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

Happy anniversary John wherever you are.

The second John Martyn Tribute Festival to be held at Thomastown the weekend of 15 and 16 September promises to be a highly interesting event. Organiser Eva Lynch has been quite busy putting names and places together. The program stretches over three days and tickets (25 euro) are available online through ticketmaster here. My advice is to buy a weekend ticket in Ireland for 40 euro; in this way you save 10 euro and you get a lot more fun. There are free concerts too in various places.

Like last year, two tribute festivals are organised this year to commemorate John's birthday. The first one is in Lanarkshire, Scotland, where John lived for many years. Saturday 15th September, the John Martyn Tribute Night is held from 19:00 to 23:30 hours at the New Lanark World Heritage Site, New Lanark Mills, ML119DB. Tickets are £ 8.00. From the announcement:

"After the huge success of last years tribute evening hosted by some of the finest acts in Lanarkshire we are pleased to announce that the event will be continuing for a 2nd year running and hopefully many more to come. This years event heralds a change of venue to the serene setting of New Lanark's World Heritage Site by the falls of the Clyde; a place where John himself frequented the local haunts many a time and lived near himself in Roberton at the famous Church With One Bell."

So far the following bands are confirmed:
Touchwood
Big Dave & the Gnomes
Jim Duncan (from Biggar)
Peter John (of the John Martyn tribute band "Grace & Danger" from Cwmbran in Wales)
Chris Kilgallon
Little Fire (from Ayrshire).

Tickets are available from: Magnum Sound, Wishaw; Crown Tavern, Lanark; Relish, Carluke; or directly from organiser David Mooney: 0044 (0)78 1828 2511.

Glen Veness has posted another JM at Hastings video, this time from 1992. It starts with John visiting the Lord Nelson pub. Then he plays Big Muff on a free beach concert. With a band, of whom we recognize John Giblin on bass and Spencer Cozens on keyboards. The saxophone player is Jerry Underwood and Jeff Allen plays the drums. It was a charity gig for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. John played Couldn't Love You More and Sweet Little Mystery, too.

The audience (especially the dancing children) are as amusing as the music. The date was a mystery, as with the 1991 Big Muff video. But it now has been established that it took place on Sunday 9th August 1992. One day after a scheduled charity Beach Concert that John missed.

We all know John will not be forgotten by his fans. Some people make an effort to enhance the memory further.

Some people are trying to put a blue plaque above the door of the house John used to live in during the Hampstead period. They are still thinking about which house would be best: Pilgrims Place or Denning Road. Bob Cunningham writes: "There is no rush as the earliest a plaque can be put up is Jan 29th 2019. There is a 10 year gap period. Personally, I think the Blue Plaques are a long lasting tribute to people who lived in London; and JM probably wrote Solid Air while living in Hampstead." So we will have to wait some more.

Jim McKnight, who knew John well, got another idea. He had this plaque made and installed in the Scotia Bar, Glasgow on 18 February 2012. "It is placed under Hamish Imlach's, which has been on the wall since Hamish died, as Hamish was John's mentor." Nice touch.
The Scotia Bar (established 1792) is the oldest pub in Glasgow; 112-114 Stockwell Street.

John passed away three years ago and we still miss him.
Chris Nickson gives a thorough write-up for the occasion published here.