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Credit: Apple Music \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n
Tue 25 August 2026 18:08, UK <\/p>\n
Johnny Marr<\/a> has expressed his support for Prime Minister Andy Burnham\u2019s cover of The Smiths.<\/p>\n On August 24th, during Burnham\u2019s first visit to Ukraine as prime minister, he stopped by the military and artistic unit in Kyiv, which allowed him to show his skills on the guitar.<\/p>\n After being handed a guitar by a soldier, Burnham then delivered a rendition of \u2018Rusholme Ruffians\u2019 from The Smiths\u2019 classic album Meat is Murder<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, during an interview with Absolute Radio on August 25th, Marr has reacted to Burnham playing a riff that he wrote more than four decades ago, and has nothing but nicities to say.<\/p>\n The Mancunian shared, \u201cI\u2019ve only just been told about it in great detail. I think it\u2019s an amazing thing. In all honesty, I think it\u2019s a victory for the guitar. Just the way I\u2019m wired, I always think like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Marr continued, \u201cI can\u2019t quite get my head around it. I don\u2019t know whether pride is the word, but it probably is. It\u2019s kind of beyond me to process it, really, becuase it could be massive that. I just sort of go, \u2018How great is the guitar?\u2019 What an amazing tool the guitar is.\u201d<\/p>\n The former Smiths guitarist added that his \u201coverwhelming feeling was that it was a victory of the guitar\u201d, but did acknowledge the serious situation regarding the \u201cplight of Ukraine\u201d, admitting, \u201cThe more I think about it, the more I think how insignificant I am in it, really.\u201d<\/p>\n Burnham\u2019s love of The Smiths is no secret, recalling once to FourFourTwo<\/a>, \u201cI saw The Smiths in 1986 at Salford University and I was a big disciple of the band.\u201d<\/p>\n After he became the Mayor of Manchester in 2016, Burnham has also brushed shoulders with Marr on more than one occasion, recalling how they first met at the Etihad Stadium when his beloved Everton played Marr\u2019s Manchester City, \u201cI was going downstairs from the corporate section to meet someone and passed Johnny on the stairs. He said: \u2018I didn\u2019t know you were a blue\u2019. I said: \u2018I am, but not the kind you think I am\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Burnham added, \u201cIt was slightly awkward but Johnny is wonderful. I went to watch Noel (Gallagher) at Wythenshawe Park recently, I\u2019d been to Goodison that day watching us get beat by Wolves so he was getting my misery about the state of things. We had a good chat.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, while speaking to The Guardian <\/a>in 2023, he explained how The Smiths \u201ccame along at a time when the north-west of England was probably at its lowest ever ebb in recent history. It seemed to me to be a recurrent theme in Morrissey\u2019s lyrics that you can kind of aspire to be more than this. You don\u2019t have to be dragged down by your situation or circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n When he was a guest on Desert Island Discs in 2010, he elected \u2018How Soon Is Now?\u2019 and \u2018There Is a Light That Never Goes Out\u2019 among his eight songs, as well as the Morrissey track \u2018Every Day Is Like Sunday\u2019.<\/p>\n As of writing, Morrissey is yet to give his verdict on Burnham\u2019s take on The Smiths classic, which, presumably, considering their political differences, will be less complimentary than Marr\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other Johnny Marr news, earlier today (August 25th), he continued to preview his forthcoming solo album, The Age Of Everything<\/a>, set for release on October 2nd, with the new single \u2018It\u2019s Time\u2019.<\/p>\n He said of the new track, \u201c\u2018It\u2019s Time\u2019 is my way of singing about some worldly issues but finding defiance, in idealism. I wanted a lyric that matched the exuberance of the music but is actually about resisting cynicism and corruption: \u2018Everybody ain\u2019t making it, change the weather and breaking it. Mobilise to know the truth. Open eyes to know the truth.\u2019 I guess it\u2019s about the assholes with dodgy views.\u201d<\/p>\n
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