Johnny Marr is just such a lovely and totally honest chap, isn't he? He was SO talented from such a young age and yet there's never a trace of conceit or pomposity about him.

classic quote - "I'm not one of those people that claimed to like the Stooges in 1973...maybe cause I was only ten."

at this point in his life this man has made the most important songs for me in my life

Had they had a steady manager who could take most of the practical responsibilities (van hire, studio booking, label quarreling and general management hustle) that Marr took upon himself (and Morrisey never did by cancelling tours etc) maybe he wouldn’t quit the band. Mozzer was unwilling to let anyone from the outside in, relying on Marr to stick by him and fix his carreer both musically and proffesionally. In the end Marr decided he just wasn’t having it. He wasn’t gonna spend his musical carreer being Morrisey’s enabler. He’d already had a nervous breakdown as a result, so I sympathize completely with his decision to leave.

"I don't think we'll ever be safe." Johnny Marr There's a statement for history.

He seemed generally happy and sincere when he said that things are going better now than ever I wonder what changed

I recorded this interview when it aired on Rock Arena (Australian music show) back in 1987. I have been looking for it here for a while, glad I stumbled on it today.

hearing his words on how things were taking a different and wilder turn for strangeways makes me wonder how the smiths would’ve evolved in further years. they ended the band at their peak and crystallised its greatness forever in time.

What a man 😍

He was so positive and talking about the future of The Smith... such a shame that this was near the end of the group. So smart and articulate Marr is as is Morrissey.

Thank you Johnny Marr... You are amazing 😁😁😁!!!

watching this is so depressing knowing that they break up soon after this :/

Just like Morrissey mentions on his Autobiography, it looks like they did not have any intention to split up, Marr seems to be thinking about the future in this interview. It seems like a misunderstood happened after that, there were rumours that people said things that they actually never said, the miscommunication increased and sadly that was the end...

This is gold

Please don't split up.. oh it's 30 years ago :|

Funny how Johnny talks about having built a following in continental Europe. From what I recall, it took a while to happen in (West) Germany, and in fact they were popular in Yugoslavia (as it was then) a little earlier.

Amazing how things could go so wrong in a few weeks after this. He seems so happy with The Smiths here, it makes me think he's not being totally honest with the interviewer.

You can see noel gallagher in jonny marr and liam in ian brown lol

Who knew, Johnny Marr was the thoughtful one after all. The brains and empathy behind the creativity.

when i watch these interviews i try to not think about the split

Nice interview.

weird to hear him say he's enjoying it so much then all the confusion happend and that was that.

thank you, this is genius

jesus god almighty .....HOW on earth do you go from his last minute of excitement about the next couple albums etc("more fun than it's ever been actually")...to gone in a few months?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?

A watched the documentary about craig gannon the second guitarist who was in the smiths 1986ish and he was saying that he didnt get along with jonny which was quite strange, a thought it would have been morrissey. The more i think about it the more i think that the smiths should not reform because most of them dont like each other a think the biggest annamosity would be morrissey & joyce and craig gannon & jonny marr.

Yes, but they weren't instrumentals to the A side. They were different songs, that's his point.

Morrissey, Marr, Rourke, and Joyce were great together. The Smiths were a great alt band.

The irony is they split soon after this record and as their LPs went this was by far the most accessible and commercial of them all

They were instrumental songs, not remixed instrumental versions of other songs, with, I admit, the exception of This Charming Man. But they were forced to do that and were appalled when they first heard the Charmin remix.

it feels strange and unfair how happy Johnny is here and how enthusiastically he talks about the future of The Smiths, only for all that to totally crash seemingly out of nowhere. They really are the most tragic example of a great band that split exactly during their prime, who knows what could've become of them, had they just sorted things out. Maybe in another reality they stayed together. hm

Did this turn out to be the final Marr interview before The Smiths split up? I wonder which was Morrissey's final interview before they split.

@elephantstone222 um, idk if this is sarcasm, but they did actually.

i think the OP was just waxing sarcastically à la Moz, if not oscillating wildly so...

@wewewo7 lol yeah it was - i should know better than to try and use sarcasm on youtube.

the smiths reign was coming to an end here. marr was sick of morrisey at this point.

Wow, where is this interview from? I thought i'd seen every interview and TV clip over the years, but I've never seen this before. Is the interviewer Aussie?

Strange

Why’d he quit if he’s enjoying himself so much?

Which Album were they working on in this interview?

yeah because The Smiths never did any instrumental b-sides...

Johnny Marr Strangeways Interview part 2. 18.3.24. yer desperate for me to pop out to the shops? Cooking matches...? drinking dairy liquid...? DISCO.....???? der schmidts euro trash?

What does Johnny Marr know about Strangeways? He's never been in there. I find it ridiculous for Mancunian musicians to mention Strangeways in songs lyrics, song titles or album titles when they've never been in Strangeways prison. There's endless things in this world to write about or refer to without mentioning prisons they have zero experience of on the inside. I've been in there and trust me, there's nothing in there remotely positive or worth mentioning on this side of the prison walls. It's not cool, it doesn't make you a hardman. It's a shithole rammed to the rafters with the plague of society and excruciating to be inside that jail surrounded by ruthless, evil, violent, nasty people.

You can see noel gallagher in jonny marr and liam in ian brown lol