Johnny Marr Leaves The Cribs

Johnny Marr has announced today that he has left The Cribs.

‘I’m working on new solo songs,’ he explains. ‘I’ll be putting out two records over the next year or so and doing more film soundtrack work.’

Marr was made a formal member of the group in 2008, and appeared on their fourth studio album ‘Ignore The Ignorant’.

‘Touring and recording with Ryan, Gary and Ross has been fantastic,’ he went on to say, ‘and ‘Ignore The Ignorant’ is something I’m really proud of. We ended up doing much more than we originally set out to and I’ve made three good friends.’

He has previously played in many bands, including The Smiths, Electronic, The The and Modest Mouse.

Meanwhile the brothers Jarman have released their own statement. It reads:

‘So, as some of you may know by now The Cribs are gonna be a 3-piece again. That is a slightly less dramatic way of saying that Johnny Marr is no longer in the band. We don’t want it to be seen as a split, that just has so many negative connotations and really doesn’t represent the way everyone is feeling right now.

‘The truth is that, as Johnny said, we did more than we ever set out to do together really - we were initially just playing together as friends, and decided it might be fun to do a trademark Cribs ‘surprise one-off seven inch’ or something of that ilk, but as we went along we just kept writing. First it was a single, then an EP, we just happened to really enjoy playing together and ended up writing a full album. We were/are all really proud of the work we did together and we did mean it in our assertions that Johnny was very much a full-time member of the band. There were definite intentions of continuing on together and making another record - we even went into the studio with Edwyn Collins again last spring and started recording some stuff, but it just wasn’t really working. We were all pretty burnt at that point and that is why we decided that after 8 years (I know, crazy!) and 4 records we should take some time off.

‘During that time we all intended on working on other projects (Ryan started producing and writing with Edwyn, Gary contributing to All Smiles etc) and at some point late last year, we just casually got together out in Portland as a 3-piece and it was so much fun. Johnny had started working on a solo record in the time off, and it just seemed like the right time to go our separate ways. It’s not like ‘JOHNNY LEAVES!’, or ‘BAND SPLIT!’, or any of that drama - just a good time to do something else really.

‘No one is down about this in our camp. It’s actually the start of a really exciting phase for everyone. Johnny has gone back to The Healers and is writing a new record, and we are really honestly loving being back together as just 3 brothers literally playing in the basement/garage again. Right now we are in Portland and demoing in Gary’s basement and it feels so liberating. We have a bunch of new songs and are embracing the lo-fi again. It never was about fancy studios and LA and all that. We are back in our usual environment and feeling good about it. We’ve got everything we need.

‘We are also really looking forward to the shows we have coming up. We miss you guys.’

You can check out The Cribs’ upcoming tour commitments on their website.