09 Jan 2021
This poster reminded me of the fun people used to have at the John Martyn gatherings in the North. After one year of isolation and cancellations, it really feels like we are missing something here. My wife and I have excellent memories of the Januari meetings in the Clutha and we were planning to come to Yorkshire in June. But all that went under in the corona waves and subsequent lockdowns.
We had come, most of us, to pay homage to and enjoy the results of a 26-year career, spanning 21 albums.
John is filmed and interviewed during the recording of Sapphire, at Compass Point studios, Nassau, Bahamas
"The first one's for you," John Martyn told the capacity audience at Her Majesty's Theatre on Tuesday as he ripped into a song which has become almost his signature tune, May You Never.
01 Aug 1979
Welcome… at last, to Northern Ireland's first major folk festival!
01 Dec 1977
I once saw a girl absolutely cream some poor bastard with a John Martyn record. He'd whispered some lewd suggestion in her ear and she just whipped around and gave him a tremendous shot in the temple with a copy of So Far So Good.
Nothing stunningly new from John Martyn t'other day; but then he's an artist whose folk-jazz-ballad-electronic fusions have run off the mainstream at a timeless tangent.
The program (36 pages) consists of the booklet that accompanied the Piece by piece box set, but has 14 pages extra with mainly tour information and adverts. It also features an album discography. The Brendan Quayle piece is essential reading; the story has been recycled on several CD liner notes, especially of the Serendipity sampler. But this version is longer and has some quotes about the Danny Thompson era that apparently were censored later on.
John Martyn's Grace & Danger (Island L37469) is a polished, atmospheric album that steps lightly between rock, jazz and Caribbean rhythms.
Exactly when it was that Martyn's vocal became a slurred growl with built-in elasticity is open to debate.
Interview
Lo sguardo furbo da ragazzo indomabile, malgrado i suoi 37 anni, rivela subito il carattere simpaticissimo di vivace conversatore.
È pronto a parlare di qualsiasi argomento con una verve tutta scozzese e improvvisi guizzi mimici, eppure si definisce «un pessimo attore, non potrei mai funzionare nei video».
John Martyn gamely moans, grimaces and jokes through his set to widespread indifference, weaving long, serene workouts which seem to drift on past the lifespans of most of the smaller arthropods.
Arts+Books section
Favourite new film
Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. I think Johnny Depp is particularly funny in it.
De Schotse zanger-songschrijver en gitarist John Martyn (33) behoort tot het zeldzame slag musici, dat, anders dan zijn leeftijdgenoten, niet in het vak vergrijst, maar aan zijn muzikale carrière voortdurend weer een onverwachte wending weet te geven.
Maybe I can't accept Martyn as a rocker.
