Johnny Marr Slams Haim For Getting Friendly With British PM

Former Smiths guitarist and now living indie icon Johnny Marr has slammed sisterly trio Haim for what he saw as their recent grovelling to UK Prime Minister David Cameron, during an appearance on the BBC‘s Andrew Marr Show, where they played their hit, The Wire, from their debut album.

“It’s really simple,” said Marr in the latest issue of NME. “They made themselves look like idiots. It’s ridiculous. No-one put a gun to their head. The Conservatives tried to do the same thing with The Smiths, to re-appropriate us in a false way, to be cool by association.”

The band appeared on the BBC show back in September, during which, after the band’s performance, bass player Este Haim turned towards where Prime Minister Cameron was sitting and said “That was for you DC – it’s all about you,” later posing for photographs with the world leader.

Marr was however full of praise for Grimes and ChvrchesLauren Mayberry for their recent outspokenness on the subject of misogyny in music, saying, “I wonder why we’re going backwards in that regard.” Marr also weighed in on the recent criticism of streaming service Spotify.

“I think it entirely hampers new bands,” said Marr. “I can’t think of anything more opposite to punk rock than Spotify. I have no answer to the economic side of the music industry, but I do think we certainly shouldn’t stop valuing what bands do. I don’t like great things being throwaway.”

“Pop culture isn’t just about ‘the music, man’,” he added. “It’s a way of life, and an aesthetic, and it’s not just about pressing a button and getting something entirely for convenience. Put it this way: we’re soon going to start seeing the difficulties of innovative music trying to swim in that huge tide.”

(Via Gigwise)

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