Johnny Marr on music, memories and how Manchester made him

Johnny Marr has long been known as one of music's greatest guitarists, working hand in glove with singers in bands like The Smiths, Electronic, The The, Modest Mouse, The Cribs, The Pretenders and many more.

But for the last decade, his solo albums have seen him merge those two roles and fully take on the mantle of frontman.

Ahead of two homecoming shows leading the Johnny Marr Orchestra at Manchester's Factory International, he said that decision was never about taking his turn "to be a solo star", but was instead driven by his own creative desires.

"When I first formed the group I had this idea that, at the very least, we were going to play in art galleries, which I still think is quite a good idea," he said.

"So this solo band was always super idealistic. It was all about these artistic concepts."

However, he admitted he was also driven by a need he has had through his entire career to tap into Manchester's musical heart.

"I've got to a place in my life where I could have a band that lived in different countries, but the romantic in me said to form a band in Manchester," he said.

He said that meant that if he decided to "rehearse tomorrow night", they could "just do it".

"That was very, very important to me [and] that's the way me and my band are."

Marr said that decades on from him first picking up a guitar in his Mancunian childhood home, the city still holds some sway over his music.

"What I do now is like the grown-up version of what I was doing when I was a teenager," he added.

"When I came back from Portland, where I lived from 2005 to 2010, I went back to Manchester, not because I'm a Manchester lad, or because my parents are there or any of that.

"I went back to Manchester because it's a great place to run a band."

He said he was also drawn back to bands like local legends Buzzcocks and Magazine, and teenage favourite Slaughter & The Dogs.

The Wythenshawe punk rockers were the first band he ever saw live and it was a show he still remembers clearly.

"It was 10 September 1976, which makes me 12.

"I remember going on my own and walking home from the Civic Centre in Wythenshawe and getting in very late.

"And it was quite a violent gig."

He says he spoke to his mother about it years later.

"I said, 'remember that gig that I went to?' and she goes, 'yeah I remember, it was some punk band'.

"I said, 'what were you thinking?'

"She went, 'I knew you knew your way around. You were always very streetwise'."

Streetwise was what he needed to be after his family moved to Wythenshawe, the huge social housing estate on the edge of Manchester.

"Back then, you didn't have PlayStations, you didn't have iPads, so loads of people were in bands, and getting love bites, and riding choppers.

"I moved there from the inner city.

"I was the only kid in my neighbourhood in the inner city who had a guitar, but then when I went to Wythenshawe, there were a lot of musicians and kids who were into being in bands.

Wythenshawe was also where he met Billy Duffy, who would go on to have his own musical fame with The Cult.

"He and I have known each other since 1975," he said.

"The fact that we both went on to do what we did is really kind of amazing."

He said that fact hit him when he was in his 40s and he broached it with Duffy, jokingly saying to him that music fans probably thought they sat around their kitchen tables in Manchester and LA "and go, 'how did that happen?'".

A decade or so on from that conversation, he admitted it was something that "now, we do".

"When you get to a certain stage in your life and people start disappearing, memories like that become precious, really precious," he said.

The pair have played together in studios and on stages sporadically ever since meeting, but Marr's formidable talent has led him to many other projects.

Swinging between band membership and guest appearances, he has provided guitar for a myriad of musical greats, from Neil Tennant, Kirsty MacColl and Noel Gallagher to Billie Eilish, Neil Finn and Jane Birkin.

But since 2011 he has more often appeared under his own name, stepping into the spotlight he has so often stood beside.

And while he is adamant that the move was not driven by him "standing on stage left going 'one day that will be me'", he admitted he did turn to someone with a little more experience of merging both roles.

"When I first started fronting this band, I walked out on stage and hoped for the best, but I was helped by a quote," he said.

"I read an interview with [Mississippi blues musician] John Lee Hooker.

"He said, 'Well, I go out there, and I see what the feeling is. And then I react to that feeling. And then the audience reacts to me reacting to that feeling. And then I react to that feeling. And then we just get going round, round and round'.

"So I just thought, 'well, be like John Lee Hooker. From Manchester'."

A Night with the Johnny Marr Orchestra is at Factory International on 7 and 8 December.