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It's all right, Marr, we're only greedy - The Times (Jan. 20, 2006)
Everyone wants a Smiths reunion. Well, you can have half of one, says Pete Paphides

Excerpts:

Johnny Marr laughs. “The R-word? Do I mind people bringing it up? I’d better not mind, had I? Otherwise, my life would be intolerable.” If the Manchester air is rife with talk of reunions, the former Smiths guitarist is swift to put things in perspective. He says that in the 19 years since he walked out of the group — effectively splitting them — he hasn’t heard a Morrissey album all the way through: “I always think I’ll probably know what they’ll sound like — and when I get around to hearing them, I’m usually right.”

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But even allowing for the fact that Morrissey is preparing for the release of his latest solo opus, is it really so fanciful to imagine someone picking up the blower and seeing what drummer Mike Joyce is up to? With vocalists from such fellow performers as New Order, Badly Drawn Boy, Elbow and Doves on hand, surely anything is possible on the night? “Now, just a minute,” cautions Marr. “Me and Andy — we haven’t even got as far as working out what we’re going to play together. And, as for Mike, that isn’t going to happen.

“Why not? Because the band split up! There was a court case! Get up to speed, for f***’s sake!”

“Sorry,” I stammer, “I just got a bit confused because . . .”

“F*** off! You’re not confused!” says Marr. He thinks I’m pretending to be a bit thick but I’m not pretending at all. And if I’m confused, it’s precisely because of that High Court case, in which Judge Weeks famously ruled against Morrissey and Marr, awarding Joyce £1 million over allegedly unpaid royalties (Rourke settled out of court). Given that the case was brought jointly by Rourke and Joyce, it’s surely a surprise to see Marr hanging out with any Smiths at all. “All right, I’ll let you off,” says the guitarist, squeezing his mint teabag against the side of his cup. “But Andy and I go way back before the Smiths. Our friendship was bigger than that.”
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This year marks the 20th anniversary of The Queen is Dead, the album that, by Marr’s own admission, features some of the Smiths’ “best ensemble playing”. I ask him if — as rumour has it — there really is an unfaded eight-minute version of Morrissey’s apocalyptic address to the dwindling Empire. In fact, there’s an even longer one in existence: “Funny you should say that, because the record company want to put out some rarities, so we’ve spoken about the longer versions of The Queen is Dead: the eight-minute one and another one where we played for 12 minutes. It sounds like Can or something.”