Concert review: Johnny Marr and James revisit Madchester days of Brit Pop in Vancouver

Brit Pop legends Johnny Marr of the Smiths and James are on tour together celebrating new albums and past classics. Read our review.

Published Sep 21, 2024  •  5 minute read

Johnny Marr's tour with U.K. band James hit Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Friday night.

Oh, to have been a teen in Manchester, circa 1982. The pop scene that gave the world Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets and more was in full swing, and The Smiths were on top. Not far behind them, James.

Last night at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre both James and Johnny Marr, the musical half of The Smiths, co-headlined a show that showcased the enduring genius of both acts. For at least one set, it proved utterly transcendent. That was James.

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Fronted by dynamic lead singer Tim Booth, the pop equivalent of the Energizer Bunny in his sartorial striped cropped baggie pants, pirate shirt and a ridiculous-but-righteous fur-collared thrift store score from Canada, the eight-piece group made it utterly clear why its 18th studio album, Yummy, saw the band hit No. 1 in the U.K. charts. This is a group whose career trajectory is starting to mirror Sparks, a cult act whose fan base are dedicated and devoted to a group who never fails to deliver different and dynamic new records.

That the band could deliver a 45 minute warm-up set that skipped the majority of its biggest hits and still be amazing was, well, amazing.

Tim Booth, lead singer of the band James, performs. Photo by Wagner Meier /Getty Images

Dancing like he owned the big speaker in the Luv-A-Fair back in the days of Vancouver’s active alternative dance club scene, Booth shook, shimmied and got up close and personal with the audience all night. From the celebration of Life’s A F—n Miracle and Way Over Your Head to the tricky Beautiful Beaches, the band was spectacular. How else do you deliver a tune dedicated to the extinction crisis and the great migration with enough emotion to make listeners want to both bawl and boogie?

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The set was marred with technical difficulties owing to missing equipment not making it to the gig but you would never have known. In the time it would typically take a guitarist to tune, the members would decide what other tune to try and bash away brilliantly. It helps when you have a crew as rock solid as this lot. While all the members were spot-on, bassist Jim Glennie deserves to be singled out for his complex, lightning fast and funky riffs, which propel tunes like Five-O in unexpected directions.

While the group is jamming away on the key melodic motif of the song, Glennie laid down double-time trills and runs that just tickled your spine. Perhaps the reason the band is back in top slot is that they are one of the few groups out there from that era still making top-tier original music that stays true to the foundation of the Madchester scene: Literate, heartfelt lyrics married to rave-ready rhythms coupled with arena choruses and aims.

They had it all, and by the final notes of Getting Away With It (All Messed Up), everyone smart enough to catch them knew they had just seen something very special. The split in the crowd appeared about 50/50 based on how the room filled up for the next act.

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Johnny Marr delivered in entirely different fashion.

As the musical driver behind the Smiths, he is the one who made such classic as How Soon Is Now or Panic be such vehicles for Morrissey’s voice. And there is no escaping that, as brilliant as his playing is, the thing that made his former band megastars was the unique phrasing and baritone croon of the lead singer. This was why a lot of people were at the performance and paid for a ticket, just so they could sing along to those songs and revel in the memories.

That’s half of it, because Marr was also on tour to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of his solo debut Boomslang.

It’s a solid effort from a proven star who has released a number of other solo albums that all had their moments. It must be incredibly challenging to be that ace behind genius tracks from Electronic, Modest Mouse, The Pretenders, The The and others when you are playing them yourself.

It’s almost as if he is a cover band for the music he was a key creator of, and that is a challenge that has faced many a rock ‘n’ roll guitar hero. Marr is easily one of the eighties prime six-string slingers, able to find a place where chiming pop can contain crystal sharp impact and never seem to play anything that sounds like anyone else. Unless, of course, you look to the guitar pyrotechnics of African soukous and juju music guitar heroes of the 1970s.

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Marr has told me in an interview that everyone asked him about whether he was a fan of those sounds before coming up with the driving and delightful groove on This Charming Man and he has admitted that these comments drove him to check out players like Zani Diabate to see what everyone was on about. That is the mark of genius and Marr has it.

That he’s chosen to pursue a mix of nostalgia and new material is perfectly fair. He made it, he can play it. So be it.

But following a band as on fire as James is right now must be hard on an artist who has defined so much of his career as being a band member and not the frontman. Man, he can play guitar though and I hope to hear him find just the right fit in the future.

Maybe Marr needs to do a Jeff Beck Blow By Blow pivot to an entirely different genre and blow everyone’s mind. The man’s meticulous musical chops beg to be showcased in a way that really illuminates his playing. I’m not sure his present career-spanning approach really does his talent justice.

This whole tour was conceived around when the Smiths and James toured together back in the day. Both bands were huge fans of one another. This night, James were absolute magic, and Marr was a solid show.

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