Big Muff

The partner of the late folk and blues artist John Martyn yesterday collected an OBE on behalf of the musician, who died in January at the age of 60. Teresa Walsh collected the honour from the Prince of Wales at the Buckingham Palace investiture service.

Today, 29 January 2009, it was announced that John Martyn has passed away, at age 60. Only four weeks ago he was awarded an OBE, probably through the efforts of John Hillarby. Quite rightly so.

What can I say? I feel sad of course but also grateful for all the music he has left us. Curious about the circumstances of his death. Surprised also, even though we all knew that something like this was bound to happen some time. Sorry for all the fans out there who love him so dearly.

Condolences to Teresa and all the people that have worked so loyally to make his music stand out. To my friend John Hillarby and to all the fans around the world without whom this website would not have had any point at all.

Rest assured, I recently estimated that it will take about 10 years to finish the work I started 10 years ago. I have no intention of giving up. For me, John will never die. He lived through his music and he will live on in his music. John Martyn was and will always be a legend.

For reasons beyond human understanding this demo tape has rested in the vaults for more than thirty years. Possibly John thought the structure of the song being too traditional. But somehow it seems appropriate to post it here, now. The typical Martyn twist is at the very end, by the way.

All For The Love Of You has been released on the boxed set Ain't No Saint. There are more great unknown tracks there to be found, like Working It Out, and In The Evening.

Well John, let's hope they have distortion pedals in Heaven. Give'm hell up there. We will be searching for the echoplex in the thunder. Thank you so much.

My new smartphone supports mp3 ringtones that can easily be uploaded. I have made this 30 second JM ringtone from the Mark Radcliffe radio show.

It works surprisingly well, I discovered. Normal ringtones tend to drown in the noise when you are walking outside. But John's count-in gives it just a little extra volume and bite.

Download

Neil Ardley's album Harmony of the Spheres received its first official UK re-issue on CD. (There was a Japanese CD release earlier on but that one is hard to get.) Featuring Ian Carr, Barbara Thompson, Tony Coe, Geoff Castle, Bill Kristian, Trevor Tomkins, and Richard Burgess (Landscape) with Norma Winstone and Pepi Lemer on wordless vocals. Another remarkable feature of the album was provided by some excellent electric guitar work from folk star John Martyn.

Harmony of the Spheres was Ardley's last recorded work for a major record label. The original cover artwork was designed by Storm Thorgerson. The album was recorded in London in 1978. Available on Esoteric Recordings eclec2096. More details in the Collaborations section.

During his November 2008 tour John was shortly interviewed in the Thistle City Barbican Hotel lobby near the London Barbican theatre. Host for BBC 6 music is Shaun Keaveny.

I decided to upgrade this site to the latest version of Drupal (6.6). This went rather well, as far as I can tell. During the operation though I had to rewrite all custom code, rebuild most database queries and upgrade the template manually.

In the future I will try to add some new functionality but the main goal at this point was to present you all the stuff you are familiar with in the usual form.

The winning of the Lifetime Achievement Award led to two elaborate cover stories in music magazines. First of all, Acoustic had an exclusive interview with the big man. It was held between sessions for Willing To Work and Spencer Cozens and Alan Thomson also get to speak a few words. It was published in the June/ July issue; several of the photographs look familiar...

The BBC have announced that John will receive the Radio 2 Lifetime Achievement Award. This will happen during the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 Show, on Monday 4 February 2008. John is expected to perform on the occasion. Martin Simpson will also be present as he is nominated in five categories.

Morcheeba will include a John Martyn song on their new album Dive Deep, due for release 19 February 2008. The fourth song of the album will be Run Honey Run, a strong case of recycling after forty years - the track being from London Conversation. Band member Paul Godfrey motivates the inclusion as follows: 
"The only cover version we have ever put on an album and one of John Martyn's lesser-known classics from his early folk days. I sliced and diced it with all this great new technology and it still sounds so pure and gorgeous."

2007 has been a difficult year for many of us and Big John in particular. Nevertheless we say the release of several interesting albums and DVDs. And John Neil Munro's biography Some People Are Crazy proves a well written and researched piece of work.

Let's hope that we can enjoy much more of John's music in 2008, either live or on record.

Second episode of Scotland's Music aired 10 November 2007. John performs Hurt In Your Heart in the studio live, with band member Foster Paterson, Alan Thompson and Arran Ahmun.

At least it looks like it..

After several months of building and experimenting this website has been transferred to its permanent location. There may be the odd hickup in the near future but most of the stuff I tested worked OK.

The following statement has been published on the John Martyn website:

"Regrettably John has been forced to cancel the remaining dates of his Irish Tour due to ill health. If you have a ticket for one of the cancelled gigs please contact the venue. Please accept our sincere apologies. We hope you will join us in wishing John a speedy recovery."

It took some time but I finally got around to adding all material related to Grace & Danger Deluxe Edition. The bonus material is interesting as are the sleevenotes. Also managed to decipher most of the lyrics from the unknown songs.