b. John Martin Maher, 31 October 1963, Ardwick, Manchester, Lancashire, England. Marr, the legendary guitarist behind the Smiths, is widely considered to be the most significant guitar hero of his generation. Following the demise of the Smiths, Marr worked as a successful "guitar-for hire" for artists including Beck, Pet Shop Boys, Neil Finn, Beth Orton, Kirsty MacColl, Talking Heads and Oasis, produced albums from Marion and Haven, recorded two albums with The The, and formed Electronic with New Order's Bernard Sumner.
The decision, two decades into his career, to form his own band seemed to have been an attempt to deflate Marr's own "hero' status. The Healers notably include Alonza Bevan (bass; formerly of Kula Shaker) and Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey (drums). The band name is apparently derived from Marr's interest in spiritualism, particularly the nineteenth-century Russian medium Madame Blavatsky. According to Marr, the band was originally a percussion driven sextet initiated as a reaction to British guitar bands. The Healers" 2003 debut album of "wide-awake rock music' (Marr's own words) seemed far more prosaic, however, despite echoes of his past recordings with the Smiths and The The. The Healers" debut almost gave credence to the slightly cruel maxim that your heroes should die before they have chance to disappoint. Nevertheless, Marr confessed that he is "still in pursuit of the feeling you get from music which is not something you can get from religion or sex or drugs".
