WHISPER it quietly: Rock and roll is alive and well.

It often seems difficult in these times of heavily manufactured music to find genuine rock stars.

But as Johnny Marr bounced onto the stage, all Mancunian-hair cut, buttoned-up shirt and meaty riffs, any fears that proper guitar music had had its day seemed to be misplaced.

Opening with Back In The Box, the first track from his 2014 solo album Playland, he was soon into his stride.

The crowd in the low ceilinged students’ union at Newcastle University, a mix of dads and sons, students and Mods, were in the palm of his hand as he played a mix of his own songs and classics from his days with The Smiths.

Of his solo material, Easy Money was one of the best received tunes of the night, a thunderous, catchy, footstomper of a song.

After a brief Q&A session while Marr tried to get his head round why Newcastle was full of men in kilts (answer: Scotland’s Rugby World Cup match against Samoa the day before) it was back to the music, and time for some pure Eighties anthems.

Getting Away With It was given a “disco” rework, while the main set finished with There is a Light That Never Goes Out - the audience almost out-singing Marr.

The four-song encore wrapped up with one of The Smiths best known songs, How Soon Is Now? The visceral power of the guitars vibrated through the floor as the crowd sang every word of the melancholy chorus back to Marr, who played it as though it was a brand new record, not more than 30-years-old.

Rock and roll a dying art? Not on this evidence.

Hannah Chapman