After Rick Astley covered The Smiths last week, fans were left divided.
The Never Gonna Give You Up singer and Rickroll meme originator surprised the internet by belting out Smith’s classic This Charming Man alongside the Blossoms at a London concert last week and it caused quite the stir.
And now, The Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr has given his official review of the concert and safe to say, he didn’t seem too keen on it.
Posting on Twitter, he shared a clip of the action and said the cover was “funny and horrible” - not two words you might want to be associated with a performance.
This is both funny and horrible at the same time. https://t.co/GgEEECHpBJ
— Johnny Marr (@Johnny_Marr) September 17, 2021
He then suggested he didn’t approve it when he met the band previously and in general sounded pretty miffed:
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The Viral Democracy
Well, I met The Blossoms a few weeks ago and they elected to not mention it. Nice.
— Johnny Marr (@Johnny_Marr) September 17, 2021
He later added that he didn’t have a problem with Astley or Blossoms covering songs in general but said there was a mysterious “back story” as to why he was so annoyed about it.
FYI all you head cases. I’ve got no problem with tribute bands, or with anyone doing anyone’s songs, and I’ve got no problem with Rick Astley. There’s a back story. That’s that.
— Johnny Marr (@Johnny_Marr) September 17, 2021
And it looks like Astley will continue to be a thorn in Marr’s side because he and Blossoms have scheduled a pair of performances comprising entirely Smiths covers in October. The first will take place on 8th October in Manchester, and the second takes place on 9th October in London.
Heaven knows Marr’s miserable now.
