Front Row With Danny Thompson
01 Feb 2008
Danny wants his mate back.
01 Feb 2008
Danny wants his mate back.
It's July, 1973. John Martyn, one of the young princes of the flourishing British folk scene, is hurtling in a new direction.
01 Dec 2007
Words Ciarán Tracey
Second episode of Scotland's Music aired 10 November 2007. John performs Hurt In Your Heart in the studio live, with band member Foster Paterson, Alan Thomson and Arran Ahmun.
11 Oct 2007
Generally considered the most authorative biography up to date.
The hardback cover originally cost £14.99 and was published by Polygon (Birlinn Limited, Edinburgh).
01 Oct 2007
BACK in 1977, when everyone who had any musical nous was pledging their allegiance to punk and ska bands, I used to spend days on end staring at the smoke-stained walls of a shabby one-bedroom flat in Lyne Street, Edinburgh, with a few close friends. The soundtrack for those long sessions was invariably John Martyn's gentle, beguiling music. Young and naïve, we thought that any man who wrote classic dope-fuelled anthems like Solid Air, One World and Bless The Weather must be a "really, really nice guy".
John Martyn may have to be wheeled on since the removal of the lower part of one leg, but he remains as animated as he ever.
Like several Island acts of the early 70s (Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, etc), Martyn was given a fairly loose roaming brief.
(Island) * * * *
FANS will know that the only predictable thing about John Martyn is his unpredictability. His live performances can touch the heights, and sometimes just bumble along.
Although his voice occasionally isn't at its best on a couple of songs in these sessions, recorded in Paris and London over a 10-year period 1, there are plenty of good (and now and then great) moments that more than compensate.
When Solid Air came out, to huge critical acclaim and the delight of fans, John Martyn was a slim, softly-spoken man in his mid-20s, with a halo of curls and bumfluffy beard. He was a folky-hippie with a jazzy-reggae bent and ardent fan base.