“A NEW KIND OF GUITAR HERO”

How Johnny Marr re-articulated the guitar for a whole generation, by the Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield.

- Grant Moon

The Smiths really kicked in with me in 1984 with Hatful Of Hollow, which is still a lot of people’s favourite Smiths album. They hadn’t become a massive band at that point, hadn’t had millions of hits, so they put this sort of strange compilation out full of sessions and one-off singles, and it’s brilliant.

This Charming Man is what really switched me on to them. It was so offensive, but so erudite and articulate – I absolutely loved it as soon as I heard the intro. Morrissey was choosing different notes, words and phrases to everybody else. Mike Joyce’s drums were sensitive and beautiful, and I hadn’t heard bass playing like Andy Rourke’s since [The Jam’s] Bruce Foxton. And Johnny Marr was right in the centre of it. They were a so-called ‘indie band’, but if you listen to them The Smiths were – in the best possible way – a muso band. Everybody in that band was at the top of their game.