Guitar porn

Johnny Marr recently trousered a cool £3.65M after selling 80 of his iconic guitars plus associated amplifiers and memorabilia. The 111 lots massively exceeded Christie's initial guide price of £1.2M. And it won't surprise you to learn that Marr donated the entire proceeds of 31 selective lots to the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Autistic Society; showing yet again what an all round good egg he is. Here's Johnny with his old friend Noel Gallagher previewing the sale a couple of days before his beloved collection - including a Cherry Red Gibson ES-355 and 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo (both used by Marr when writing and recording with the Smiths) - went under the hammer. 

Bang average songs with amazing intros

I think it was only when I saw Johnny Marr play his own version of How Soon is Now that I realised a song (a band, even) that I'd never much cared for has in fact got a stunning intro. I'm sure if I thought long enough and hard enough I could come up with a few more examples of this genre. But as I've just alienated all my Smiths loving readers I think I'll quit while I'm behind - for fear of inadvertently slaughtering another sacred cow.

Johnny Marr - How Soon is Now

This is the Modernist world

I do love clubs. Always have. And societies; places, forums, where, for want of a better expression, you can find your tribe. What I also love is the fact that you can find your tribe, tribes even, at any point in your life; but I'll be quite honest with you - even I never thought I'd be joining another society. In 2023. Not with my advancing cynicism.

But hey, every day's a school day - to use another hackneyed phrase. So, long story short, I've thrown my lot in with the Modernists: formerly known as The Manchester Modernist Society (they've now dropped the Manchester) they're a not for profit creative project dedicated to celebrating and engaging with twentieth century architect and design through publishing, events, exhibitions and creative collaborations. Icing on the cake time - their patrons include Jonathan Meades and Johnny Marr*. Pretty cool, huh?

Their quarterly magazine is in itself a thing of rare beauty and their subtle pin (pictured above) is just the sexiest thing I've seen in a long time. Next time you see it on my jacket I'll allow you to drool over it.

*Johnny Marr - Musician, Mancunian and modernist. (His bio from their website.)

This Charming Penguin

You'll know by now that I love podcasts: discovering new ones is a joy, especially when they're as good as the Penguin Podcast.
I've just listened to my first one - a charming conversation between David Baddeil and Johnny Marr. Marr's autobiography, Set the Boy Free, was published by Penguin a couple of weeks ago and he was bringing Baddeil up to speed about it.
Although I was never a big fan of the Smiths, I've always had a soft spot for Johnny's guitar sound. Here he is explaining how he wrote the riff for their first single. When he was nineteen. Nineteen!

And so it goes

 Guess where I've been today?

Sorry, it's been a long week.

As in four weddings and a funeral.

Without the four weddings.

Looking forward to spending a few days with family

in The Chilterns