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Lot Essay
The Rickenbacker was the first guitar that I would become associated with. I decided to get one because, as well as loving the look of it, I thought it might make me write and play in a certain way. Unlike Gibson Les Pauls or Fender Stratocasters, the Rickenbacker isn't known for a traditional rock approach and I thought it would be good for my melodic style of playing, focusing more on chord changes and hooks. It sometimes sped my playing up a bit too, as quite a lot of the songs I wrote on it were fast and hyperactive sounding. The best example of the way it sounds is on the intro to 'What Difference Does It Make?' by The Smiths and on 'For You' by Electronic. I still go back to this guitar and have played it on lots of things right throughout my career. It's also pictured on the cover of the Oasis single 'Supersonic'.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023
JOHNNY MARR’S LEGENDARY 1982 RICKENBACKER 330 – THE SOUND OF THE SMITHS’ DEBUT ALBUM AND 'THIS CHARMING MAN'
With a handful of gigs under their belt and momentum building for the band in the run up to the release of The Smiths’ debut single ‘Hand In Glove’ in mid-May 1983, Marr was in dire need of a backup for his Gretsch Super Axe (lot 2). In 2016 autobiography Set The Boy Free Marr relates an unfortunate incident during an early opening for Richard Hell at Manchester’s Rafters where he had to stop the set to replace a broken string on stage as the band waited. As soon as he received his first publishing advance for the single, Marr set out to A1 Repairs in Manchester in around June 1983 and selected a new Rickenbacker 330 in Jetglo. I got it when The Smiths started taking off, Marr told Guitar World in 2024. It was the first “Does this mean I’ve made it?” thing I got. Before that, I had been playing a Gretsch Super Axe and constantly snapping strings because I was tuned up a whole step. I was forever snapping strings, so when the band got a deal, I got the Rickenbacker to be my ‘backup guitar’, but that [soon] changed because it was better than my ‘main guitar’ [laughs].
Marr’s choice of instrument was a considered one, designed to prevent his slipping into old blues-rock clichés and instead steer his songwriting in a more melodic and chordal direction. I bought the Rickenbacker because I loved the look of it, writes Marr, and also because I knew it would make me play in a way that would be good for my writing. Some guitars [like the Gibson Les Paul] are designed to be as easy to play as possible and are great for a rock approach, but as much as I liked the Les Paul, I was aware that it might influence my style in the wrong way. The Rickenbacker would make it more difficult to fall into an automatic rock technique, and from a sound point of view it wouldn’t be bluesy. Marr found that the Rickenbacker suited him perfectly, pointing him away from anything too blues-rock based and bringing new aspects of his playing to the fore. My sound became even clearer and I ended up playing a lot of chord shapes and arpeggios, just because of the way Rickenbackers are, he told Rickenbacker expert Martin Kelly in 2021. It became my main guitar for the first few Smiths tours. My whole style and sound came together from getting that black Ricky. It was a part of the band's identity, and even though I started using different guitars later on, the black Rickenbacker 330 was the guitar I was most associated with until I started using Fender Jaguars in 2005.
The Rickenbacker was first seen when The Smiths played the Brixton Ace in London on 29 June 1983. Incredibly, a 14-minute video and audio bootleg of this show exists thanks to Steve Catterall of Soundsville International, standing as a visual record of Marr’s first performance with this legendary guitar. From that first show, the Rickenbacker immediately supplanted the Super Axe to become Marr’s main guitar, used exclusively for all live performances as the band toured the club and university circuit up and down the country for the remainder of the year, whilst the Super Axe was relegated to a backup. Of particular note, The Smiths’ show at The Assembly Rooms in Derby on 6 December 1983 was recorded for a BBC The Old Grey Whistle Test special “Whistle Test on the Road”, broadcast on 9 December 1983.
‘THIS CHARMING MAN’
With The Smiths signed up to record their second session for John Peel’s BBC Radio One show on 14 September 1983, Marr set himself the task of coming up with a handful of new songs in the week prior and reportedly wrote the melody for one of the band’s most immaculate pop singles in under twenty minutes. Having the sessions booked gave me an impetus to come up with songs quickly, wrote Marr, and one morning I woke up with an idea to do something that sounded optimistic. I’d noticed that our label mates Aztec Camera were getting a lot of radio airplay, and I wondered if it might be because their songs were more breezy and upbeat. The sun was coming through the window, and I picked up my guitar [this Rickenbacker] and strummed a chord sequence that conjured the feeling I was trying to evoke. After a minute of playing, another sequence appeared under my fingers from nowhere, and after following that for a while I had what I thought was a song. Without needing to refine it, I recorded what I had on to my machine and then I overdubbed the first thing that came to me. Listening back, I thought the tune had a good feeling that seemed to come from out of the air, and I brought the cassette into Joe’s office and gave it to Morrissey. We rehearsed it a few days later and it was immediately great fun to play, and then Morrissey sang his vocal line and the song became ‘This Charming Man’. When music is effortless, no matter how complex or emotional, there’s something so right when you’re making it. When a group of individuals are working instinctively and intricately, thinking within milliseconds of each other, it’s as close to real magic as you can get.
Written the same day, Marr used the Rickenbacker to record both ‘Still Ill’ and ‘This Charming Man’, along with the songs ‘Back To The Old House’ and ‘This Night Has Opened My Eyes’, at London’s Maida Vale Studio Four on 14 September 1983 for broadcast on the John Peel Show the following week. Based on the Peel performance, it was agreed that the band should record ‘This Charming Man’ as their second single. Laid down at Strawberry Studios in Stockport after an initial ‘London Version’ was unsuccessful, Marr used this Rickenbacker to double track the lead guitar riff on a 1954 Telecaster, creating the chiming sound that would serve as most people’s first introduction to The Smiths. Marr overdubbed up to fifteen guitar tracks, including crashing chords from two electrics and two acoustics, a backwards countermelody on a 12-string Rickenbacker, and high ringing harmonics at the end of each chorus. When the sessions for ‘This Charming Man’ were finally being completed, I sat behind the console and listened to our new single in awe, writes Marr. The approach to the guitars was really innovative, and I dubbed it the Guitarchestra. Released in October 1983, ‘This Charming Man’ was widely praised in both the music and mainstream press, with Robert Palmer of The New York Times describing the song as sparkling, soaring, superlative pop-rock. Emerging from his Rickenbacker, the sound of ‘This Charming Man’ was the best representation of the jangly guitar sound that Marr became best known for. Writing in his 2016 autobiography, Marr reflects: The release of ‘This Charming Man’ in October changed my life and the life of everybody else in The Smiths. The record quickly went into the national charts, and suddenly we were known not just in the music press but in the suburbs and schools. Speaking to Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr notes that the song just came out of the sky really. So, it was a really lucky one… I'm in that rare club of people who have songs that people want to talk about forty years later. It's an amazing thing.
With Marr wielding this Rickenbacker, The Smiths made their television debut on British music television show The Tube on 4 November 1983 with a mimed performance of ‘This Charming Man’ in a flower-strewn rehearsal room, which has since been repurposed as the band’s official music video for the song. A similarly flower-strewn mimed performance in a disused power station swiftly followed on BBC Two’s Riverside on 7 November 1983. Although Marr borrowed Phil Manzanera’s Fireglo 12-string for their big Top of the Pops debut on 24 November, Marr was reunited with his own Jetglo Rickenbacker when the band made their triumphant return to the Haçienda in Manchester that evening after their introduction to the nation on the BBC. The Haçienda was overrun with people, recounts Marr. We couldn’t get the cars near the building, and when we stopped to get out, swarms of fans rushed at us, screaming and grabbing… Tony Wilson led us to the stage with a camera broadcasting our arrival on to the video screens while the audience welcomed us as homecoming heroes. The place was totally heaving with bodies, some around the amps and some lying across the stage monitors. It was all such an incredible contrast to the scene only ten months before, when we’d walked on to the stage to a smattering of applause from a handful of our friends. A Soundsville International bootleg recording of the full celebratory show is available.
DEBUT ALBUM AND TOUR, 1984
After signing a full record contract with Rough Trade following the successful release of 'Hand In Glove', The Smiths had thrown themselves into recording their first album at Elephant Studios in East London in July-August 1983, with Troy Tate of the Teardrop Explodes brought in to produce. The Rickenbacker served as Marr’s primary electric guitar for the Troy Tate sessions, which were ultimately shelved when the final mix was deemed unsatisfactory for release. The only recording to survive untouched from these sessions was the planned B-side ‘Jeane’, which would be approved for release as the B-side to ‘This Charming Man’.
The Smiths re-recorded their first album across Matrix Studios in London and Pluto Studios in Manchester with producer John Porter in September-October 1983 between dates on their national tour. With only his Gretsch Super Axe as a backup, the producer’s ’54 Tele and a borrowed Rickenbacker 12-string in the studio, the Rickenbacker served as Marr's main guitar during the recording and is heard across the whole debut album, with the exception of ‘Hand In Glove’ which had been recorded prior to the guitar’s arrival. Speaking to Martin Kelly in 2021, Marr notes: You hear the sound of that guitar best on ‘What Difference Does It Make'. The whole of that track is all about the Rickenbacker. Most unusually for Marr, he showcased only one guitar on 'What Difference...', playing the Rickenbacker for all the guitar parts and double-tracking the riff. Released as a single ahead of the album release in January 1984, ‘What Difference Does It Make' was the band’s biggest hit to date, peaking at No.12 on the UK singles chart. The sound of the Rickenbacker shaped the album and is otherwise most notably heard on ‘Still Ill’, ‘Pretty Girls Make Graves’, and ‘Reel Around The Fountain’. Released in February 1984, the self-titled album reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and has since been recognised as a landmark debut. In support of the album, Marr played the Rickenbacker when The Smiths performed ‘What Difference Does It Make’ on the BBC’s Oxford Road Show on 10 February 1984.
Marr used the Rickenbacker throughout The Smiths Tour of UK and Europe served from 31 January to 23 June 1984 in support of their debut album. Surviving photographs and bootleg recordings suggest that Marr's Gibson ES-355 (lot 7) may have served as the main guitar for the majority of the set on the first leg of the tour through to 20 March, until he reverted to the Rickenbacker as his main stage guitar on the second leg from 21 April, with the ES-355 brought on for 'Barbarism Begins At Home'. Notable appearances include: Hammersmith Palais on 12 March, where the band were joined by Sandie Shaw for ‘I Don’t Owe You Anything’; Markthalle in Hamburg on 4 May, which was filmed and broadcast on German television show Rockpalast; L’Eldorado in Paris on 9 May, which was filmed for French television show Les Enfants Du Rock, the GLC "Jobs For A Change" Festival at Jubilee Gardens, London, on 10 June, and of course Glastonbury Festival on 23 June 1984. Whilst The Smiths’ inclusion in the lineup was seen as a marked departure from the mellow folk and blues acts that regular festival-goers had come to expect, their lively set would ultimately win over the Glasto crowd and lead to a full-on stage invasion - the only time that the Pyramid stage has ever been stormed en masse. Much later the consensus in the media was that The Smiths’ set at Glastonbury was a turning point in the history of the festival and helped usher in a new era.
HATFUL OF HOLLOW
When the band assembled at Jam Studios in London’s Finsbury Park in July 1984 to record their next single and B-sides, Marr used the Rickenbacker to record the arpeggios on ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’, which would be double tracked by a trebly Epiphone Coronet (lot 14). ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’ was released on 20 August 1984, reaching No. 17 on the UK singles chart, and has since been named by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was later included on the band’s 1984 compilation album Hatful of Hollow, which consisted mainly of tracks recorded for BBC Radio 1 sessions with John Peel and David Jensen. It’s likely that three of the four BBC Radio 1 sessions featured on the album were recorded on this Rickenbacker. The Smiths toured the album in Ireland from 11 November, including two shows at Dublin’s SFX Centre, before closing with a show at the Parc des Expositions in Paris on 1 December 1984. By this time, Marr had acquired his 1984 Les Paul (lot 20), which featured heavily on the tour alongside the Rickenbacker.
Interviewed for Guitarist magazine just after the tour in early 1985, Marr revealed I really wanted to change guitars on the last tour we did, just because I thought the Johnny Marr fans would like to see me playing a different guitar. In rehearsals I did the songs on the Telecaster and the 12 string, but in the end I ended up playing the Rickenbacker because it's just got so much more power to it and a really thick bottom range, as well as obviously having the jangly sound. Divulging the details of his guitar collection for the feature, Marr noted I've got my old faithful which is my Rickenbacker 330; a 6 string, with a Bigsby. I find that this one is the workhorse, it's the one that I use on most of the numbers live and in rehearsals. When the group first started off I had the [Super Axe], and when we’d made enough money for me to buy another guitar, I bought my Rickenbacker 330.
THE QUEEN IS DEAD AND STRANGEWAYS, HERE WE COME
The Rickenbacker featured again on The Smiths’ third studio album The Queen Is Dead, recorded between RAK Studios in London and Jacobs Studios in Surrey from September-November 1985. Marr used the Rickenbacker to record the ethereal lead guitar on ‘Never Had No One Ever’, the electric layer on the acoustic-led ‘Cemetry Gates’ and the jangly top line on the chorus of ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’. The Rickenbacker also double-tracked the Les Paul on ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, as Marr told Guitar Player’s Joe Gore in 1990: I wanted something that was a rush all the way through, without a distinct middle eight as such. I thought the guitar breaks should be percussive, not too pretty or chordaI. I wanted a cheap, Les Paul sort of sound… On the first of the two breaks, I'm playing slide through an AMS harmonizer, really high. For the second one, I used a Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty and a Rickenbacker together, playing a regular Em shape, but it's sampled and triggered off the snare drum roll. Along with Marr’s Giffin Tele, second guitarist Craig Gannon used this Rickenbacker as one of his main guitars throughout The Queen Is Dead Tour from July to October 1986. Gannon played the Rickenbacker for ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ when he made his first public appearance with The Smiths on BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test on 20 May 1986.
‘Cemetry Gates’ would later be released as the B-side to 1986 single ‘Ask’, which also featured the Rickenbacker, as Marr told Gore: I play the G-Am-C-D progression on a Rickenbacker 330. Marr recalls that the Rickenbacker was one of the many guitars overdubbed on ‘Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before’, recorded at Wool Hall Studios, Bath, between March-April 1987 for The Smiths’ fourth and final studio album Strangeways, Here We Come. Interviewed by BAM around this time in 1987, Marr claimed I have a procedure I use: I use a Rickenbacker somewhere along the way on virtually every track. I've tried to get away from it, but when I hear the track, there's always a big hole where I want the Rickenbacker to be.
ELECTRONIC
Marr linked up with New Order’s Bernard Sumner to form the alternative dance supergroup Electronic in late 1987 following the breakup of The Smiths. Marr would consciously put the Rickenbacker to one side somewhat during this period, as he told Gore: I was getting a little tired of the things I was coming up with on it. About ‘86 I got really into the Les Paul and rediscovered Peter Green. I tried to play less chordally, a little more solo-notey. However, collaborator Bernard Sumner had no such qualms when he employed Marr’s Rickenbacker on the song ‘Tighten Up’. Tighten Up' was one that we wrote and recorded sat face to face, Marr told Kelly, Bernard playing my black Smiths Rickenbacker and me playing lan Curtis's Vox Phantom. We nailed that song really quickly. The song was released in the US as a promo single from the band’s 1991 debut album Electronic. Marr had re-embraced the Rickenbacker by the time the duo recorded Electronic’s third album Twisted Tenderness in 1999, deliberately enlisting the guitar to write and record the album’s lead single ‘Vivid’. With this new album I've gone back to a few guitars that were my mainstays when I was in The Smiths, Marr told Total Guitar in 1995. Like my Gretsch 6120… And my Rickenbacker 330 - I've got back into that. I went through my gear a few weeks ago, just testing out sounds. Pretty much by accident I ended up using most of the guitars that I'd used in The Smiths. When asked whether that was because they were the most familiar, Marr responded No, just because they sound great. In line with the recording, Marr played the Rickenbacker in the official music video for the single.
DEFINITELY MAYBE
In between Electronic album recordings, Marr famously loaned this Rickenbacker to Noel Gallagher in January 1994 for Oasis’ Definitely Maybe recording sessions at Monnow Valley Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales. Gallagher confirmed the tale when he appeared on Daniel Steinhardt and Mick Taylor’s YouTube series That Pedal Show in June 2023. So we’re recording ‘Definitely Maybe’ – the first attempt in Monnow Valley, Wales – and I had an Epiphone Les Paul right, because I couldn't afford a real one… anyway so I'd known Johnny Marr for a few years at this point, maybe two or three years, and he sent some guitars down to record… I'll never forget it, he just sends this black and white Rickenbacker right, that's just in a shitty case, and I'm looking at it and I know it's… I'm going, “surely he's not fucking mad enough to send down the Smiths guitar to a load of scallies from a council estate in South Manchester?” Turns out he is that mad. Although ultimately not used on the final album recording, the Rickenbacker was captured in the studio as part of the cover shoot for Oasis’ 1994 debut single ‘Supersonic’, shot at Monnow Valley Studios in January 1994 by photographer Michael Spencer Jones. In the final cover art, the Rickenbacker is seen laid on the floor behind Liam Gallagher amongst other guitars and recording equipment, while the back cover featured the same studio scene without the band.
Marr has continued to return to this Rickenbacker throughout his career. Of his solo recordings, the guitar is best heard on the song ‘This Tension’ on 2014 album Playland. Marr was last seen with the Rickenbacker when he picked out the riffs to ‘Accept Yourself’ and ‘This Charming Man’ during his appearance on Steinhardt and Taylor’s That Pedal Show in October 2023.
See lots 6, 8, and 15 for additional images of this lot.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023
JOHNNY MARR’S LEGENDARY 1982 RICKENBACKER 330 – THE SOUND OF THE SMITHS’ DEBUT ALBUM AND 'THIS CHARMING MAN'
With a handful of gigs under their belt and momentum building for the band in the run up to the release of The Smiths’ debut single ‘Hand In Glove’ in mid-May 1983, Marr was in dire need of a backup for his Gretsch Super Axe (lot 2). In 2016 autobiography Set The Boy Free Marr relates an unfortunate incident during an early opening for Richard Hell at Manchester’s Rafters where he had to stop the set to replace a broken string on stage as the band waited. As soon as he received his first publishing advance for the single, Marr set out to A1 Repairs in Manchester in around June 1983 and selected a new Rickenbacker 330 in Jetglo. I got it when The Smiths started taking off, Marr told Guitar World in 2024. It was the first “Does this mean I’ve made it?” thing I got. Before that, I had been playing a Gretsch Super Axe and constantly snapping strings because I was tuned up a whole step. I was forever snapping strings, so when the band got a deal, I got the Rickenbacker to be my ‘backup guitar’, but that [soon] changed because it was better than my ‘main guitar’ [laughs].
Marr’s choice of instrument was a considered one, designed to prevent his slipping into old blues-rock clichés and instead steer his songwriting in a more melodic and chordal direction. I bought the Rickenbacker because I loved the look of it, writes Marr, and also because I knew it would make me play in a way that would be good for my writing. Some guitars [like the Gibson Les Paul] are designed to be as easy to play as possible and are great for a rock approach, but as much as I liked the Les Paul, I was aware that it might influence my style in the wrong way. The Rickenbacker would make it more difficult to fall into an automatic rock technique, and from a sound point of view it wouldn’t be bluesy. Marr found that the Rickenbacker suited him perfectly, pointing him away from anything too blues-rock based and bringing new aspects of his playing to the fore. My sound became even clearer and I ended up playing a lot of chord shapes and arpeggios, just because of the way Rickenbackers are, he told Rickenbacker expert Martin Kelly in 2021. It became my main guitar for the first few Smiths tours. My whole style and sound came together from getting that black Ricky. It was a part of the band's identity, and even though I started using different guitars later on, the black Rickenbacker 330 was the guitar I was most associated with until I started using Fender Jaguars in 2005.
The Rickenbacker was first seen when The Smiths played the Brixton Ace in London on 29 June 1983. Incredibly, a 14-minute video and audio bootleg of this show exists thanks to Steve Catterall of Soundsville International, standing as a visual record of Marr’s first performance with this legendary guitar. From that first show, the Rickenbacker immediately supplanted the Super Axe to become Marr’s main guitar, used exclusively for all live performances as the band toured the club and university circuit up and down the country for the remainder of the year, whilst the Super Axe was relegated to a backup. Of particular note, The Smiths’ show at The Assembly Rooms in Derby on 6 December 1983 was recorded for a BBC The Old Grey Whistle Test special “Whistle Test on the Road”, broadcast on 9 December 1983.
‘THIS CHARMING MAN’
With The Smiths signed up to record their second session for John Peel’s BBC Radio One show on 14 September 1983, Marr set himself the task of coming up with a handful of new songs in the week prior and reportedly wrote the melody for one of the band’s most immaculate pop singles in under twenty minutes. Having the sessions booked gave me an impetus to come up with songs quickly, wrote Marr, and one morning I woke up with an idea to do something that sounded optimistic. I’d noticed that our label mates Aztec Camera were getting a lot of radio airplay, and I wondered if it might be because their songs were more breezy and upbeat. The sun was coming through the window, and I picked up my guitar [this Rickenbacker] and strummed a chord sequence that conjured the feeling I was trying to evoke. After a minute of playing, another sequence appeared under my fingers from nowhere, and after following that for a while I had what I thought was a song. Without needing to refine it, I recorded what I had on to my machine and then I overdubbed the first thing that came to me. Listening back, I thought the tune had a good feeling that seemed to come from out of the air, and I brought the cassette into Joe’s office and gave it to Morrissey. We rehearsed it a few days later and it was immediately great fun to play, and then Morrissey sang his vocal line and the song became ‘This Charming Man’. When music is effortless, no matter how complex or emotional, there’s something so right when you’re making it. When a group of individuals are working instinctively and intricately, thinking within milliseconds of each other, it’s as close to real magic as you can get.
Written the same day, Marr used the Rickenbacker to record both ‘Still Ill’ and ‘This Charming Man’, along with the songs ‘Back To The Old House’ and ‘This Night Has Opened My Eyes’, at London’s Maida Vale Studio Four on 14 September 1983 for broadcast on the John Peel Show the following week. Based on the Peel performance, it was agreed that the band should record ‘This Charming Man’ as their second single. Laid down at Strawberry Studios in Stockport after an initial ‘London Version’ was unsuccessful, Marr used this Rickenbacker to double track the lead guitar riff on a 1954 Telecaster, creating the chiming sound that would serve as most people’s first introduction to The Smiths. Marr overdubbed up to fifteen guitar tracks, including crashing chords from two electrics and two acoustics, a backwards countermelody on a 12-string Rickenbacker, and high ringing harmonics at the end of each chorus. When the sessions for ‘This Charming Man’ were finally being completed, I sat behind the console and listened to our new single in awe, writes Marr. The approach to the guitars was really innovative, and I dubbed it the Guitarchestra. Released in October 1983, ‘This Charming Man’ was widely praised in both the music and mainstream press, with Robert Palmer of The New York Times describing the song as sparkling, soaring, superlative pop-rock. Emerging from his Rickenbacker, the sound of ‘This Charming Man’ was the best representation of the jangly guitar sound that Marr became best known for. Writing in his 2016 autobiography, Marr reflects: The release of ‘This Charming Man’ in October changed my life and the life of everybody else in The Smiths. The record quickly went into the national charts, and suddenly we were known not just in the music press but in the suburbs and schools. Speaking to Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr notes that the song just came out of the sky really. So, it was a really lucky one… I'm in that rare club of people who have songs that people want to talk about forty years later. It's an amazing thing.
With Marr wielding this Rickenbacker, The Smiths made their television debut on British music television show The Tube on 4 November 1983 with a mimed performance of ‘This Charming Man’ in a flower-strewn rehearsal room, which has since been repurposed as the band’s official music video for the song. A similarly flower-strewn mimed performance in a disused power station swiftly followed on BBC Two’s Riverside on 7 November 1983. Although Marr borrowed Phil Manzanera’s Fireglo 12-string for their big Top of the Pops debut on 24 November, Marr was reunited with his own Jetglo Rickenbacker when the band made their triumphant return to the Haçienda in Manchester that evening after their introduction to the nation on the BBC. The Haçienda was overrun with people, recounts Marr. We couldn’t get the cars near the building, and when we stopped to get out, swarms of fans rushed at us, screaming and grabbing… Tony Wilson led us to the stage with a camera broadcasting our arrival on to the video screens while the audience welcomed us as homecoming heroes. The place was totally heaving with bodies, some around the amps and some lying across the stage monitors. It was all such an incredible contrast to the scene only ten months before, when we’d walked on to the stage to a smattering of applause from a handful of our friends. A Soundsville International bootleg recording of the full celebratory show is available.
DEBUT ALBUM AND TOUR, 1984
After signing a full record contract with Rough Trade following the successful release of 'Hand In Glove', The Smiths had thrown themselves into recording their first album at Elephant Studios in East London in July-August 1983, with Troy Tate of the Teardrop Explodes brought in to produce. The Rickenbacker served as Marr’s primary electric guitar for the Troy Tate sessions, which were ultimately shelved when the final mix was deemed unsatisfactory for release. The only recording to survive untouched from these sessions was the planned B-side ‘Jeane’, which would be approved for release as the B-side to ‘This Charming Man’.
The Smiths re-recorded their first album across Matrix Studios in London and Pluto Studios in Manchester with producer John Porter in September-October 1983 between dates on their national tour. With only his Gretsch Super Axe as a backup, the producer’s ’54 Tele and a borrowed Rickenbacker 12-string in the studio, the Rickenbacker served as Marr's main guitar during the recording and is heard across the whole debut album, with the exception of ‘Hand In Glove’ which had been recorded prior to the guitar’s arrival. Speaking to Martin Kelly in 2021, Marr notes: You hear the sound of that guitar best on ‘What Difference Does It Make'. The whole of that track is all about the Rickenbacker. Most unusually for Marr, he showcased only one guitar on 'What Difference...', playing the Rickenbacker for all the guitar parts and double-tracking the riff. Released as a single ahead of the album release in January 1984, ‘What Difference Does It Make' was the band’s biggest hit to date, peaking at No.12 on the UK singles chart. The sound of the Rickenbacker shaped the album and is otherwise most notably heard on ‘Still Ill’, ‘Pretty Girls Make Graves’, and ‘Reel Around The Fountain’. Released in February 1984, the self-titled album reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and has since been recognised as a landmark debut. In support of the album, Marr played the Rickenbacker when The Smiths performed ‘What Difference Does It Make’ on the BBC’s Oxford Road Show on 10 February 1984.
Marr used the Rickenbacker throughout The Smiths Tour of UK and Europe served from 31 January to 23 June 1984 in support of their debut album. Surviving photographs and bootleg recordings suggest that Marr's Gibson ES-355 (lot 7) may have served as the main guitar for the majority of the set on the first leg of the tour through to 20 March, until he reverted to the Rickenbacker as his main stage guitar on the second leg from 21 April, with the ES-355 brought on for 'Barbarism Begins At Home'. Notable appearances include: Hammersmith Palais on 12 March, where the band were joined by Sandie Shaw for ‘I Don’t Owe You Anything’; Markthalle in Hamburg on 4 May, which was filmed and broadcast on German television show Rockpalast; L’Eldorado in Paris on 9 May, which was filmed for French television show Les Enfants Du Rock, the GLC "Jobs For A Change" Festival at Jubilee Gardens, London, on 10 June, and of course Glastonbury Festival on 23 June 1984. Whilst The Smiths’ inclusion in the lineup was seen as a marked departure from the mellow folk and blues acts that regular festival-goers had come to expect, their lively set would ultimately win over the Glasto crowd and lead to a full-on stage invasion - the only time that the Pyramid stage has ever been stormed en masse. Much later the consensus in the media was that The Smiths’ set at Glastonbury was a turning point in the history of the festival and helped usher in a new era.
HATFUL OF HOLLOW
When the band assembled at Jam Studios in London’s Finsbury Park in July 1984 to record their next single and B-sides, Marr used the Rickenbacker to record the arpeggios on ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’, which would be double tracked by a trebly Epiphone Coronet (lot 14). ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’ was released on 20 August 1984, reaching No. 17 on the UK singles chart, and has since been named by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was later included on the band’s 1984 compilation album Hatful of Hollow, which consisted mainly of tracks recorded for BBC Radio 1 sessions with John Peel and David Jensen. It’s likely that three of the four BBC Radio 1 sessions featured on the album were recorded on this Rickenbacker. The Smiths toured the album in Ireland from 11 November, including two shows at Dublin’s SFX Centre, before closing with a show at the Parc des Expositions in Paris on 1 December 1984. By this time, Marr had acquired his 1984 Les Paul (lot 20), which featured heavily on the tour alongside the Rickenbacker.
Interviewed for Guitarist magazine just after the tour in early 1985, Marr revealed I really wanted to change guitars on the last tour we did, just because I thought the Johnny Marr fans would like to see me playing a different guitar. In rehearsals I did the songs on the Telecaster and the 12 string, but in the end I ended up playing the Rickenbacker because it's just got so much more power to it and a really thick bottom range, as well as obviously having the jangly sound. Divulging the details of his guitar collection for the feature, Marr noted I've got my old faithful which is my Rickenbacker 330; a 6 string, with a Bigsby. I find that this one is the workhorse, it's the one that I use on most of the numbers live and in rehearsals. When the group first started off I had the [Super Axe], and when we’d made enough money for me to buy another guitar, I bought my Rickenbacker 330.
THE QUEEN IS DEAD AND STRANGEWAYS, HERE WE COME
The Rickenbacker featured again on The Smiths’ third studio album The Queen Is Dead, recorded between RAK Studios in London and Jacobs Studios in Surrey from September-November 1985. Marr used the Rickenbacker to record the ethereal lead guitar on ‘Never Had No One Ever’, the electric layer on the acoustic-led ‘Cemetry Gates’ and the jangly top line on the chorus of ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly’. The Rickenbacker also double-tracked the Les Paul on ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, as Marr told Guitar Player’s Joe Gore in 1990: I wanted something that was a rush all the way through, without a distinct middle eight as such. I thought the guitar breaks should be percussive, not too pretty or chordaI. I wanted a cheap, Les Paul sort of sound… On the first of the two breaks, I'm playing slide through an AMS harmonizer, really high. For the second one, I used a Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty and a Rickenbacker together, playing a regular Em shape, but it's sampled and triggered off the snare drum roll. Along with Marr’s Giffin Tele, second guitarist Craig Gannon used this Rickenbacker as one of his main guitars throughout The Queen Is Dead Tour from July to October 1986. Gannon played the Rickenbacker for ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ when he made his first public appearance with The Smiths on BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test on 20 May 1986.
‘Cemetry Gates’ would later be released as the B-side to 1986 single ‘Ask’, which also featured the Rickenbacker, as Marr told Gore: I play the G-Am-C-D progression on a Rickenbacker 330. Marr recalls that the Rickenbacker was one of the many guitars overdubbed on ‘Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before’, recorded at Wool Hall Studios, Bath, between March-April 1987 for The Smiths’ fourth and final studio album Strangeways, Here We Come. Interviewed by BAM around this time in 1987, Marr claimed I have a procedure I use: I use a Rickenbacker somewhere along the way on virtually every track. I've tried to get away from it, but when I hear the track, there's always a big hole where I want the Rickenbacker to be.
ELECTRONIC
Marr linked up with New Order’s Bernard Sumner to form the alternative dance supergroup Electronic in late 1987 following the breakup of The Smiths. Marr would consciously put the Rickenbacker to one side somewhat during this period, as he told Gore: I was getting a little tired of the things I was coming up with on it. About ‘86 I got really into the Les Paul and rediscovered Peter Green. I tried to play less chordally, a little more solo-notey. However, collaborator Bernard Sumner had no such qualms when he employed Marr’s Rickenbacker on the song ‘Tighten Up’. Tighten Up' was one that we wrote and recorded sat face to face, Marr told Kelly, Bernard playing my black Smiths Rickenbacker and me playing lan Curtis's Vox Phantom. We nailed that song really quickly. The song was released in the US as a promo single from the band’s 1991 debut album Electronic. Marr had re-embraced the Rickenbacker by the time the duo recorded Electronic’s third album Twisted Tenderness in 1999, deliberately enlisting the guitar to write and record the album’s lead single ‘Vivid’. With this new album I've gone back to a few guitars that were my mainstays when I was in The Smiths, Marr told Total Guitar in 1995. Like my Gretsch 6120… And my Rickenbacker 330 - I've got back into that. I went through my gear a few weeks ago, just testing out sounds. Pretty much by accident I ended up using most of the guitars that I'd used in The Smiths. When asked whether that was because they were the most familiar, Marr responded No, just because they sound great. In line with the recording, Marr played the Rickenbacker in the official music video for the single.
DEFINITELY MAYBE
In between Electronic album recordings, Marr famously loaned this Rickenbacker to Noel Gallagher in January 1994 for Oasis’ Definitely Maybe recording sessions at Monnow Valley Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales. Gallagher confirmed the tale when he appeared on Daniel Steinhardt and Mick Taylor’s YouTube series That Pedal Show in June 2023. So we’re recording ‘Definitely Maybe’ – the first attempt in Monnow Valley, Wales – and I had an Epiphone Les Paul right, because I couldn't afford a real one… anyway so I'd known Johnny Marr for a few years at this point, maybe two or three years, and he sent some guitars down to record… I'll never forget it, he just sends this black and white Rickenbacker right, that's just in a shitty case, and I'm looking at it and I know it's… I'm going, “surely he's not fucking mad enough to send down the Smiths guitar to a load of scallies from a council estate in South Manchester?” Turns out he is that mad. Although ultimately not used on the final album recording, the Rickenbacker was captured in the studio as part of the cover shoot for Oasis’ 1994 debut single ‘Supersonic’, shot at Monnow Valley Studios in January 1994 by photographer Michael Spencer Jones. In the final cover art, the Rickenbacker is seen laid on the floor behind Liam Gallagher amongst other guitars and recording equipment, while the back cover featured the same studio scene without the band.
Marr has continued to return to this Rickenbacker throughout his career. Of his solo recordings, the guitar is best heard on the song ‘This Tension’ on 2014 album Playland. Marr was last seen with the Rickenbacker when he picked out the riffs to ‘Accept Yourself’ and ‘This Charming Man’ during his appearance on Steinhardt and Taylor’s That Pedal Show in October 2023.
See lots 6, 8, and 15 for additional images of this lot.