The Songwriters; 'Mitch Murray'
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
During the sixties and seventies, many of the charting songs were written by a select group of songwriters who contributed to most of the hits for artists who didn’t write their own songs. Many of them were teams, and some of them are: Les Reed, Barry Mason, Tony Macauley, Geoff Stephens, Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, Ken Howard and Alan Blaikely, Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and in the eighties, Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
But one writer was at the forefront of songwriting in the early sixties.....That was Mitch Murray.
Mitch Murray, CBE (born Lionel Michael Stitcher; 30 January 1940) is an English songwriter, record producer and author. He was born Lionel Michael Stitcher in Hove, England. In 1968, he changed his legal name by deed poll to Mitch Murray.
Murray's first major songwriting success came when his song, “How Do You Do It?” was chosen by George Martin for the first Beatles single. However, after protests from John and Paul, they agreed that they would record “Love Me Do.” George Martin passed the song to Gerry and the Pacemakers, who recorded it and reached Number One the following year. Their success led Murray to offer another of his songs, “I Like It,” which also reached Number One.
His magic formula continued with hits for Freddie and the Dreamers, “You Were Made for Me” I’m Telling You Now,” and “I Knew It All the Time,” recorded by the Dave Clark Five.
His 1964 book “How to Write a Hit Song” inspired Sting, aged 12, to start writing songs. Sting now refers to Murray as his mentor.
Following on from that success, Murray teamed up with Peter Callendar, and together they wrote hits for the Tremeloes, Georgie Fame, Manfred Mann, Tony Christie, Vanity Fare, and Cliff Richard.
Murray and Callander were also Christie's producers and produced “Is This the Way to Amarillo,” written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. Christie also recorded a Murray, Callendar song, “Las Vegas.”
After writing many hits for other people, in October 1965, Murray had a hit single as a performer, with his humorous composition, "Down Came the Rain", issued under the pseudonym of Mister Murray, with "Whatever Happened to Music. " It reached number 30 in the NMW chart. But there was still success as it was recorded by various artists and released in Italian. He also wrote another humorous track. “My Brother”, which was recorded by Terry Scott in 1962, became a children's favourite on Saturday morning radio.
In 1974, Murray and Callander formed their own record label, Bus Stop, through which they launched the career of Paper Lace and their first two singles, released in 1974, were both written by Murray and Callander: “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” and “The Night Chiago Died,” both Number One hits. And the latter was also Number One in the USA. Another song Murray was involved in was "Sing Me," a UK hit for Opportunity Knocks winners, The Brothers, in 1977.
In 1968, Murray became the youngest ever director of the PRS for Music. (Performing Rights Society)
His comedy links continued and in the mid-1980s, just before the privatisation of BT, Murray wrote and starred in a series of comedy programmes, The Telefun Show, which were only available for listening via the telephone (by dialling 01 246 8070 in the UK) in a similar way to the contemporary Dial-A-Disc service, which he also presented and which attracted up to 300,000 calls per day.
After "Down Came the Rain", Murray built up a reputation for comedy in many areas, including voice characterisation for movies and radio commercials, as well as for after-dinner speaking.
He has written several best-selling books on the subject, including Mitch Murray's One-Liners for Weddings (1994), Mitch Murray's One-Liners for Business and Mitch Murray's One-Liners for Speeches on Special Occasions.
Murray has won two Ivor Novello Awards, including the Jimmy Kennedy Award. Murray has written, or co-written, songs that have produced five UK and three US chart-topping records. He has also been awarded the Gold Badge of Merit by the BASCA.
Murray was appointed CBE in 2019 for his services to music.
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