Johnny Marr is preparing to auction off about 80 of his guitars, including the Rickenbacker heard on This Charming Man.
Marr has partnered with Christie’s for the auction, which will take place on 17 September in London, with the collection – including amps and other equipment – available for the public to view in London and New York prior to the sale.
The star lots include a 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo, whose top estimate price of £80,000 reflects its indie music pedigree: as well as This Charming Man, it can be heard on What Difference Does It Make?, Still Ill, and Accept Yourself, and was also lent out to Noel Gallagher: it appears on the cover of Oasis’s debut single Supersonic. (It wasn’t used for the distinctive opening riff of This Charming Man, though, which was played on a 1950s Telecaster.)
The acoustic guitar heard on timeless Smiths ballad There Is a Light That Never Goes Out is also up for sale: a 1971 Martin D-28 (estimate: £30,000-50,000), which can also be heard on Cemetry Gates.
The highest top estimate price is £150,000, for a 1960 Cherry Red Gibson ES-355, bought for Marr by music industry legend Seymour Stein. Marr had joked to Stein that the Smiths would sign to Stein’s Sire Records if Marr was given a new guitar and Stein duly followed through. It became a signature guitar for Marr, who played it on Top of the Pops.
Another guitar seen on Top of the Pops, from their May 1984 performance of Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, is a Telecaster-style instrument created by British luthier Roger Giffin – it has a top estimate of £30,000.
A 1984 Gibson Les Paul Standard became one of Marr’s go-to instruments over the years: not only was it the guitar he played on the final song of the final Smiths’ live performance in December 1986, it has cropped up again in Marr’s journeyman post-Smiths career, on songs by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, the The, the Cribs and Gorillaz’s latest album, plus New Order’s hit Regret after Bernard Sumner briefly borrowed it.
A “Comet Sparkle” edition of his own signature Fender Jaguar, played by Marr on the score for James Bond film No Time to Die, is also up for sale.
Proceeds from 10 of the lots will be given in full to two charities: the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Autistic Society.
Marr lovingly documented his collection in a 2023 coffee table book, Marr’s Guitars. In a Guardian interview alongside its publication, he said bringing the book together was a poignant experience. “I think there’s something about how important the guitars are to me, and remembering how I felt the day I recorded Nowhere Fast, say, and thinking about who I was at that time. It’s a good feeling, absolutely, but with a certain poignancy. I’m at a point in my life and time has passed.”
He also looked back on his generosity in lending guitars to Noel Gallagher on more than one occasion: “He was just a kid from Burnage. I had no idea Oasis were going to go on to such big things. I did it because he was in need, because I was lucky and had lots of guitars, and because I wished someone had done it for me.”
Marr’s latest solo album, The Age of Everything, is due for release on 2 October.
