John Martyn, on n'a pas tellement l'occasion de le rencontrer. Il était cependant programmé au Bus Palladium, mais le concert a été annulé à la dernière minute. Et puis, oh surprise, on a appris qu'il était quand même à Paris, pour donner quelques interviews...

THE release of One World, coupled with John Martyn's second appearance in Nottingham this year, seemed good reason to renew a slight acquaintance with the man, by the way of an interview for this tome. Tempting as it is to devote the music pages' entire space to Mr Martyn, discretion prevails, so what follows is a match-of-the-day edited highlights, with commentary left to a minimum.

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.

Only six weeks or so gone, and already it looks as if 1977 is going to be a cracker of a year for rock music! In the month of January alone we had superb albums from Spirit and David Bowie plus the exceptional music of Ry Cooder and his band at the Hammersmith Odeon, and February promises long-awaited albums from Neil Young and Roy Harper, with the latter about to return to the road with his new band Chips.