*Now expanded to include La La La's, Do-be-do-be-do's, Na Na Na Na Na's and all points in between.

Today, a band who could easily feature in this series quite a lot.

The lead singer, who we all try not to name these days, did have a bit of a habit of filling out his songs with trite la-la-la's and the such.

But the other night, channel surfing before I went to bed, I chanced upon a show on the Sky Arts channel called The Great Songwriters. Each episode features a different (great) songwriter, and I'd caught one previously that I had really enjoyed which featured Paul Heaton, of The Housemartins, The Beautiful South and Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbot fame, of whom I am a huge fan, and I really enjoyed the programme.

The format goes a bit like this: interviewee is asked about a certain phase of their career, then asked about a certain song within that phase, which they explain how they came to write, before performing it so you can see what they mean.

Heaton did all his performances backed just by a chap on an acoustic guitar, but the guitarist who was the subject on the episode I stumbled onto had his full band to back him up.

This, the opening track from Meat is Murder, isn't the version in question, but it's close enough:

Johnny Marr - The Headmaster Ritual (Live at KEXP)

There's so much to love about Johnny Marr: from his resolute refusal to reform The Smiths, to the incredible back catalogue he has accrued, to his ever burgeoning confidence in his own vocals, which you can see grows from record to record.

I've been to Morrissey gigs and I've been to Johnny Marr gigs, and when the old favourites get wheeled out, I know who I would prefer to see play them every time: Marr. And not just because of the bequiffed gladioli waver's dodgy political views, but because Marr has put a band together behind him who can actually play those songs properly, as opposed to Morrissey's bunch of pub-rockers who seem to turn every cover version they turn their hand to into a turgid stodge of backroom bar mediocrity.

Anyway, I'm sure his former band will feature in this series again at some point soon: I just hope Marr's done a good enough version of the original so I don't have to post it.

More soon.

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