Finally, a lecture worth getting up in the morning for – as previously reported on the Quietus, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has been recruited by Salford University for a five-year series of lectures and masterclasses which began yesterday.
Marr’s career in the academy got under way with a treatise called ‘Always from the outside: mavericks, innovators and building your own ark’ delivered to 1,000 students and assorted oglers at the uni’s Maxwell Hall ‘venue’.
Citing figures like Les Paul, The Beatles and Bob Marley, Prof John’s contentious claim was that all the great innovators of pop were ‘outsiders,’ and that the ‘music industry’ has contributed, er, zip all.
"I am not a cynic," said Marr. "I am not really down on the British music industry. However, it has never created anything in its history.
"It never invented anything, although it has done plenty of good things, like good records, but nothing has ever been created of value by the British or American music industries."
The great leaps of faith, he added, had been taken by those who initially found themselves rejected: "People out of necessity, rejection or frustration, with talent and vision built their own ark and sailed it alongside the music industry."
Marr also found time to wax lyrical about his exploration of the "poetic nature of melancholic isolation" in his work with The Smiths, at which point several hundred band soc members waiting on the tablature to ‘Handsome Devil’ began to regret ever forsaking their lie-ins.
