Last night Johnny Marr returned to Manchester for a triumphant sold-out homecoming show, and his biggest headline solo gig to date, at the Castlefield Bowl. The concert lands amongst a huge year for Johnny Marr, looking ahead to the release of his fifth solo album The Age of Everything, the Marr’s Guitars: The Johnny Marr Collection auction presented by Christie’s, a massive headline show at Wembley Arena, and global touring plans.
NEW ALBUM ‘THE AGE OF EVERYTHING’ INCOMING
Johnny and his band treated fans to a high energy set list of classics and hits from across his recording career, and an abundance of brand new and unreleased music only served to raise the atmosphere. The set included new single ‘Spin’, currently on the BBC Radio 2, Radio 6, Virgin, Absolute and Radio X playlists, as well as debut performances of ‘It’s Time’ and ‘All In A Life’, all of which feature on the upcoming new album, The Age Of Everything, out October 2nd.
Johnny Marr arrived on stage at 21:00 with his signature Fender Jaguar guitar strapped over his shoulder, and the crowd went wild. As James Doviak (guitars), Iwan Gronow (bass), and Jack Mitchell (drums) joined Johnny on stage to kick off their first-ever performance at Castlefield Bowl, the band were greeted with a hero’s welcome. After performing Generate! Generate! and Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before, Johnny said:
“Hello Manchester! still Mancunian, are we?”
A MASS SINGALONG
Introducing New Town Velocity, Johnny said: “This is a nice spot for a concert, I think. Speaking of nice spots, this next song is a song from my first album, The Messenger. It’s about when me and my best friend and my girlfriend were walking around Manchester, and we decided we weren’t going back to school, ever. Instead, we were gonna do some stuff. It’s called New Town Velocity.
After leading the crowd in a mass singalong of This Charming Man, Johnny introduced a brand new song: “I’m not having this Manc thing. It’s Mancunian, fyi! This next one’s called All In a Life. I hope you like it.”
After summoning a giant disco ball for Getting Away With It, the crowd erupted into one of the night’s defining moments, a deafening Johnny, Johnny, Johnny Fuckin’ Marr terrace-style chant echoing through the venue and its surrounding canals, returning between every song.
“MY PEOPLE!”
Thanking the fans before bursting into How Soon Is Now, Johnny said, “Thank you so much for coming out here tonight. It means the world to me, as you can imagine. It’s been great to play some new songs too, I appreciate that. Some of you don’t even know the old ones! But I honour you for that. What more can I say? My people, I thank you so much.”
A blistering three-song encore of Panic, a cover of Iggy Pop’s The Passenger and There Is A Light That Never Goes Out brought the night to a close, with Marr dedicating the final song “to everyone here tonight. Just us. And nobody fucking else!”
The bill also included performances by Everything Everything and The ClockWorks.
The Age Of Everything features 10 new songs that Johnny describes as the most cathartic songwriting of his career. Written in London, developed live on the road across the East Coast of North America and recorded in Manchester, the album captures the energy and tensions of the city. Sharp, fast and dynamic, filled with ideas and possibilities. Last night this process came full circle, debuting new songs in front of thousands of fans.
SETLIST
Johnny Marr’s Setlist at Manchester Castlefield Bowl 9th July 2026:
- Generate Generate
- Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before
- Armatopia
- The Headmaster Ritual
- New Town Velocity
- Spirit Power & Soul
- Spin
- This Charming Man
- Somewhere
- All In A Life
- Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
- Hi Hello
- Getting Away With It
- It’s Time
- Bigmouth Strikes Again
- Easy Money
- How Soon Is Now?
- Panic
- The Passenger
- There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
ABOUT JOHNNY MARR
Since launching his solo career, Johnny has scored five UK Top 10 albums, released a Sunday Times bestselling autobiography Set The Boy Free, recorded the James Bond theme for No Time To Die with Billie Eilish, received the Ivor Novello Inspiration Award, an Academy Award nomination for his work with Hans Zimmer on Inception, NME’s Godlike Genius honour, and played sold-out tours and major festivals across the world.
The years that have elapsed since the release of 2022’s Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 album signalled a new era, bringing the career-spanning collection Spirit Power: The Best Of Johnny Marr, the acclaimed photobook Marr’s Guitars, full orchestral concert A Night With The Johnny Marr Orchestra, the Look Out Live! album, as well as writing and recording with Gorillaz, Franz Ferdinand, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and performing on the HELP(2) album with Grian Chatten (Fontaines DC) and Kae Tempest – the latest in a long line of exciting and unexpected collaborations.