Supertramp
Johnny Marr is an English musician, songwriter, and singer (born Johnny Martin Maher) in Manchester in October 1963 and at the age of 13 formed his first band, the Paris Valentinos. He played in several bands, the most recent being Freak Party. But by early 1982, after losing their singer, Marr approached Rob Allman, the singer with White Dice. He showed little interest and instead suggested Steven Morrissey, the singer with the Nosebleeds. In May, and through a third-party it was arranged for Marr to meet Morrissey at his home. They seemed to hit it off and with Marr’s first bass player, Andy Rourke, and Mike Joyce on drums they formed the Smiths.
Within months they signed to Rough Trade Records and in May 1983 released their first single “Hand in Glove.” Now with an ever-growing fan base they recorded their first album, which was released in early 1984 and reached number two in the UK Chart. This was quickly followed by their second album, the controversial, “Meat is Murder.”
Their third album “The Queen Is Dead” was awarded the accolade by Spin magazine as being one of the greatest albums ever made. This resulted in the NME dubbing the Smiths the most important rock band of all time.
Marr's guitar sounds are instantly recognisable, with his jangly Rickenbacker and Fender Telecaster and synonymous with the Smith’s sound. Marr said, when performing with the band, he wanted to play a music which was pop. "100% of my focus was on providing interesting guitar hooks and putting some kind of space-age twist on the guitarist's role. The pop guitarist crossed with the mad professor. That's how I thought of myself."
In early 1986, Rourke was fired by the band for his use of heroin, but within weeks he was reinstated. But other problems were already looming and despite their continued success, personal differences within the band and the increasingly strained relationship between Morrissey and Marr created a huge problem.
Marr left the group in July 1987, and despite auditions to find a replacement no one was considered suitable. So, by the time their next tranche of music was released the band had long split.
One of the reasons given by Morrissey was the fact that Marr was working and recording with other artists, however, he later told Tim Samuels, a BBC journalist, that it was due to the lack of a managerial figure and business problems.
Marr's guitar playing had a massive effect on many of the Manchester bands that followed the Smiths including: John Squire - Stone Roses, Noel Gallagher - Oasis, and no doubt many more. He has since performed with numerous other bands and singers including: the Pretenders, Pet Shop Boys, collaborating with Hans Zimmer, on film soundtracks, Talking Heads. Joss Stone, Bryan Ferry and so many more.
In 2010 in a poll conducted by the BBC, Marr was voted the fourth-best guitarist of the last 30 years and Phil Alexander, editor-in-chief of Mojo described him as "arguably Britain's last great guitar stylist." In 2013, the NME, honoured Marr with its "Godlike Genius" award: "Not content with rewriting the history of music with one of the world's greatest ever bands, the Smiths, he's continued to push boundaries and evolve throughout his career, working with some of the best and most exciting artists on the planet."
Despite several attempts at reforming the Smiths it seems very unlikely.
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BY-------Graham Sclater
The formation of Supertramp was very unusual. In 1969, Stanley "Sam" August Miesegaes, a Dutch millionaire, ceased providing financial support to a band called The Joint, as he was disappointed with them. He offered keyboardist Rick Davies an opportunity to form his own band with Miesegaes's financial backing. The band included Roger Hodgson (bass and vocals), Richard Palmer (guitars and vocals) and Keith Baker (percussion).
The lineup continued to change until the early 1970s, when it finally gelled. The new lineup was fortunate to have prolific songwriters in the group: Roger Hodgson (guitar/vocals and keyboard) and Rick Davies (vocals and keyboard). They managed to keep their lineup together for ten years between 1973 and 1983, which included Dougie Thompson (bass), Bob Siebenberg (drums), and John Helliwell (saxophone).
Supertramp was one of the first groups to be signed to the UK branch of A & M Records, and their first album, Supertramp, was released on 14 August 1970 in the UK and Canada (it would not be issued in the US until late 1977).
In 1973, A&R executive Dave Mergerson was impressed by their new demos and was instrumental in getting them signed to A&M. By 1974, he had left the label to take over as Supertramp's full-time manager. With money advanced from A&M, the group, with family, friends, and crew, moved to a cottage called Southcombe in Somerset, where they spent the rest of 1973 and a good part of 1974 living together and working on material for their third album.
Their first two albums had little success until their third album, Crime of the Century, released in 1974, which was surpassed by the 1979 album Breakfast in America, broke through around the world and spawning four top ten hit singles: The Logical Song, Breakfast in America, Goodbye Stranger and Take the Long Way home.
Their earlier hits included Dreamer (1974), Give a Little Bit (1977), and It’s Raining Again (1982).
In 1983, Hodgson left the group to pursue a solo career, but the group continued with Davies as the leader, which led to two further releases until they disbanded. They reformed and toured with different lineups and recorded the album Some Things Never Change in 1997 and Slow Motion in 2002.
They were incredibly popular in North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. Their highest sales levels were in Canada, where they had two diamond-certified (ten-times platinum) albums (Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America), and their only number 1 singles anywhere ("The Logical Song" and "Dreamer"). As of 2007, Supertramp album sales exceeded 60 million.
Davies and Hodgson had radically different backgrounds and musical inspirations. Davies was working class and fiercely devoted to blues and jazz, while Hodgson had gone straight from an English private school to the music business and was fond of pop. Despite this, they hit it off during the auditions and began writing virtually all of their songs together, with Palmer as the occasional third writer. Hodgson and Davies collaborated on the songwriting while Palmer composed the lyrics.
They needed a hit record to continue working and finally got one with Crime of the Century, released in September 1974. It began the group's critical and commercial successes, hitting number 4 in Britain, 38 in the US and 4 in Canada. This album made the top 100 albums in Canada three years in a row in 1974, 1975 and 1976, even though it did not have a Top 40 hit in Canada. Dreamer, the 1975 UK Top 20 single written by Hodgson, was the band's first hit single and took the album to the top of the charts. Another single from the record, Bloody Well Right, reached the US Top 40 in May 1975 and would be their only hit in the country for over two years.
Like all groups, there are always disagreements, and Davies and Hodgson seemed to have differing opinions on the band's direction and music, and their songwriting and working relationship broke down. Reminiscent of the Lennon and McCartney songwriting credits, although all Supertramp's songs would continue to be officially credited as "written by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson," most were written individually.
Supertramp continues to tour in one lineup or another, but their music continues to be played on radio stations worldwide.
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