A Wednesday night in Bristol, Johnny Marr with Gaz Coombes in support, two main acts, like a someone you really want to meet that has no surname, just two first names.
A 2 hour drive followed by queuing in light rain, thanks O2 priority for putting their priority queue out in the elements, it wasn’t even a light mist really by that point really.
The setlist
- Sensory Street
- Panic
- Generate! Generate!
- Spirit Power and Soul
- New Town Velocity
- This Charming Man
- Somewhere
- Walk Into the Sea
- The Answer
- Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
- Bigmouth Strikes Again
- Get the Message
- Hi Hello
- How Soon Is Now?
- Easy Money
- Getting Away With It
The Encore
- The Passenger
- You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby
- There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
I almost feel that I need to say nor more than “look at that list”. It jumps from Solo tracks to classics by The Smiths, but not necessarily the obvious ones and a couple of gems from Electronic. Add a little Iggy and you’ve got yourself an epic night of music.
This wasn’t my first Johnny Marr gig, knowing what to expect doesn’t diminish the effect that Johnny Marr live can have on a fan. I think I used my years smiling quota up and the same goes for the amount i sang, but that goes for the entire crowd, most tracks had 1604 members in the band!
Johnny F#####g Marr was no different, a true picture of an artist enjoying his work, smiling through every song just like the crowd, if I could make my guitar do that, i’d smile all day as well. Always great to hear Panic! and This Charming Man and an always favourite of mine in Bigmouth Strikes Again. The softness of Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want in the middle calmed the storm momentarily. The night could not pass with How Soon is Now rearing its head, thankfully and You Just Haven’t Earned it Yet Baby and There is a Light that Never Goes Out as an Encore, perfect choices all. Thats The Smiths out the way.
I’ve stated somewhere in a previous post that alongside my love for The Smiths, Electronic by Electronic was that right album at the right time for me back in 1993, hearing Get the Message and Getting Away With It again live gave me Goosebumps, again! All that sandwiched between the intensity of the always great Spirit Power Soul amd Easy Money and I want to again. please!
