“I thought it went better with the guitar!”: Johnny Marr reveals he chose his famous hairstyle to compliment this specific guitar
Johnny Marr is known for his distinctive look as much as his guitar playing in The Smiths and as a solo artist, but it was no accident.
As he explains in a new interview with LIFEJACKET on YouTube, the Mancunian legend recalls how his distinctive mod-crop hairstyle was inspired by the “Beatle who never made it”, Stuart Sutcliffe, and how he chose his look to complement a specific guitar in his arsenal.
That guitar was, of course, his famous Jetglo-finished 1982 Rickenbacker 330, bought at a Manchester guitar shop in ‘83 and used extensively across the Smiths’ self-titled debut album and on tour.
“One of my heroes at the time was Stuart Sutcliffe,” he recalls. “I thought, ‘I really wanna look like Stu Sutcliffe.’ V-neck jumper, white polo neck, Ray-Bans. The shop I worked in, we were the first ones to sell the Wayfarers when they came back. So, I was like, ‘I’m having those.’
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He continues: “The Smiths had the quiffs, the ‘ 50s thing. But because I was into Stu Sutcliffe, he combed his hair down and did the Beatle cut. So that’s where that came from. He looked even better when he combed his hair down.”
Marr remembers the first time he showed up to a Smiths photo shoot rocking his new look. “The rest of the band were like, ‘What have you done?’ I just rocked up and I had the bowl cut then. I thought it went better with the guitar.
“I knew I was gonna get a Rickenbacker, so the bowl thing and the Rickenbacker. All of these obsessive little details came into play.”
Everyone’s influenced by someone, of course, and the Smiths quickly noticed following their rapid success that their fans were beginning to adopt their look themselves.
“The fans all dressed like different members of the band, which is kinda cool,” Marr continues. “So when you rocked up at Bangor University or Loughborough or somewhere like that, there’d be a bunch of kids outside, and you’d be like, ‘Okay, there’s Andy, there’s Johnny.’
“We’d look out the window of the bus and there’d be these kids dressed like us. And because we were kids ourselves, it’s kind of a bit of a buzz up there. Because you’re building a culture. You’re missing a trick if you think a band is just about the music. If you look at Fontaines D.C. now, they’ve got such a strong look. You’re always drawing from someone, it’s never entirely original.”
Marr’s ‘82 Jetglo Rickenbacker 330 found a new home last month, selling for a respectable £358,400 during a Christie’s auction which saw the Smiths guitarist sell off a bunch of guitars and other items from his personal collection.
The auction – which took place on 17 September and brought in £3,649,280 in total – also saw the sale of Marr’s Cherry Red 1960 Gibson ES-355, which sold for over £200,000, and the 1971 Martin D-28 acoustic used on Rusholme Ruffians, What She Said and Meat is Murder, which brought in £128,000.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
