Watch The Last Shadow Puppets Cover The Smiths With Johnny Marr In Manchester
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29 years after their breakup, the Smiths remain deeply embedded in the DNA of just about every British rock band. And last night in the Smiths’ hometown of Manchester, one of the UK’s biggest rock stars paid tribute. The Last Shadow Puppets, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner’s side project with his friend Miles Kane, played a set at Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl, and they brought along a special guest. The band opened the show with a version of the Smiths’ Strangeways Here We Come classic “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me,” with Smiths guitar legend Johnny Marr sitting in. It feels a bit weird to hear Alex Turner singing Morrissey’s lyrics, since the two couldn’t be more different in terms of style or persona, but the crowd ate it up. Watch it below.
Later in the show, Marr also sat in while the Last Shadow Puppets covered another group of Manchester legends, taking on the Fall’s “Totally Wired.” Here’s that video:
Is it just me, or did Marr sound more comfortable playing the Fall than he did playing the Smiths?
UPDATE: Pitchfork points out that Smiths drummer Mike Joyce was in attendance at the show and had a humorous encounter in the audience, which Joyce later detailed on Facebook:
So I’m at The Last Shadow Puppets gig tonight and Johnny Marr walks on and they play, ‘Last Night I Dreamt…’ The guy next to me says, “Seen the guy on the right with black hair? That’s Johnny Marr, the guitarist from The Smiths and this is a Smiths song they’re playing”. I didn’t say owt, I just couldn’t.