This Chiming Man

Throughout the history of rock 'n' roll, the notion of the Supergroup has always looked far better on pieces of paper in an accountant's office than it sounded on record.

From the chance meeting of the Million Dollar Quartet of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins in Sun Studios in 1956 through the counter-culture conglomerate of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to the Prog Rock pension plan that was Asia (whereby former members of Yes, ELP and King Crimson ruled the AOR airwaves for what seemed like an age during the early '80s), this musical version of Fantasy Football never truly connected in a creative way until the beginning of the '90s when key members of Manchester's two most significant bands of the previous decade joined forces.

The initial reports that Bernard Sumner of New Order and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr had teamed up on a semi-permanent basis seemed unlikely — surely the electro-dance introspection of Sumner could hardly sit alongside the exhilarating six-string orchestrations of Marr, never mind take the occasional contributions of Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe on board?

Yet Electronic's eponymous 1991 debut album worked like a charm, freeing Sumner and Marr from their respective present and past and opening up intriguing future possibilities. Unfortunately, other commitments prevented the duo resurfacing until 1996's rather overcooked Raise The Pressure, but with the release of Twisted Tenderness, Electronic have made their most fully realised work yet.

"We took a more traditional, conventional approach this time," says Johnny Marr. "On the earlier albums we were more influenced by the ethos of Dance music and there was little or no distinction between the writing and recording — we were constructing those records while we were actually in the studio. I don't mean to sound down on that work, but myself and Bernard are songwriters first and foremost rather than producers who also happen to write. By actually writing and rehearsing the songs thoroughly before we recorded them we were also able to work far more quickly — which made a change for us!"

For Twisted Tenderness, Johnny and Bernard also brought in an outside producer to work with them, in this case former New Order collaborator and US Dance legend Arthur Baker.

"Well, Bernard had first worked with Arthur back in 1983 on New Order's 'Confusion' and they'd always kept in touch," explains Marr. "He's incredibly talented, but what was important for us was that he thinks as a fan rather than as a musician. Some producers become obsessed with technology and getting a record to sound as up-to-date as possible rather than just relying on their instinct to get the best possible result from a song. Also, I didn't want to be 100% responsible for the finished record. We'd written the songs, we were happy with them and I just wanted to get in there and play my guitar."

Ah yes, the guitar! Just in case younger readers have been reared on a daily diet of Classic Hits radio, between 1982 and 1987 John Martin Maher entered the realm of celestial six-stringers courtesy of The Smiths, absorbing influences from every period of Rock history and forging a uniquely melodic style in the process. More about The Smiths later, but on the first two Electronic albums those trademark riffs and sweeping chord sequences were marked by their absence, subsumed into the overall sound, so what prompted Johnny to crank up his amps this time around?

"I suppose there was something within me that wanted to get away from being stereotyped," he says, somewhat remarkably given that he's one of the best guitarists ever to have plugged in. "Since my teens I'd been driven by trying to orchestrate records with the guitar. I'd never really thought just as a guitarist, I'd always thought like a producer who happened to play that instrument. In my own head I was like a Phil Spector even when I was just sitting in my bedroom. I just wanted to get away from that whole guitar hero thing for a while, but when we were writing the songs for this album a combination of things got me back into it.

First I'd been listening to a lot of Pete Townshend and Peter Green again, and one day we were rehearsing and I stopped playing one song, saying 'That's too Johnny Marr!' to which Bernard rather obviously pointed out 'But you are Johnny Marr!' So I kinda got out of that phase and really relished setting up my amps and guitars in the corner of the studio and letting rip. This is Johnny World, come near here and you die! (laughs)."

While Twisted Tenderness is Electronic's most balanced record, Marr is still proud of their second effort, Raise The Pressure. Released at the height of Britpop mania, this saw several songs co-written with former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos and was virtually dismissed out of hand by a media high on Union Jack imagery and a "Battle Of The Bands" which amounted to a glorified schoolyard scrap.

"It was an odd period all round," says Johnny somewhat ruefully. "The whole Blur vs Oasis thing was a bit ridiculous really, although when it made the main evening news you had to laugh in a way. We'd spent far too long making the album — the guts of two years — and there does come a point when if you're listening to something for too long you lose all sense of what you were trying to do when you started out. I think we paid too much attention to detail. Suddenly we'd gone from just making another record to making a top-of-the-range hi-fi record.

We've learned our lesson on that score, but I do still think that had any other band released a record with 'Forbidden City', 'One Day', 'Out Of My League' and 'For You' on it, they would have been praised to the heavens. Electronic tend to be over-analysed, but then again, I suppose Bernard and myself do bring quite a lot of baggage with us."

Well, just a tad. No matter what else he may do, there's no way Johnny Marr will ever be allowed to escape the legacy of The Smiths. Undoubtedly the most important act to have emerged from England since the Sex Pistols (although by applying FIFA qualification rules, as all eight Smiths' parents were born on this side of the Irish Sea they're actually more qualified to Rock for the Republic than U2), the combination of Morrissey's provocative and humorous lyrics and Marr's mercurial playing, coupled with the solid, unobtrusive rhythm section of Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, seriously changed the face of Pop — and countless thousands of lives in the process.

Marr has no problem being complimented on the massive body of work the band left behind, and is reasonably tolerant on the causes of the eventual split (a schism he subtly hinted at in the band's last-ever cover interview, conducted with Hot Press in the summer of 1987), but what irks him is the amount of coverage still given to the legal wranglings surrounding The Smiths' eventual demise.

In particular, a recent Channel 4 programme in the Young Guns — Go For It! series (which tried to cram the entire Smiths saga into 30 minutes — an impossible task, especially given the non-cooperation of Morrissey) simply added to what he perceives as an inordinate interest in the negative aspects of the band.

"They got it completely wrong," sighs Marr. "Myself, Mike and Andy all agreed to appear in it to give the thing some semblance of balance, but it just came across like a bunch of old musos whinging. The split did get a bit ugly — all splits do — but I do believe that there's abnormal media interest in the animosity aspect of The Smiths. The media have fuelled this, through articles, books, TV programmes and I can't relate to it at all.

For five-and-a-half years we made great music, and if people want to concentrate on that then fair enough, but focusing on the twelve years since just fuels this notion of bickering. I see all the others now and again and there's no animosity, but this obsession with 'The Smiths — What Went Wrong?' is very sad. Even the basics of the band get distorted. You always see things about Morrissey staying in his bedroom writing and Johnny just wanting to rock. If anything it was the other way round!"

Even prior to The Smiths eventually calling it a day, Johnny lent his talents to other musicians' records, helping out Billy Bragg, Bryan Ferry and Talking Heads among others, but in 1989 he appeared to have found an ideal role as the guitar-playing foil to Chrissie Hynde in The Pretenders. The liaison was only to last a year, but it's one which Marr recalls fondly.

"That was a fantastic period for me in many ways," he says. "I'd been a huge fan of the band. Their first album sounded like manna from heaven to me and I learnt it note-for-note in my bedroom when I was sixteen. But for me, that year I spent touring with them was like 10% being the guitarist in The Pretenders and 90% finding a great personal friend in Chrissie Hynde. I was bruised and battered from the whole Smiths thing and she really helped me out. We hung out a lot and you can't put a price on what you personally learn from someone like Chrissie. She was like an encouraging older sister and is a national treasure. The reason we didn't continue was that she'd been on tour a long time and just needed to retreat and get a personal life. It was a timing thing, which is why I teamed up with my old friend Matt Johnson and joined The The. I just wanted to be in a band again."

But Johnny Marr's connection with The Pretenders certainly didn't come to a complete full-stop in 1990. Only last month he joined them onstage at the Royal Albert Hall for the tribute concert to Linda McCartney and caused open-mouthed astonishment in the Byrne residence by taking lead vocals on a version of "Meat Is Murder". Could you talk us through that one please, Johnny?

"Yeah, that did surprise a few people alright," he laughs. "The song had to be done really, out of respect to Linda. I'd met her a few times and she was a very special person. Anyway, Chrissie basically badgered me into doing it, but once I succumbed to the idea I'd no second thoughts about it. I'd sung backing vocals for years so I'd no real worries about my voice, but in some ways it was a baptism of fire. I remember at the soundcheck when I stepped up to the mike and looked across to the side of the stage and there were Paul McCartney, George Michael and Neil Finn looking at me. That was a bit of a brown trouser moment, but it was fine on the night. I hope."

With his Electronic partner heading off to record another New Order album, Marr doesn't intend lying idle for the coming year.

"No, I'm already working on a solo album. Recording has started with a bunch of friends from Manchester and I'm not only singing lead vocals on it but writing all the lyrics as well. It's sounding good at the moment and we'll definitely be touring with it. As things stand the record company would like me to release it under my own name, but I'm not too keen on that. I like the comfort blanket of a band identity."

Finally, given that The Smiths and his guitar style in particular have spawned countless imitators (not least on the current Cranberries' album, which features the song "Copycat", ironically — or possibly not — a virtual rewrite of "William, It Was Really Nothing"), has there ever been a semi-waking moment when he turned on his radio and thought "Is that me?"?

"Nah," comes the jovial reply. "I can remember every single note I've ever played. Honest! I know that plenty of people took The Smiths as a starting point — and fair play to 'em, if you'd told me when I was fifteen that I'd be imitated by tons of bands I'd have been delighted — but while they grabbed the shadow, they almost all missed the substance of what we were about. Only Radiohead, who don't really sound like The Smiths anyway, have got the passion and emotion of what we did. Guitarists copying me is fine — I copied everyone when I was starting out — but ultimately I'm the best Johnny Marr-style guitar player around."

Twisted Tenderness by Electronic is out now on Parlophone.