I CAN’T work out whether Johnny Marr wasted the best years of his life playing second fiddle to Morrissey or whether, had he not done so, he could have come up with a body of work such as that which he is producing now.

Sure Marr had the magic touch when it came to the riffs that made some of The Smiths’ songs so memorable.

But, to my mind at least, he was always the man in the shadows.

Now a solo performer in his own right, Marr’s true identity has been revealed.

Sure there’s a mix of others, but he was doing it around the same time as New Order and U2 and way before the likes of the Foo Fighters and what’s more he’s bloody good at it.

Marr’s not pushing any boundaries here, but Playland with its Radio 2 friendly brand of soft punk and annoyingly poppy choruses is so far ahead of the competition, God knows what he could do if he really put his mind to it.

Matt Westcott