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拍品专文
This is the most recent of my custom colour signature Jaguars. It was made for the Fever Dreams Pts 1–4 album and then played on tour with Blondie and The Killers.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023.
Following the four-year development and successful release of the Fender Johnny Marr Signature Jaguar in January 2012 (see footnote to lots 82 and 83), Fender supplied this Signature Jaguar to Johnny Marr in its stock Olympic White finish in March 2021. When Marr came up with the concept for a new yellow colour variant of his Signature Jag while working on his fourth solo studio album, he commissioned Michael Eastwood of British guitar builders Brian Eastwood Guitars to refinish the stock Olympic White Jag in a custom ‘Fever Dream Yellow’ finish in preparation for the anticipated live dates in support of the album. Marr told us: The ‘Fever Dream Yellow’ came about when I was making the Fever Dreams album and thinking about the touring when it came out. The idea was to come up with a colour that in my mind might’ve been done by an amateur guitarist somewhere in America in the mid 1970’s when Strats were starting to be heavily customised. As far as I know, there was no existing Fender colour that was exactly like this at the time (Graffiti Yellow is different) so I got my friend Michael Eastwood to refinish one of my existing Jags and then Fender copied it faithfully for the limited edition. It took quite a few samples being sent back and forward to get it correct.
In conversation with author Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr explained the custom colour change: When it came to the colour of the [Signature] Jag, the first ones were either Olympic White or Metallic KO… [and] then I did a Sherwood Green, which was really popular. I’m not adding a new colour for commercial purposes, or to make them more collectable; it’s just part of what happens. When I feel like it’s time to have a new colour, then I’ll do it. With the most recent, Fever Dreams Yellow, I’d been touring with the Comet Sparkle (lot 102) for quite a long time and that guitar became synonymous with the Call the Comet tour, plus I’d played it on the theme song for the Bond film, so I thought, “It’s been three and a half years. It’s done loads of touring and then the Bond theme, so it’s time for a change.” The Fever Dreams record and tour felt like a different period in my life, so when I’m playing and I’m looking down and having this relationship with my instrument, I don’t want it to put my head back a few years. I think all guitarists are a bit like this; every few years, you want to mix it up. The difference is, though, that my signature Jag is perfection for me as an instrument. So, right now, I’m simply changing the colour.
Evidently Marr took possession of the refinished yellow Jaguar while still working on the new album, which took shape over the extended pandemic lockdown from early 2020 to summer 2021. The entire record was demoed and programmed with me playing everything on it, he told Premier Guitar in 2022. Then the band came in [post-lockdown] to make it sound more like “us” as a band. When asked about the guitars used on the new album, Marr told Guitar World’s Rod Brakes: I used the new Jaguar a lot, of course. On receipt, the guitar became one of his go-to Signature Jags for the album, used to record the songs ‘Sensory Street’, ‘Night and Day’, ‘Lightning People’, ‘All These Days’ and ‘Rubicon’. I suppose I’ve got to album four now and without being particularly conscious of it I just dropped [any limiting parameters], which is why there is a song like ‘Lightning People’ on it, Marr told Music Radar in 2022. That song has Simone [Butler] from Primal Scream. It has choir backing vocals. There are still no hip-hop loops per se, or strings, but I definitely expanded… To be honest, when I was writing I just thought, “This is going to sound good, fuck it.”
Marr debuted the Fever Dream Yellow Jag along with his new material when he kicked off a short run of intimate UK dates at Leeds Stylus on 20 September 2021 in the run up to a huge homecoming show supporting The Courteneers at Manchester’s Old Trafford Cricket Ground on 25 September 2021. From its first appearance on stage, Marr would play the Fever Dream Jag almost exclusively for the next three years, only switching it out on specific songs for his Lake Placid Blue sustainer Jag. These days, I quite like the fact I don't really change guitars much onstage, Marr told Kelly. There are a couple of songs where I've got the sustainers going, because that sound has become a thing in my songs over the past few years. In the studio, I still mix it up a lot and pull out different guitars that make me do different things… [But] if I'm going to guest onstage with someone like Primal Scream or Alicia Keys, I'm always going on with my signature Jag. That says it all really.
Alongside the October 2021 announcement of his forthcoming double album Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, Marr announced a global livestream event Live At The Crazy Face Factory set to stream from 10-14 November 2021, offering fans the chance to virtually step inside his custom-built Crazy Face Factory studio for a set of full-band live performances from across his career. Marr played the Fever Dream Yellow Jag throughout the live set, much of which is now available to view on Marr’s YouTube channel. Released on 25 February 2022, the critically acclaimed Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 reached number four in the UK Albums Chart, his highest position yet for a solo release. Marr also played the Fever Dream Yellow Jaguar in the official music videos for the singles ‘Tenement Time’ and ‘Night and Day’, released in November 2021 and January 2022 respectively.
A short run of live warm up shows followed in early April before Marr headlined the BBC 6 Music Festival at Cardiff University on 3 April 2022 and joined Blondie as the special guest on their Against The Odds UK arena tour from 22 April to 7 May 2022. Marr opened for Pearl Jam at British Summer Time Hyde Park in London on 9 July 2022 before heading across the pond to join The Killers on tour. Following a surprise guest appearance on stage with The Killers to close their headline set at Glastonbury in June 2019, Marr was invited to support The Killers on the North American leg of their Imploding The Mirage Tour from 19 August to 12 October 2022. At almost every show on the tour, Marr joined the band on stage during their encore to play a Smiths song on either this Fever Dream Yellow Jag or his Rickenbacker 340 (next lot), before closing with ‘Mr. Brightside’. When the tour landed at New York’s Madison Square Garden on 30 September, Marr welcomed old schoolfriend and ex-Smiths bassist Andy Rourke on stage for the final two songs of his set to perform the Smiths’ standards ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ and ‘How Soon Is Now?’, with Marr on the Fever Dream Jag. It became something of a tradition that whenever I played in New York Andy Rourke would come onstage and play a couple of Smiths songs, wrote Marr in his 2016 autobiography. It’s always a special thing for us. There’s something that happens when we play together that works exactly the same as it did in when we were in The Smiths.
Back in the UK, Marr continued to favour the Fever Dream Jag throughout a summer headline tour from 17 July to 25 August 2023 alongside various summer festivals including South Facing Festival in support of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds at Crystal Palace Bowl on 28 July and Electric Picnic near Dublin on 2 September 2023. Marr would switch back to the Comet Sparkle for a short time during his greatest hits Spirit Power Tour in support of the “best of” album Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr from 2-14 April 2024, only appearing with the Fever Dream Yellow Jag for the dates in Glasgow and Liverpool on 4 and 6 April respectively. However, the yellow Jag was back in favour when Marr set out on a co-headlining US tour with fellow Manchester musicians James from 17 September to 18 October 2024, during which James’ frontman Tim Booth would regularly join Marr on stage for the encore performance of Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’. By 2025, Marr had begun favouring his new Signature Special Jaguar with lipstick pickups as his main stage guitar. Inspired by Marr’s coveted custom refin, a special limited edition production run of the Johnny Marr Signature Jaguar in Fever Dream Yellow was released by Fender in October 2022.
JOHNNY MARR, MARR’S GUITARS, 2023.
Following the four-year development and successful release of the Fender Johnny Marr Signature Jaguar in January 2012 (see footnote to lots 82 and 83), Fender supplied this Signature Jaguar to Johnny Marr in its stock Olympic White finish in March 2021. When Marr came up with the concept for a new yellow colour variant of his Signature Jag while working on his fourth solo studio album, he commissioned Michael Eastwood of British guitar builders Brian Eastwood Guitars to refinish the stock Olympic White Jag in a custom ‘Fever Dream Yellow’ finish in preparation for the anticipated live dates in support of the album. Marr told us: The ‘Fever Dream Yellow’ came about when I was making the Fever Dreams album and thinking about the touring when it came out. The idea was to come up with a colour that in my mind might’ve been done by an amateur guitarist somewhere in America in the mid 1970’s when Strats were starting to be heavily customised. As far as I know, there was no existing Fender colour that was exactly like this at the time (Graffiti Yellow is different) so I got my friend Michael Eastwood to refinish one of my existing Jags and then Fender copied it faithfully for the limited edition. It took quite a few samples being sent back and forward to get it correct.
In conversation with author Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr explained the custom colour change: When it came to the colour of the [Signature] Jag, the first ones were either Olympic White or Metallic KO… [and] then I did a Sherwood Green, which was really popular. I’m not adding a new colour for commercial purposes, or to make them more collectable; it’s just part of what happens. When I feel like it’s time to have a new colour, then I’ll do it. With the most recent, Fever Dreams Yellow, I’d been touring with the Comet Sparkle (lot 102) for quite a long time and that guitar became synonymous with the Call the Comet tour, plus I’d played it on the theme song for the Bond film, so I thought, “It’s been three and a half years. It’s done loads of touring and then the Bond theme, so it’s time for a change.” The Fever Dreams record and tour felt like a different period in my life, so when I’m playing and I’m looking down and having this relationship with my instrument, I don’t want it to put my head back a few years. I think all guitarists are a bit like this; every few years, you want to mix it up. The difference is, though, that my signature Jag is perfection for me as an instrument. So, right now, I’m simply changing the colour.
Evidently Marr took possession of the refinished yellow Jaguar while still working on the new album, which took shape over the extended pandemic lockdown from early 2020 to summer 2021. The entire record was demoed and programmed with me playing everything on it, he told Premier Guitar in 2022. Then the band came in [post-lockdown] to make it sound more like “us” as a band. When asked about the guitars used on the new album, Marr told Guitar World’s Rod Brakes: I used the new Jaguar a lot, of course. On receipt, the guitar became one of his go-to Signature Jags for the album, used to record the songs ‘Sensory Street’, ‘Night and Day’, ‘Lightning People’, ‘All These Days’ and ‘Rubicon’. I suppose I’ve got to album four now and without being particularly conscious of it I just dropped [any limiting parameters], which is why there is a song like ‘Lightning People’ on it, Marr told Music Radar in 2022. That song has Simone [Butler] from Primal Scream. It has choir backing vocals. There are still no hip-hop loops per se, or strings, but I definitely expanded… To be honest, when I was writing I just thought, “This is going to sound good, fuck it.”
Marr debuted the Fever Dream Yellow Jag along with his new material when he kicked off a short run of intimate UK dates at Leeds Stylus on 20 September 2021 in the run up to a huge homecoming show supporting The Courteneers at Manchester’s Old Trafford Cricket Ground on 25 September 2021. From its first appearance on stage, Marr would play the Fever Dream Jag almost exclusively for the next three years, only switching it out on specific songs for his Lake Placid Blue sustainer Jag. These days, I quite like the fact I don't really change guitars much onstage, Marr told Kelly. There are a couple of songs where I've got the sustainers going, because that sound has become a thing in my songs over the past few years. In the studio, I still mix it up a lot and pull out different guitars that make me do different things… [But] if I'm going to guest onstage with someone like Primal Scream or Alicia Keys, I'm always going on with my signature Jag. That says it all really.
Alongside the October 2021 announcement of his forthcoming double album Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, Marr announced a global livestream event Live At The Crazy Face Factory set to stream from 10-14 November 2021, offering fans the chance to virtually step inside his custom-built Crazy Face Factory studio for a set of full-band live performances from across his career. Marr played the Fever Dream Yellow Jag throughout the live set, much of which is now available to view on Marr’s YouTube channel. Released on 25 February 2022, the critically acclaimed Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 reached number four in the UK Albums Chart, his highest position yet for a solo release. Marr also played the Fever Dream Yellow Jaguar in the official music videos for the singles ‘Tenement Time’ and ‘Night and Day’, released in November 2021 and January 2022 respectively.
A short run of live warm up shows followed in early April before Marr headlined the BBC 6 Music Festival at Cardiff University on 3 April 2022 and joined Blondie as the special guest on their Against The Odds UK arena tour from 22 April to 7 May 2022. Marr opened for Pearl Jam at British Summer Time Hyde Park in London on 9 July 2022 before heading across the pond to join The Killers on tour. Following a surprise guest appearance on stage with The Killers to close their headline set at Glastonbury in June 2019, Marr was invited to support The Killers on the North American leg of their Imploding The Mirage Tour from 19 August to 12 October 2022. At almost every show on the tour, Marr joined the band on stage during their encore to play a Smiths song on either this Fever Dream Yellow Jag or his Rickenbacker 340 (next lot), before closing with ‘Mr. Brightside’. When the tour landed at New York’s Madison Square Garden on 30 September, Marr welcomed old schoolfriend and ex-Smiths bassist Andy Rourke on stage for the final two songs of his set to perform the Smiths’ standards ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ and ‘How Soon Is Now?’, with Marr on the Fever Dream Jag. It became something of a tradition that whenever I played in New York Andy Rourke would come onstage and play a couple of Smiths songs, wrote Marr in his 2016 autobiography. It’s always a special thing for us. There’s something that happens when we play together that works exactly the same as it did in when we were in The Smiths.
Back in the UK, Marr continued to favour the Fever Dream Jag throughout a summer headline tour from 17 July to 25 August 2023 alongside various summer festivals including South Facing Festival in support of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds at Crystal Palace Bowl on 28 July and Electric Picnic near Dublin on 2 September 2023. Marr would switch back to the Comet Sparkle for a short time during his greatest hits Spirit Power Tour in support of the “best of” album Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr from 2-14 April 2024, only appearing with the Fever Dream Yellow Jag for the dates in Glasgow and Liverpool on 4 and 6 April respectively. However, the yellow Jag was back in favour when Marr set out on a co-headlining US tour with fellow Manchester musicians James from 17 September to 18 October 2024, during which James’ frontman Tim Booth would regularly join Marr on stage for the encore performance of Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’. By 2025, Marr had begun favouring his new Signature Special Jaguar with lipstick pickups as his main stage guitar. Inspired by Marr’s coveted custom refin, a special limited edition production run of the Johnny Marr Signature Jaguar in Fever Dream Yellow was released by Fender in October 2022.