Johnny Marr has revealed that The Smiths almost reunited in 2008.

In an interview with The Guardian, Marr admitted that he and Morrissey met in 2008 in a pub in south Manchester, during a “rare period of communication” while Marr was remastering The Smiths’ back catalogue.

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In their first meeting for a decade, the pair started “talking about the possibility of the band re-forming, and in that moment it seemed that with the right intention it could actually be done and might even be great.” Marr reveals, “For four days it was a very real prospect. We would have to get someone new on drums, but if the Smiths wanted to re-form it would make a hell of a lot of people very happy, and with all our experience we might even be better than before.”

“The conversation about re-forming came out of the blue. I didn’t go there with that in mind. But there had been quite a few rumours about it, so naturally we discussed it. ‘It could happen…’ ‘How d’you feel about it?’ ‘What if?’ And off we went.” Who was more keen? “I think we were both as keen as each other.”

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However, communication later broke down when Marr went on tour with the Cribs. They briefly reconnected in 2010 Marr when shared an image of a student protestor donning one of the band’s t-shirts with Morrissey.

Marr’s autobiography, Set The Boy Free, is published by Century at £20.

The December 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on Pink Floyd, plus a free CD compiled by Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner that includes tracks by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sleaford Mods, Yo La Tengo, Can. Elsewhere in the issue, there’s The Damned, Julia Holter, Desert Trip, Midlake, C86, David Pajo, Nils Frahm and the New Classical, David Bowie, Tim Buckley, REM, Norah Jones, Morphine, The Pretenders and more plus 140 reviews