Euan McColm: The charming man that is Johnny Marr and the uplifting power of his music

My friend, the stand-up comedian Matt Forde, is in hospital, recovering from some pretty heavy duty surgery after a cancer diagnosis.

For a week after his operation, Matt was in cloud cuckoo land – he was on the serious drugs – so I, along with the rest of his pals, waited anxiously for updates from his wife.

The news, when it came, was great. The surgery had gone well and Matt was slowly rejoining reality.

Eight days after the op, he was out of high dependency and able to text message.

“It’s been a heck of a week,” he told me, with considerable understatement.

For the past few days, we’ve had the old Matt back. He wants the latest political gossip and has dependably wise and amusing views to share about the state of the world.

But he also has a long way to go before life gets back to complete normality. He’ll be in hospital for several weeks to come, with regular physiotherapy sessions, and there may be further treatment.

And so I’ve been looking for things to send that might help while away the long days in a hospital bed.

The first thing I emailed was a link to a YouTube video in which, for an hour and three quarters, a 59-year-old man talks about his guitar collection.

It was an instant hit.

“I love him,” replied Matt.

I love him, too. The guitar obsessive in question is Johnny Marr, who rose to fame as a teenager four decades ago when the band he formed with singer Morrissey – The Smiths – emerged from the ever-fruitful Manchester music scene.

Marr – who turns 60 on Tuesday – is, whether he likes it or not, a national treasure, a musical genius who’d secured his position among the true greats before most of us have figured out what we might like to do with our lives.

When The Smiths first single “Hand In Glove” was released in 1983, it came as a blast of fresh air through the music scene. By the time the band were on Top of the Pops later that same year with their follow-up, “This Charming Man”, they were the favourites of misfit teenagers throughout the UK and beyond. How many of us, I wonder, taped and endlessly rewatched that performance, studying Morrissey’s moves, checking out Marr’s black Rickenbacker guitar, and wondering whether to copy the singer’s towering quiff or the guitarist’s Beatle-esque bob?

Although aesthetically, a cult band, The Smiths were hugely successful. Their singles regularly charted well and their albums – including the number one “Meat Is Murder” – sold in the hundreds of thousands.

Little more than four years after their first single was released, The Smiths were no more. They left four studio albums, three compilations, and a live record, along with a stunning string of singles. I bought every one and can remember, almost 40 years later, the circumstances in which I did. It rained heavily the day I bunked off double French to pick up my copy of “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”, it was cold and grey on the day a gang put in the windows of the bus on which I was transporting home my copy of “Shakespeare’s Sister”.

Throughout The Smiths career, Marr remained – for the most part – in Morrissey’s shadow. While the singer – an endlessly quotable interviewee – dominated press coverage, Marr got on with the business of creating some of the most remarkable work in the history of popular music.

Marr plays guitar like nobody else; his sparkling arpeggios and chiming hooks pack just as much emotional punch as Morrissey’s best lyrics. And if any of you have ever tried to replicate one of his pieces, you’ll agree with the verdict of his friend Noel Gallagher who once explained: “You can’t play what Johnny does.”

It was that friendship with Gallagher that drew Matt Forde – 13 years my junior and an Oasis fanatic – to Marr.

Throughout his career, Marr has encouraged and supported new artists – giving guitars to Gallagher and Suede’s Bernard Butler, adding his unique sound to records by bands such as The Cribs and Modest Mouse.

And then there’s his fruitful working relationship with composer Hans Zimmer. If you’ve seen Daniel Craig’s final James Bond movie, “No Time To Die”, that’s Johnny Marr playing the famous guitar riff.

After decades as a collaborator – whether in The Smiths, or with Bernard Sumner In Electronic, as a member of revered groups such as The Pretenders and The The, or as a guest with artists as diverse as Bryan Ferry and Crowded House – Marr finally launched a solo career in 2013 and has since released four top ten albums.

And along with this music, has come the revelation that he is a wise, funny, and generous interviewee, an endlessly positive creative force whose mark on the high art of pop music is indelible.

Last week, Marr published a photo book – Marr’s Guitars – in which he talks about the instruments that have served him throughout his remarkable career. It’s a beautiful volume, full of glorious images to satisfy the nerdiest of guitar nerds, and imbued with Marr’s undiminished wonder at the possibilities of music.

When we look back at the British men and women who have shaped pop culture, inevitably our list begins with Lennon and McCartney. We might add Jagger and Richards and there are surely places for Kate Bush and John Lydon.

There must also be a seat at this top table for Marr, an artist who continues to push the possibilities of what might be done with the guitar.

Please join me, and Matt Forde, in wishing Johnny Marr a very happy 60th birthday.