It's a good Post, I agree with you about Johnny Marr, I saw Modest Mouse with Johnny Marr live last year at the Connect Festival, and I did think what the f*** is he doing with this lot!? I mean, their music just doesn't play to his strengths at all.

But it often seems to happen, a creative songwriting partnership or strong band line-up that just can't function individually.

Bernard Butler is a great guitarist going down the Johnny Marr route - then think about Brett Anderson's solo stuff, hmmm maybe better not to!

Strummer/Jones: Mick did alright with Big Audio Dynamite for a while but Joe struggled mightily to produce any worthwhile solo material - ironically the best was probably just before he died.

Jagger/Richards: Anybody got anything remotely complimentary to say about any of their solo stuff?

Pete Townsend: Without the classic Who line-up has not produced any decent stuff since "Who By Numbers".

Ray Davies: Again, has never anywhere near matched the classic Kinks material with his solo output.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modest_Mouse

And that's his guitar on the "big" hit single "Dashboard" last year. I loved it.

There is a whole article on this subject, which suggests (and I agree) that Messrs Marr, Butler etc are doing quite nicely thank you.

amazingly inventive guitar player. Has now hung up his guitar for good to concentrate on art. I saw an interview with him on the culture show a few months ago. The guy is practically a recluse. Incredibly shy and soft spoken, extremely intelligent, absolutely will not discuss his time in the roses. I guess he just decided that a life in music wasn't for him, which is fair enough.

has done practically nothing of note since the demise of Led Zeppelin. But he has an excuse, as in "How the hell do I follow that?"

...yeah, not great. I have the debut and it's ironic that the best thing on it was an old Zeppelin outtake! Robert Plant's solo career has been almost uniformly excellent though, in my opinion.

As for Johnny Marr, a friend of mine went to see The Cribs earlier in the year and he guested with them- after the gig this friend met him, apparently he was a nice bloke. I watched that BBC4 Bert Jansch gig last week and he turned up on that too.

Always struck me as being very musicianly; music made without any interest in a straight-forward audience who just want something that rocks out a bit. Fussy, complex, up-itself and dull. And he's a terrible lyrics writer. Plant without a great loud rock band (ie. Led Zeppelin) backing him up is my idea of music hell. Having said that, I haven't heard much beyond maybe two songs.

Mighty Re-arranger was considered to be a great album and Classic Rock gave away a song on a CD. One of the most boring, self satisfied songs I've ever heard.

...I bought it the day it came out when I heard 'Takamba' in HMV, it's a great album indeed. If you get the chance to check it out, give it a listen- that and 'Fate Of Nations' are the two albums I would recommend for Zeppelin fans. Some of his 80s albums are let down a bit by the dodgy production values of the time, but there's still some good material on those as well.

The misstep in his career in recent times for me was actually that Page/Plant album 'Walking Into Clarksville' which I find murky and slightly disappointing- certainly not comparable quality-wise to any album Zeppelin ever put out in my opinion. 'No Quarter', where they rearranged old Zeppelin tunes with a- sorry- 'world music' slant and wrote a few good new ones, stands up much better to me.

Jimmy Page has simply not got away from the shadow of Led Zeppelin with his solo endeavours. Not a bad place to be in, granted, but you'd think it would have been him that had the most to offer in a solo context- apparently not. John Paul Jones' album 'The Thunderthief' (released on King Crimson's label) I do like, though.

Sold his soul to Disney. I love him to bits, but I do wish he'd stepped off the Disney gravy train a couple more times to make a few more proper records.

Make one great record. Piss off out of it because you think the whole thing’s a load of baloney. A waste? Perhaps, but the follow-ups would have always been disappointing.

The problem is that virtually nobody can follow up a ground-breaking band. It's probably a more interesting question to consider who has genuinely managed it. In the case of (yawn) The Beatles I am not so sure that any of their post 1969 releases actually stand up particularly well - Disc 3 of All Things Must Pass anyone? The Plastic Ono Band album is critically well regarded and it certainly is a statement of artistic intent but I never really enjoy listening to it. So while some people might have achieved something in the aftermath of a middling band, those who go through the trauma of innovation and celebration have only one shot in the locker. So, I think Johnny is well and truly done.