Happy John Martyn day first of all. John would have turned 65 today.
There are plenty of presents available this year. The sampler Sweet Little Mystery; serving as a warming up for the massive Island Years box set. And as a byproduct the vinyl edition of the 1972 concert Live At The Hanging Lamp.
I have lots of thoughts about these releases but I the main thing is that John's legacy remains available.
The box set contains a lot of interesting material but also quite a bit more of albums we already own in several versions.
We will give it a spin when the ship comes running up the harbour.

The recent massive site upgrade enabled me to incorporate the old guestbook into the website. For visitors this offers considerable improvements.

1. Privacy. Personal e-mail addresses are no longer displayed in public pages.
2. Accessibility. All comments are indexed and have become searchable. With the internal search engine and through external services, too.
3. Usability. It is easier to reply to a comment and both are displayed next to each other.
4. Built-in spam protection. The process of posting comments is moderated. It's the only reliable way, unfortunately.
5. Improved security. The guestbook no longer depends on a script dating from 1995 (first activated here April 2001), but on state of the art CMS-code.

You can find the brand new guestbook here and through the All In Your Favour menu.

Dear God,

It's been four years now and the world nor the music business have become any better.
So please would You give us Big John back. We know You don't like music anyway and the man never meant any harm to anybody.

Over the past years this site has seen many engine upgrades. This time it got a new car... In the background there is a new platform running that is more flexible and future proof than the old one. One thing you might notice is the new location of the search bar. There might be the odd image not being visible any more but on the whole functionality has been preserved. Enjoy and contribute, as always.

This is to wish you all a good new year. Johnwise it is going to be a challenging one.

It is clear from YouTube, Facebook and Twitter response that John's music is still appealing to new fans around the globe. On the other hand CD sales have been in decline for a few years now. Most collectors are looking for rare items in Ebay, and often find vinyl originals that still pop up every now and then. Others download recordings from YouTube or some torrent site. The estate does not make any money from that..

From a business point of view the Tribute Festival of 2012 in Thomastown was not as successful as it should have been. This must have been caused at least partly by the ongoing crisis. So we will look eagerly to this year's plans.

Of course this site will continue to expand. Technically I am preparing for a major -and I mean major- update that requires some heavy lifting. In the mean time you can always stay up to date following the @bigmuffsite Twitter account.

Keep spreading the news: John Martyn deserves it. Both in Heaven as it is on Earth.

Will you still hear me
Will you still miss me
When I'm 64

Happy anniversary John wherever you are.