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Guitar World
Guitar World
Entertainment
Janelle Borg

The Smiths held their label to ransom until Johnny Marr got this guitar: “As soon as I got that back to the hotel, I wrote Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now in about 10 minutes”

The Smiths performing live on the Tyne Tees TV music show, 'The Tube', Newcastle upon Tyne, 16th March 1984. Left to right: Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce, Morrissey and Johnny Marr.

Johnny Marr has accumulated a fair few guitars since his time with British indie rock pioneers The Smiths. In fact, he's gotten to the point where he’s auctioning off his four-decade guitar collection at Christie’s in London this September.

Yet, among them all, there’s one guitar – a 1960 Cherry Red ES-355 – that harks back to a very exciting time for Marr. It was 1984, around the time The Smiths started generating enough buzz to be wined and dined by the industry.

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