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Lot Essay
I needed to have an acoustic guitar to use at shows to replicate the acoustic sound I was using on the records. The best guitar for that in the late 1970s and early 1980s was made by Ovation. I also like the way these guitars make me play because they feel a little bit like an electric guitar while making the sound of an acoustic.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023
When the 1984 B-side ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ and Meat Is Murder album track ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ were first added to The Smiths’ live set in September 1984, it was necessary to add an acoustic guitar to The Smiths’ touring arsenal. Like many professional musicians of the 70s and 80s who preferred not to take their more valuable vintage acoustics on the road, Marr turned to Ovations for touring due to their built-in electronics and sturdiness. After first hiring an Ovation Glen Campbell during the Hatful of Hollow Tour in late 1984, Marr purchased two Ovation Legends ahead of The Smiths’ 1985 tour – one black and one Sunburst. Marr used the Ovations for performances of ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ throughout the 1985 Meat Is Murder Tour from 27 February to 1 October 1985, and for around ten performances of ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ when it was added to the set during the North American leg of the tour. I loved the shows on The Smiths’ first American tour, Marr recalled in his 2016 autobiography. We were into another new phase of the band, and I felt genuine appreciation for what we were about. When we played to American kids we arrived fully formed, and they loved the fact that we were so different from all the other bands. Morrissey would whip up the crowd from the first word, and I would back him up while keeping up the intensity with Mike and Andy. Our audience understood that we were a new kind of guitar band with new values, and that we were more than ready to actually rock out. Marr can be seen playing the Sunburst Ovation for ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ in surviving footage from the show at Paseo De Camoens in Madrid on 18 May 1985, which was originally filmed for broadcast on Spanish television channel TVE 2. ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ was paired in a medley with two verses of Elvis Presley’s ‘(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame’ during the final leg of the tour in Scotland from 22 September to 1 October 1985. At some point during the Meat Is Murder Tour, the black Ovation disappeared and was presumed stolen.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023
When the 1984 B-side ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ and Meat Is Murder album track ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ were first added to The Smiths’ live set in September 1984, it was necessary to add an acoustic guitar to The Smiths’ touring arsenal. Like many professional musicians of the 70s and 80s who preferred not to take their more valuable vintage acoustics on the road, Marr turned to Ovations for touring due to their built-in electronics and sturdiness. After first hiring an Ovation Glen Campbell during the Hatful of Hollow Tour in late 1984, Marr purchased two Ovation Legends ahead of The Smiths’ 1985 tour – one black and one Sunburst. Marr used the Ovations for performances of ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ throughout the 1985 Meat Is Murder Tour from 27 February to 1 October 1985, and for around ten performances of ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ when it was added to the set during the North American leg of the tour. I loved the shows on The Smiths’ first American tour, Marr recalled in his 2016 autobiography. We were into another new phase of the band, and I felt genuine appreciation for what we were about. When we played to American kids we arrived fully formed, and they loved the fact that we were so different from all the other bands. Morrissey would whip up the crowd from the first word, and I would back him up while keeping up the intensity with Mike and Andy. Our audience understood that we were a new kind of guitar band with new values, and that we were more than ready to actually rock out. Marr can be seen playing the Sunburst Ovation for ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ in surviving footage from the show at Paseo De Camoens in Madrid on 18 May 1985, which was originally filmed for broadcast on Spanish television channel TVE 2. ‘Rusholme Ruffians’ was paired in a medley with two verses of Elvis Presley’s ‘(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame’ during the final leg of the tour in Scotland from 22 September to 1 October 1985. At some point during the Meat Is Murder Tour, the black Ovation disappeared and was presumed stolen.