Johnny Marr has reacted to Prime Minister Andy Burnham covering The Smiths on guitar during a visit to Kyiv.
The PM, who previously served as Mayor of Greater Manchester, jammed ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ from the band’s 1985 album ‘Meat Is Murder’ alongside a Ukrainian soldier.
“I’m out of practice, a little bit,” he said as he strummed the instrument. He also explained: “It’s a song by a Manchester band called The Smiths.”
Burnham’s first visit to Ukraine as PM saw him go to the country’s military and artistic unit, who perform on the front lines, in hospitals and at rehabilitation centres.
During a new interview with Absolute Radio, Marr was asked about the PM covering The Smiths. “I’ve only just been told about it, in great detail,” he responded.
“I think it’s an amazing thing. In all honesty, for me, it’s like a victory for the guitar. [It’s] just the way I’m wired; I always think like that.”
He continued: “I can’t quite get my head around it. I don’t know whether pride is the word, but it probably is. It’s kind of beyond me to sort of process it, really. Because it could be massive that, but I just sort of go, ‘How great is the guitar?’ What an amazing tool the guitar is, you know?
“My overwhelming feeling was that it was a victory of the guitar, really. So I know that this being political – and obviously with the plight of Ukraine… The more I think about it, the more I think how insignificant I am in it, really.”
Marr then agreed that the nod from Burnham shows the importance of music, globally, adding: “That’s a nice thought – I absolutely agree. And good on him, you know?” Check out a clip of the interview above.
Burnham called The Smiths’ 1984 compilation ‘Hatful Of Hollow’ “the record that changed everything” for him, and has previously hailed it as one of his favourite albums of all time (via The Quietus).
Last month, he featured The Smiths in a blind-ranking of his favourite British bands, along with the likes of Oasis, Elbow and Wolf Alice. Earlier this year, Oasis seemingly endorsed Burnham by permitting him to use ‘Some Might Say’ in a by-election campaign video.
Shortly after becoming Prime Minister, Burnham announced that music venues, clubs and pubs in England would get a 20 per cent cut in business rates next year. The costs will be funded following a review of the tax reliefs given to companies “such as vape shops”.
Elsewhere, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, members of Massive Attack, and Robert Smith of The Cure are among the 200 major artists calling on Burnham’s government to block the proposed development of the controversial new Rosebank oil field in the North Sea.
There is now pressure on the PM to remove expensive, prohibitive barriers of the post-Brexit touring crisis, crack down on the copyright exceptions in relation to AI, and make good on the government’s previous promises to ban ticket touts.
This spring, Burnham helped confirm that Manchester festival Beyond The Music – which he helped found – would be returning in 2026. He is set to participate in this year’s edition in October.
He spoke to NME along with other figures from the music industry in 2024 about the event, and highlighted the dire need to support grassroots music venues and new artists across the UK.
NME asked Burnham for his reaction to Coldplay making their own ticket levy, after the band announced they would donate 10 per cent of their profits from their 2025 UK stadium shows to save the grassroots.
With the move, Chris Martin and co. followed in the footsteps of Enter Shikari, and it came in the wake of recommendations from MPs to add a £1 levy on arena and stadium gigs.
“I wholeheartedly support it,” Burnham told NME at the time. “I made a call here last year that the industry needs to do more to give back to support its own grassroots venues, rehearsal spaces and talent development systems. I think it’s brilliant, and I applaud Coldplay for doing that.”
In other news, Johnny Marr has shared a new single, ‘It’s Time’, which sees him take on “assholes with dodgy views”. The song will appear on the singer-songwriter’s fifth solo album ‘The Age Of Everything’, out this autumn.
He played a big homecoming gig at Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl this summer, ahead of a stop at Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens. Marr’s concert at London’s OVO Arena Wembley, initially scheduled for October 24, was postponed last month. A new date is yet to be confirmed.
