Andy Burnham was visiting Kyiv in his first visit to Ukraine as British prime minister, when he was presented with an electric guitar as the cameras were rolling.
This was not to be unexpected – and it surely wasn’t. Burnham was in the mobile recording studio of Ukraine’s military and artistic unit. Even so, when passed with a Woodstock T-style he had a decision to make.
Having credited the Smiths’ debut album, Hatful Of Hollow, as “the record that changed everything” for him, Burnham treated an audience of Ukrainian soldiers to an impromptu rendition of Rusholme Ruffians, the Elvis-inspired classic from Meat Is Murder.
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The prime minister was a little out of practice. He didn’t have a guitar capo. But that didn’t stop him; his right hand is in pretty good shape. Discretion being the better point of valour, Burnham did, however, draw the line at singing.
“It was an honour to spend time with Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv. Not sure if they regret handing me that guitar now,” he wrote on Instagram.
Nonetheless, it was an opportunity for the former mayor of Manchester to rep one of the city’s great cultural exports. It was also a great choice. Rusholme Ruffians was inspired by Scotty Moore and Neal Matthews Jr’s playing on the King’s cover of Del Shannon’s (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame.
How did Burnham do? Well, appearing on Absolute Radio, Marr looked a little taken aback – lost for words, even – and described the moment as a “victory for guitar”.
“I can’t quite get my head around it,” said Marr. “I don’t know if pride’s the word, but it probably is. I’ve only just been told about it! I’ve only just been told about it, in great detail. I think it’s an amazing thing. In all honesty, for me, it’s like a victory for the guitar. Just the way I’m wired, I always think like that.”
Marr looks visibly shocked, and says that, in the grand scheme of things, his role in all of this, having written the song, was less important than the political context. But it is a clip that speaks to the cultural power of music, and of the guitar as a tool.
“It’s kind of beyond me to process it, really, ‘cos it could be massive that,” he says. “But I just sort of go, ‘How great is the guitar? I think, ‘Well, what an amazing tool the guitar is.’”
Speaking to the Quietus, Burnham said discovering the Smiths was a revelation.
“I remember everyone at school going on about The Smiths on Top Of The Pops, it was a massive thing when that happened, and someone took a record to school and told me to take it home, it was Hatful Of Hollow,” said Burnham. “Then I remember buying it at Piccadilly Records. I listened to that to death. It was the first indie record I ever bought.”
Earlier today, Marr released It’s Time, the latest single from his forthcoming solo album, The Age Of Everything, which is out on October 2 via BMG. You have to admire Marr’s timing.
Marr describes It’s Time as a protest song about “finding defiance in idealism”.
“I wanted a lyric that matched the exuberance of the music but is actually about resisting cynicism and corruption,” he says. “’Everybody ain’t making it, change the weather and breaking it. Mobilise to know the truth. Open eyes to know the truth.’ I guess it’s about the assholes with dodgy views.”
You can pre-order The Age Of Everything now.
