Fifth Gathering this June..

05 May 2018

posterFor the fifth time in succession, the John Martyn Summer Gathering is to be held in Yorkshire. This is a non-profit event that stretches out over the entire weekend of the 22nd, 23rd and 24th of June. Various performing artists have been contracted but one can also expect guitar enthousiasts having workshops (so you can finally work out those tunings). Several people visiting actually knew John so it will prove to be both interesting and amusing. The venue in Hackforth Village is not very big so places are limited and so is the budget. All work is put in voluntarily. So if you have no plans for the weekend or you happen to be in the neighbourhood, this is your chance to meet some cool people. There are folks coming in from the USA, Canada, Switzerland, France and Australia this year.

Artists
Names on the poster are Rory Butler, Katie Spencer and Foster Paterson (yes, the one). Also Nick Ellis, Jon Evans Coley, Seafoam Green, Grace & Danger, The Gnomes.
Seafoam Green and Nick Ellis appear on the Friday night.
Rory Butler, The Gomes and Jon Evans Coley are scheduled for Saturday.
Sundays guest opening slot will be Grace and Danger, featuring Johns nephews... Katie Spencer and special guest Foss Paterson, will be closing the gathering on Sunday evening.

Tickets
Ticket price is £30 for the weekend; day tickets are £15.
Tickets can be purchased via Martin Byrne. Payable through bank transfer but the man also has PayPal.
And of course at the venue during the weekend itself. More information can be obtained on Facebook at the John Martyn Group.

Syd Kitchen: Scars That Shine

01 Feb 2017

Donvé Lee
Tracey McDonald Publishers, Johannesburg, South Africa 2017 | ISBN 978-0-620-70993-4

cover
Front cover photograph © Miguel Capelo

Syd Kitchen (1951-2011) was a South African singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet. He made a contribution to the Johnny Boy Would Love This tribute album by covering Fine Lines – one of the last musical adventures of his life. His biography Scars That Shine appeared six years later. Author Donvé Lee had promised Syd to write his life's story many years before he passed away. But she only got around doing it after his death. So we have a rather unique document here: a biography that sounds like an autobiography. Thanks to extensive research Donvé pulled it off: "It's not often you come across an autobiography that isn’t written by the subject, but Lee went out on a creative limb and, writing in first person, succeeded in capturing Syd in his own voice".

The almost final chapter is dedicated to the John Martyn tribute project and is reproduced here with permission of the author. The book got excellent reviews and is for sale on Amazon as an e-book. It is well worth a read, as there are many similarities between John's career and Syd's.

Related to: 
Johnny Boy Would Love This - A Tribute To John Martyn

Background Interview

10 May 2004

John Neil Munro
Unpublished

This is a transcription of a cassette tape from an interview conducted in the Bay Horse pub in Glasgow. It was used for the biography Some People Are Crazy by John Neil Munro so some quotes may sound familiar. John was interviewed several times; this occasion was after the release of On The Cobbles (April 2004) and before the concert in the Royal Concert Hall of 10 May 2004.

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