Marr's reunion refusal

The former Smiths guitarist quashes rumours of a reunion

17 December 2008 - After a week of tabloid reports, rumours and speculation Johnny Marr has fully denied that the much touted Smiths reunion will be taking place.

Speaking on the Marc Riley show on 6 Music last night (16 December), which the musician curated, Marr explained he's getting a little bit bored of being asked about it by the media.

"It gets a bit tiresome really," he said, "especially when you’re doing new stuff and you are working hard on new stuff that you think is great.

"I have to say, it is a very British phenomena. I’m proud of coming from here but you don’t get it anywhere else."

Marr put the final nail in the coffin saying that the band definitely are not getting back together and that the rumour mill is, "all a bit silly".

"I can understand it to an extent," he explained, "but not the way it is now when it becomes the predominant news story for a week, when there’s all this other stuff going on in the world and for other bands and that.

"I’m still very proud of the band and really, really pleased that people still really care, but what are they caring about? Is it the music or the event, or the phenomena of the reunion thing?"

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Marr told 6 Music that he took on the mastering duties for the latest compilation, The Sound of The Smiths, which was released on 10 November.

The guitarist went on to say he was happy to put his name behind the latest release, as some of The Smiths' previous compilations were not up to scratch: "In the past the people at the record label were a little negligent, but luckily for the band the people there now seem to care a little more about it and they invited me to do it - which is the way it should happen.

"So I think everyone was glad that I stepped up to the breach. I didn't have to do it, it could have come out anyway – but I just felt like it was doing a disservice to the band and the people who were buying the records."
  

"What are they caring about? Is it the music or the event, or the phenomena of the reunion thing?"
Johnny Marr

When asked whether he had to negotiate with other former band members to take on the project Marr said: "It was kind of my role in the band to take care of the way it sounds. I don't know whether the others were that interested in doing it.

"I can't really stop the records coming out, otherwise I would have done it in the nineties. I just let it be known to the record company that I wanted it to look better and sound better (than previous compilations)."

He said he was pleased to be able to work with the record label and create a release he was happy with. "I was only really interested in them coming out if I could make them sound right.

"Over the years there have been releases of the records and I wasn't happy with the way they sounded. So I rolled my sleeves up and fixed that, and I'm pretty happy with the way that turned out."

Georgie Rogers / Victoria Hannaford