T
Tingle
Guest
Johnny appeared at the Meltdown Festival curated by Patti Smith at a show called 'US-UK Folk Connections'. I say that it was curated by Patti Smith, but she acknowledges that she had a 'sub-curator' for this show in the form of Lenny Kaye. The show featured musicians from the US and the UK and indeed other parts of the globe. I nearly said 'English speaking' parts, but Rhys Jones from the Superfurry Animals who sang a Welsh folk song.
Bert Jansch played a couple of songs half way through the first half or the 4 hour concert. He then invited Johnny Marr on stage, to almost embarassingly loud applause, who sat to Bert's left as they both played acoustic guitar. Johnny was dressed in blue jeans, a brown T-shirt and a black leather-lookingt jacket. He looked very young - like he's hardly aged at all, though I couldn't help the feeling that one day he might look like this man www.sterlingtimes.org/ed_stewart2.jpg . The songs he played with Bert were, I think "Pretty Sarah" and "Pretty Polly".
They both left the stage and then Johnny's band returned, followed by Johnny. Johnny didn't get much a of welcome - in fact he said something like "It's very quiet here", but then he had only just left the stage. The first tune was an instrumental that I recall being something like "Money Changes Everything" i.e. a tune looking for a lyric. Next he said "We're now gonna try a Mancunian folk song". The intro wasn't the same as the 'Please Please Please let me get what I want' that we know and love - it was longer - but before he started singing tears were welling in my eyes and I knew what he was going to sing. It was an emotional experience, but because Johnny was playing electric guitar and there were two other guitars and a drummer involved, it didn't have the same tenderness as 'William's' b-side. It was longer than the 1 minute 50 seconds - He repeated the last verse I think. He then played 2 other tunes, one of which may have been by Jackson C. Frank
After Johnny and the Healers was the interval. In the second half of the show Robyn Hitchcock appeared with someone called John Paul Jones. They played a Bob Dylan tune and Hitchcock described Dylan as being "the link between George Formby and Morrissey", which got a laugh. I think he said something else about Morrissey but I can't recall what exactly.
Neil Finn played too and invited Johnny back on stage. Thank God they didn't sing "Weather with you" which would've ruined my evening. I think that was all from Johnny until the finale (after a tedious and over-long set from Roy Harper). Nearly everyone was on stage either playing or singing huddled round a microphone with an A4 sheet of lyrics in hand. Johnny led the finale and sang the first verse I think. The song went something like "lay my baby down". Patti Smith was to Johnny's left and was earnestly singing along and bouncing around like an embarrassing auntie. Roy Harper sand a verse at Johnny's mic and I think Johnny playfully kissed him on the cheak as he finished. *bleah!*
I loved 'Please, Please....' but I could've done without the final thing - he seemed to be carrying the show and particularly the finale, perhaps, you could say, like he carried much of the weight of The Smiths on his shoulders.
Bert Jansch played a couple of songs half way through the first half or the 4 hour concert. He then invited Johnny Marr on stage, to almost embarassingly loud applause, who sat to Bert's left as they both played acoustic guitar. Johnny was dressed in blue jeans, a brown T-shirt and a black leather-lookingt jacket. He looked very young - like he's hardly aged at all, though I couldn't help the feeling that one day he might look like this man www.sterlingtimes.org/ed_stewart2.jpg . The songs he played with Bert were, I think "Pretty Sarah" and "Pretty Polly".
They both left the stage and then Johnny's band returned, followed by Johnny. Johnny didn't get much a of welcome - in fact he said something like "It's very quiet here", but then he had only just left the stage. The first tune was an instrumental that I recall being something like "Money Changes Everything" i.e. a tune looking for a lyric. Next he said "We're now gonna try a Mancunian folk song". The intro wasn't the same as the 'Please Please Please let me get what I want' that we know and love - it was longer - but before he started singing tears were welling in my eyes and I knew what he was going to sing. It was an emotional experience, but because Johnny was playing electric guitar and there were two other guitars and a drummer involved, it didn't have the same tenderness as 'William's' b-side. It was longer than the 1 minute 50 seconds - He repeated the last verse I think. He then played 2 other tunes, one of which may have been by Jackson C. Frank
After Johnny and the Healers was the interval. In the second half of the show Robyn Hitchcock appeared with someone called John Paul Jones. They played a Bob Dylan tune and Hitchcock described Dylan as being "the link between George Formby and Morrissey", which got a laugh. I think he said something else about Morrissey but I can't recall what exactly.
Neil Finn played too and invited Johnny back on stage. Thank God they didn't sing "Weather with you" which would've ruined my evening. I think that was all from Johnny until the finale (after a tedious and over-long set from Roy Harper). Nearly everyone was on stage either playing or singing huddled round a microphone with an A4 sheet of lyrics in hand. Johnny led the finale and sang the first verse I think. The song went something like "lay my baby down". Patti Smith was to Johnny's left and was earnestly singing along and bouncing around like an embarrassing auntie. Roy Harper sand a verse at Johnny's mic and I think Johnny playfully kissed him on the cheak as he finished. *bleah!*
I loved 'Please, Please....' but I could've done without the final thing - he seemed to be carrying the show and particularly the finale, perhaps, you could say, like he carried much of the weight of The Smiths on his shoulders.
