AFTER years as a sideman, former Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr makes his headline appearance tonight with a set-list from his debut solo album The Messenger and some special treats. After leaving The Smiths in 1987, Johnny Marr has been something of a wanderer, a roaming guitar-slinger for hire.

Now – at the grand old age of 50 – he released his debut solo album, The Messenger last year and has been a regular fixture of the festival circuit of late.

“It’s late in the day to be making my debut album,” he admits.

“But it feels like the early days again, which people might be surprised to hear. That’s one of the advantages of making your first record under your own name after having made so many with other people, it’s all fresh again.”

After leaving The Smiths – his departure led to the band’s break-up weeks later – Marr seemed intent on working with as many artists as he could. He briefly joined Pretenders and The The, and formed Electronic with New Order’s Bernard Sumner.

Subsequent years would see him turn producer with the likes of early Noughties hopefuls Haven, form his band Johnny Marr + The Healers, team up with Crowded House’s Neil Finn on his 7 Worlds Collide project, and become a fully-fledged member of American indie stars Modest Mouse and The Cribs.

“I just reached a point where I didn’t want to be in another band — or someone else’s band — anymore,” he says. “The ideas for the record started to haunt me, in a good way. I’m always led by my musical hunches, that then become strong ideas and concepts that sometimes lead to being in someone else’s band, but this time led to my own songs.”

He says he never had the inclination to make a solo album before, and the timing wouldn’t have been right. The Messenger is a result of working with so many others and drawing different things from each set-up. Marr also realised over the years that he had his own fans.

“I’d say that’s been 80 per cent of the motivation for making this album, to play music to people who like what I do. It sounds like such an obvious thing, but it was an incredible revelation to me,” he says.

That a former member of The Smiths, a band with one of the most devoted and obsessive fan bases, would be surprised people were prepared to attend gigs especially to see him, says something about Marr. He’s unlike most rock stars, seemingly devoid of ego and uninterested in the trappings of his work environment.

He said: “It’s not been easy being a fan of mine, with me going in different directions. It’s most definitely time to get on stage and for us all to just enjoy ourselves and have fun.”