Concert review
Irvillac, Créac'h Carnel, 15 Jul 1979
Poussière
Irvillac en Bretagne, près de Landerneau, est certainement le festival le plus poussiéreux auquel il m'ait été donné d'assister depuis bien longtemps. Sur ce champ récemment moissonné, à flanc de côteau, on se serait bientôt cru à un moto-cross!
Glastonbury Fair, 23 Jun 1979
Martyn did his usual echo loop trip to great effect and to high applause, and I much preferred him to the super-crowd we wound up with, which consisted of Gabriel plus Alex Harvey, Tom Robinson and Nona Hendryx all jamming, taking it in turn to do each other's numbers (quite a few of Robinson's as I remember) and being hailed as long-lost heroes.
Milano, Teatro di Porta Romana, 14 May 1979
John Martyn
Dalla Lingua
Lunga
London, LSE, 9 Nov 1978
Nothing stunningly new from John Martyn t'other day; but then he's an artist whose folk-jazz-ballad-electronic fusions have run off the mainstream at a timeless tangent.
Melbourne, Dallas Brooks Hall, 19 Jul 1978
His fingers didn't leave his hands
Interview
John Martyn grits his teeth, rocks back on his chair and rolls his guitar across his knee as a wave of sustained notes surges through Dallas Brooks Hall. The scene is Wednesday night's concert. He is playing Inside Out [sic], a stunning combination of virtuosity on amplified acoustic guitar involving the use of Echoplex, wah-wah pedal, stereo projection and lyricism. The concert, a blend of folk, rock and Caribbean influences, was a success.
Canberra, Canberra Theatre, 13 Jul 1978
Martyn stylish but low-key
All the ingredients were there -an extremely talented guitarist and a dedicated audience- but the atmosphere was flat at the John Martyn concert on Thursday night. Martyn is a British guitarist who cannot be classified as a pure folk musician but is an interesting mixture of folk, blues and electrical effects.
Springfield, Civic Center, 5 Apr 1978
Contentment with Clapton
John Martyn opened, and his Echoplexed guitar and woozy vocals made for a strange but uniquely experimental warmup act.
Detroit, Cobo Arena, 28 Mar 1978
Clapton's greatness shines
The show was opened by John Martyn, veteran Scottish guitarist who's a favorite of British musicians and practically unknown otherwise.
London, Rainbow Theatre, 21 Nov 1977
John Martyn
RAINBOW
PRESUMABLY, John Martyn, who's been around so long even his most devoted followers must take him for granted, doesn't give a monkey's toss about Making It In A Big Way, but there's still no excuses for the performer's lackadaisical attitude at the Rainbow last Monday.1
That the gig was still enjoyable, if hardly stimulating and occasionally dull (when Martyn, augmented by electric back-up, failed to extract any inspiration from his musicians on several pieces of rifferama), is a measure of Martyn's talent rather than his personality.
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