KEY POINTS:
Morrissey may have hogged the headlines since The Smiths split up in 1987 but this week Johnny Marr was celebrating one triumph his former band-mate has never savoured.
Working with his new group, the indie rockers Modest Mouse, the guitarist has gone straight to the top of the American album charts with We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.
It is the first time Marr has had a number one record in the States and We Were Dead... has also topped the iTunes download chart and the Amazon chart.
The Smiths never bettered number 55 in the US charts and Marr's highest position until now was with Electronic who went top 40 in the singles chart with Getting Away With It.
Morrissey's highest-positioned American album was You Are The Quarry in 2004 which reached 11th place.
The 43-year-old Mancunian was suitably thrilled yesterday.
"It's great news. I knew we had written some really good songs and when we started recording I felt it was going to be a great record," he said on his website.
The band are currently on tour.
"I really am enjoying playing the live shows. The songs have been going down so well even though people haven't heard them before. We're all very happy and looking forward to touring the world," he said.
Marr joined Modest Mouse in America last year after they were looking for a guitarist with his kind of sound for a particular track and decided to approach the man himself.
But all parties enjoyed the experience so much that he was subsequently confirmed as a fully signed-up band member and is co-writing songs with singer Isaac Brock.
The results have been well-received by the critics.
The Washington Post said of the new album: "Bolstered by the surprise addition of ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Modest Mouse hits another commercial home run with its new album."
The New York Daily News said: "It's MM's greatest feat to make songs this irked and angular sound so fetching."
And Q wrote the album "will allay any fears that success has robbed Modest Mouse of their intrinsic weirdness".
The positive reviews are a reflection of the more general successes of British artists across the Atlantic, who have recently seen their prospects improve dramatically.
Just five years ago, rock and pop experts from the UK reached a new low when the American music industry bible Billboard's hot 100 singles chart did not contain a single British entry for the first time since the early Sixties.
Modest Mouse had enjoyed significant popular success since they were formed in 1993.
Their 2004 album Good News For People Who Love Bad News, which included the hit Float On, sold more than 1.5 million copies and earned the band two Grammy nominations.
But the addition of cult musician Marr to the line-up generated enormous interest, from its own fans and Smiths enthusiasts.
He had worked with bands including Sister Ray, Freaky Party and the supergroup Electronic with Neil Tennant and New Order's Bernard Sumner since his split from Morrissey.
He also guested on records by Talking Heads and Kirsty MacColl.
- INDEPENDENT
