Big Muff

The 40 page booklet contains testimonials by all contributing artists, and track and session details in an exuberant layout. The introduction is written by Island founder Chris Blackwell.

Good musicians are commonplace, good singer and songwriters less so, but a pioneer whose absolute imagination and genius changes the sounds and textures of music forever is rare indeed.

So, Solid Air, then.

The one they always come back to. The unavoidable one. The one with the classics on. In the year of Tubular Bells and The Dark Side Of The Moon, John Martyn released his most cherished album. And then, there's all the stuff that's been said about it: - "A much loved landmark album" - The Rough Guide To Rock; "Afterhours classic" - 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die; "An ocean of tension quivers beneath surface tranquility" - Mojo; "A quiveringly sexy folk record." - Q. It is for many, the very definition of John Martyn. It is Solid Air for which Martyn, when all has been said and done, will be most fondly remembered.

Thirty six years later and it's still perfect!

Emotionally intense and hauntingly beautiful Solid Air encapsulates almost every musical genre with ease and accomplishment. The songs are beautifully crafted fusions of blues, country, folk, jazz and rock with dazzlingly innovative guitar and dreamy evocative vocals from John in a seascape of exquisite flowing musicianship.

"I've tried to get out the way of putting too much shit on people. I can't think of anything I'm really ashamed of. I say that with a degree of incredulity. I got drunk a couple of times. Apart from that, no. It's fairly cool."

For those who saw the original Transatlantic Sessions on BBC or RTE and for whom it has become a hazy legend this DVD release will, we hope, come as something of a relief -proof that memory hasn't been playing tricks- as well as a delight.

The bonus tracks on this release hail from 1977 - the Summer of Punk, no less! The venue is Kennys Castaways, New York, a rock and blues club since 1967 and home over the years to a great swathe of acts ranging from Aerosmith to Yoko Ono, the New York Dolls to Suzanne Vega. We can deduce from JM's between songs banter that this is the first of two sets from June 19th of that year, itself the last of three nights at Kennys for John and the last night of a month long mini tour of Canada and the States. As with the bulk of surviving live Martyn from this era, the tape comes from an amateur source and the sound quality isn't pristine, but these excerpts from a fine and absorbing gig, albeit to a less than full audience (JM had little reputation in the States at this point) easily deserve inclusion here. The setlist is typical of a Martyn concert of the 70's - John, never prolific, had seemingly abandoned test-driving a brace of experimental compositions written since his last studio album, 1974's Sunday's Child (for those remarkable pieces, Dead On Arrival and One For The Road, check our Live At Nottingham 1976 from Voiceprint), and hadn't yet worked up for live performance, or committed to tape, the bundle of songs that would form the backbone of the outstanding One World, which would see release that November.

The July Wakes Festival took place from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th in 1976 during the hottest summer in the UK since records began. For fifteen consecutive days temperatures reached 90°F (32°C) in England and five of those days saw temperatures exceed 95°F.

"I don't like B string," John chuckles at the beginning of a delightful rendition of Solid Air. No Little Boy was released in July 1993 with contributions from Levon Helm of The Band, Phil Collins, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Andy Sheppard amongst others. The journey to produce No Little Boy was fraught with difficulties. John and producer Jim Tullio were working on the album in Chicago when Permanent Records released the session tapes as the album Couldn't Love You More (One World Records OW126CD) without John's knowledge! Naturally he was furious, "I had no idea they were going to release that. They had the tapes and I was in America and when I came back the next thing I knew it was out!" Some of the songs from Couldn't Love You More were omitted, new ones recorded and others remixed! Those that remain were completely overhauled and the end result is an evocatively beautiful, atmospheric and exuberant album, much more recognisable as John Martyn work than Couldn't Love You More.

Every John Martyn gig is a special and unpredictable experience! Even the band doesn't always know what John will do next! John often 'goes with the flow' changing the set list, the tempo of songs, improvising lyrics and guitar solos as he absorbs the electrically charged atmosphere and engages in banter with an appreciative audience.

John Martyn
The Battle Of Medway
July 17 1973

"There's a question mark over whether I'm sober enough to play anything," said John, with a hint of humour and a hint of being mildly pissed off. "There's seems to have been a lot of killing time." He wasn't wrong on the last point, but he was, of course, only teasing on the first.
The late Geoff Harden's Medway Folk Centre in Kent, a weekly affair at Medway's Old Ash Tree pub, had been very lucky to get the man at all - with regulars asking for ages, Geoff had tried in vain to pin down a date. In the event, John, living down the road in Hastings at the time, had finally agreed to come along as a last-minute fill in for somebody else who'd had to cancel at short notice. But Geoff's problems were far from over.