Johnny Marr brings Smiths hits and solo charm to Hammersmith

16 April 2024, 16:21 | Updated: 17 April 2024, 11:32

Johnny Marr onstage at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith; 12th April 2024. Picture: Riaz Gomez/Press

The Manchester guitar legend marked a decade as a solo artist with a packed show in London.

By Martin O'Gorman

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Johnny Marr, Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, 12th April 2024

Four decades after The Smiths' debut album was unleashed onto an eager and receptive Britain and a full decade after he began his solo career in earnest, Johnny Marr is headlining Hammersmith. It's a career highlight for any artist and only serves to complete the guitarist's metamorphosis into an accomplished frontman.

Stalking the same boards as his guitar hero Mick Ronson did with the Spiders From Mars over half a century ago, Marr makes his way onstage to the sound of air raid sirens, which seems like a very topical thing to do under the circumstances.

But it's a Friday night in London and the sun's been out, so the room is packed to the gills with excitable people and an air of expectation. In Britain, we seem to prefer our music legends preserved like insects in amber, so the ecstatic reaction to some of the Smiths hits - Panic, This Charming Man - contrasts sharply with the constant hubbub that comes from the crowd during some of Marr's solo tracks.

This is not a problem, however. If there's one thing we can rely on, it's that Johnny Marr will win over a distracted crowd, often with pure charm. The atmospheric surge of Walk Into The Sea overwhelms the room and the recent single Somewhere is given a sensitive makeover that highlights the beguiling melody of the original.

But it's when Marr picks up an acoustic guitar and launches into a fragile Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want that the crowd start to focus on the real reason we're all here: the incredible musicianship. Morrissey's semi-serious celebration of selfishness becomes a genuinely communal experience.

The ice broken, singles Hi Hello and Easy Money are greeted like old friends and the Electronic track Get The Message, offers a gleaming vision of the Britpop we could have had, if only you'd taken away the tabloid nonsense and the empty posturing.

There's also the curious spectacle of that desolate hymn to alienation, How Soon Is Now, being treated as a rousing singalong, with beers held aloft and one fan scrambling up onto his mate's shoulders. Marr rocks back and forth, playing that unmistakable riff; as he does this, you can see he's still the same lad from Wythenshawe with the Brian Jones haircut, a box of desirable 45s to dip into and an insatiable quest for great music.

Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant joined Johnny Marr for a cover of David Bowie's Rebel Rebel and Electronic's Getting Away With It,. Picture: Joe Horridge

Fifty years ago, Bowie called time on the Spiders From Mars on this very spot, but there's none of that weird tension this evening. Marr introduces a special guest - it's Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, and they mark the occasion with a cover of Bowie's tribute to outsider culture, Rebel Rebel.

Of course, with Tennant present and correct, we're given Electronic's debut single from 1989, Getting Away With It, which has now become a glorious showcase for Marr's delicate solo. As a glittering disco ball cranks into gear, Johnny's guitar rings out, filling the cavernous space of the Hammersmith Odeon. It's rock 'n' roll at its purest.