Whether intending to launch on Johnny Marr’s birthday or not, the crew that brought us the extraordinary Recycle: Joy Division & New Order — The Factory Years blog picked an appropriate date to kick off its next sonic restoration project: The Smiths: Extra Track (and a tacky badge).

Today marks the 47th birthday of one of the signature guitarists of his generation: Johnny Marr of The Smiths. In honor of this peerless player, here’s a full ‘Meat is Murder’-era Smiths show, filmed for Spanish television on May 18, 1985, in Madrid.

Taking a break from the ongoing Crowded House tour, bandleader Neil Finn played a solo show at London’s Jazz Cafe last night, and as he’s wont to do, invited Johnny Marr onstage to perform several songs, including The Smiths’ beloved ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.’

It’s one of the more unlikely covers you’ll ever hear: former New Order frontman Bernard Sumner crooning Elvis Presley’s melodramatic 1969 hit ‘In the Ghetto’ in a new recording made by the singer’s current band Bad Lieutenant for a forthcoming charity album to benefit a U.K. homeless advocacy group.

This week’s releases include new studio albums from OMD, ex-Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins and reunited no-wave act Swans; plus a new Jesus and Mary Chain best-of; and expanded reissues of the Bangles’ first two albums, ‘All Over the Place’ and ‘Different Light.’

The life and musical legacy of Kirsty MacColl will be celebrated this fall at an all-star concert in London featuring the likes of Alison Moyet, Billy Bragg, Johnny Marr and Shane MacGowan, who famously duetted with the late singer on the Pogues’ classic ‘Fairytale of New York.’