Marr's 'The Messenger' debut takes him to the Picnic this weekend

JOHNNY MARR has stopped running from the past. Ten years ago, the ex-Smiths guitarist refused to play his old songs on tour. When he visited Dublin’s Academy, last March, he led his band through half a dozen Smiths standards; for his encore rendering of ‘How Soon Is Now?’, grown men were hugging.

“I’ve gone to both extremes,” says Marr, who brings his first solo album, The Messenger, to Electric Picnic this weekend. “I had a couple of tours where I didn’t perform any of that material. This time, it felt like the right course of action. I’ve played those songs to get the feeling of what they are like to do in a club.

“I’ve realised that, ultimately, what a concert is about is making people feel good. In my case, that means sharing moments with the audience. Stuff that is either an important part of their past, or is giving younger fans something they have discovered.”