Johnny Marr, Royal Festival Hall review - rock royalty having the time of his life | reviews, news & interviews
Johnny Marr, Royal Festival Hall review - rock royalty having the time of his life
Johnny Marr, Royal Festival Hall review - rock royalty having the time of his life
The prince of Manchester pulls out all the stops in blistering set for Nile Rodgers' Meltdown

Nile Rodgers, the beaming, beret-sporting curator of this year’s splendidly eclectic Meltdown, strolls on to the Royal Festival Hall stage tonight to introduce his “dearest friend in the world”.
A compact, tanned figure in black bomber jacket, jeans and very black shaggy hair, Marr goes straight into “The Tracers”, from his superb current album Call the Comet. Everyone’s seated – the serene vibe of the Festival Hall was commented on by the excellent and perhaps miffed support act Mystery Jets (“you lot are a bit quiet, aren’t you?”) – but as soon as “Bigmouth Strikes Again” kicks in it’s a different story. Everyone’s on their feet, and they stay there for the duration.Recent single “Armatopia” follows – a synthy, bouncy earworm full of “na na na nas” – and then Marr bellows a marvellously Mancunian “HELLO!” before setting out to “have some fun”. And it really looks like he’s doing just that: throwing cocky poses, shimmying here and there, graciously accepting the next guitar (we lose count, there are so many) from a roadie who presents each one, kneeling, like a sacred offering, and strutting around the stage. There’s a twinkle in his eye, though – for all his camera-pleasing posturing, Marr is incredibly self-aware and doesn’t push it too far. He looks great, sounds awesome and is backed by an impressive and extremely dapper band (shout out to the sparkly-shirted drummer).
Things take an electronic turn with the hypnotic, pulsating “New Dominions”, a real highlight of the set that sees the stage drenched in red light and the drummer standing, furiously pounding away at electric drums. “Hi Hello” follows, with its jangly, Smiths-evoking guitar paving the way for “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby”. It’s eerie how Marr’s voice sometimes morphs into an echo of Morrissey’s during the Smiths songs – and while it’s wonderful to hear them it does feel a little bit weird, slightly less so when Marr puts a new spin on them, like in the case of the extended, ragged guitar solo for “How Soon Is Now?”.
A brace of Electronic songs is a pleasing turn of events – especially when Marr introduces “Getting Away With It” by hollering “Let’s go to the disco – Manchester-style!”, then chanting “MCR! MCR!” (presumably not in tribute to those late, lamented kings of emo My Chemical Romance). It’s great to see that twinkle in the eye again, and a quartet of mirrorballs puts the jazzy-shirted (the bomber's long gone), hilariously pouting Marr in a dazzling wonderland before he continues the theme with “Get the Message”. “Fine young feller” Marr Junior – the aforementioned Nile, on guitar (pictured above, centre) – joins his proud dad on stage (“that’s my boy!”) for “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” and A Certain Ratio’s “Shack Up”, the fiendishly funky latter seeing Marr unable to resist indulging in a few more disco moves and a bit of Jagger swagger. “How Soon Is Now?” brings the main set to an emotional close before an encore of “Rise”, “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me” and a glorious, epic “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” that reduces the audience to shreds before turning us out – passing Marr’s hero Peter Perrett as we leave – to clatter down the stairs and into the dark.
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There's a light in his eyes