitar deals – and the one he regrets selling to Bob Rock

The Cult six-stringer looks back on Les Pauls loved and lost, plus the latest and greatest from his mostly back-to-basics rig

Guitar World

“It was supposed to show up at my house. It completely disappeared”: Johnny Marr steps in to help after FedEx loses session player’s vintage guitar

The Smiths legend helped save the day when FedEx delivered the guitar to the wrong location

Guitar World

“Working with Hans was great, but the parts were originally composed on a piano – they were written for 10 fingers”: Inside Johnny Marr's blockbuster guitar contributions to Inception

Inception composer Hans Zimmer said that the moment he landed on a guitar part for one of the movie's pivotal instrumental themes, “I knew who I was writing for”

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Guitar World

Celebrity guitar auctions: teenage dreams or billionaire boys’ club? How A-list gear sales became the hottest ticket in town

From Johnny Marr to Mark Knopfler, big-name guitars seem to have become so valuable that even their owners don’t want to play them anymore…

Louder

"He has devoted his entire life to killing Morrissey." Morrissey launches yet another attack on former Smiths bandmate Johnny Marr, and the BBC

"Bigmarr Strikes Again"

BANG Premier

Morrissey criticises upcoming BBC Smiths documentary and bandmate Johnny Marr

Morrissey has issued a lengthy criticism of a forthcoming BBC documentary about The Smiths, claiming it portrays him unfairly and excludes his involvement.

MusicRadar

“It’s bittersweet to be parting with these guitars but I want them to go to new homes and new people who will love them as much as I have”: Johnny Marr is auctioning off his most-famous guitars

After documenting them in Marr's Guitars, the indie icon couldn't bear consigning them to storage once more, and they'll be auctioned via Christie's in September

The Guardian - UK

Johnny Marr to auction off dozens of guitars heard on Smiths classics such as This Charming Man

Christie’s sale in London in September carries estimates up to £150,000, with some instruments also used by Noel Gallagher and Bernard Sumner

Guitar World

“I couldn’t imagine them being put away and left unplayed”: Johnny Marr to sell nearly 100 pieces of gear at auction – including prized Smiths-era guitars

Guitars that have featured on some of the Smiths’ biggest songs, and moonlighted in Oasis, are up for grabs

Evening Standard

Guitars used by Johnny Marr in The Smiths to go to auction in London

A Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo which was featured on the cover of Oasis’s debut single Supersonic is included in the sale

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