Interview: Martin ‘Boz’ Boorer, Morrissey

Martin ‘Boz’ Boorer is regarded as ‘the godfather of British rockabilly.’ He is also well known as the right hand man of Morrissey, playing guitar in the Manchester legend’s first proper post-Smiths band since the early 90s. Boz has recorded with the late Kirsty MacColl, Edwyn Collins and the reformed John’s Children – as replacement for his hero Marc Bolan. When I spoke to the man himself I took the opportunity to ask him about his formative years as a rockabilly guitarist. The man’s got good taste…

Ed: What made you pick up guitar in the first place?
Boz: “Marc Bolan and T-Rex was the first band that I saw on television that made me want to pick up the guitar. It became my obsession from that point on. I didn’t even have a guitar; I would find people who had one and go round to their houses so that I could play it for a while. Even then I knew that playing guitar in a band was for me. Eventually I got my first guitar – a little four-string thing with plastic strings and a picture of the Beatles on the front. It cost me 10 pence (approx 20 cents) at a jumble sale. I tuned that up the best I could and started to learn to play the Marc Bolan songs that I liked.”

Ed: How did you discover rockabilly for the first time?
Boz: “It was actually through the original drummer in the Polecats, Chris Hawkes. His brother had a bunch of great Dutch rock ’n’ roll compilation albums that we really got into. To be honest, I don’t think I really knew that it was rockabilly music at that point. I just liked the sound – the rawness of it. It took us a while to figure out how to get the sound on those records. We didn’t have the traditional instruments, so we probably sounded more like The Cramps than authentic rockabilly. But after a while I got hold of the right guitar, a classic orange Gretsch 6120, and the band finally got their hands on that essential rockabilly ingredient: a double bass. That made all the difference. We also figured that the sound of real rockabilly drums meant using nothing much more than a snare and a hi-hat. There was never the desire to use a full kit.”

Ed: Which players should budding rockabilly guitarists listen to?
Boz: “I thought that Scotty Moore was the main guy. I loved his playing on Elvis’ Sun Sessions of course but, as I got more into the music, I started to find out about some of the other great players. I got into Cliff Gallup after hearing him play with Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps – truly an awesome player. Then I picked up on Hank Garland who had played on a lot of Elvis’ RCA recordings, and some of Johnny Burnettes’ stuff. And there was Chet Atkins too, of course”
For more information on Boz Boorer check out his official website at www.bozboorer.com