Johnny Marr live review: Rock legend caps off spectacular 6 Music festival
Venue: The Great Hall, Cardiff Students Union
Words: Eliot Raman Jones
If you had to choose one artist who encapsulates BBC 6 Music’s reputation for seeking out new sounds, you just might choose Johnny Marr.
Since the breakup of The Smiths in 1987, Marr has worked on new sounds with bands from multiple genres, including dance, pop, rock and film soundtracks.
His Sunday night performance at The Great Hall included a mix of classic alternative rock anthems and his newer material.
Marr began with his up-tempo 2019 single Armatopia but his wry grin as he sang “There’s panic on the streets of Cardiff” as he slid into The Smiths’ hit Panic showed that he was just as ready to play the classics.
Songs from Marr’s newest album, Fever Dreams pts. 1–4, recorded during lockdown and released in late February 2022, made up the bulk of the first half of the set.
After finishing Night and Day, the singer asked the packed hall for any requests and the ensuing variety of songs shouted by the audience was testament to the breadth of Marr’s talent.
After singalong hits This Charming Man and his Electronic-era track Getting Away with It, Marr covered Depeche Mode’s I Feel You, before playing There is a Light that Never Goes Out in tribute to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died last week on tour in Colombia.
Playing to a rapturous crowd, Marr was in fine form, and while every song was met with cheers, his encore set of the fast-paced Bigmouth Strikes Again and the pulsing groove of How Soon is Now? received the biggest cheers.
Marr remains active in his collaborations but there was nothing in the setlist from his Oscar-winning work with popstar Billie Eilish and composer Hans Zimmer on the most recent James Bond film No Time to Die.
In a room packed with adoring fans, you get the sense that Marr could have played anything for an hour and the room would have responded, such is his status.
Johnny Marr may be one of music’s more seasoned stars these days, but on Sunday night he showed he continues to be as pioneering as he was as a teen and a perfect elder statesman for BBC 6 Music.
