Live At The Cambridge Folk Festival (1985)

BBC In Concert
22 Feb 1986

55 minutes.
Recording of 27 July 1985 Cambridge Folk Festival band show.

Well recorded electric band performance with an enthousiastic audience. John seems to overdo the Strangled Duck a bit (Mad Dog Days), which he must have recently discovered.

Pete Drummond's intro:

"Hello this is Pete Drummond, welcoming you to this week's In Concert. Now for the next hour, we are going to hear the set performed at last year's Cambridge Folk Festival, by the band led by that superb singer and songwriter, John Martyn."

Track Listing:

nr track time comment
01 Johnny Too Bad [6:30] John: "Thank you most sincerely. This is a song written by Johnny and the Shootouts, Jamaica 1964. We've got to rush, no time. Come on baby."
02 Sweet Little Mystery [5:57] John: "We are not talking too much, because there isn't enough time for rapping, as simple as that." Good bass solo.
03 Big Muff [5:24] Uptempo version
04 Solid Air [7:53] Interesting take
05 Easy Blues [2:57] Acoustic. John: "A song written by a black American, long time ago, a twelve bar blues, just to see if I can still play one of these wooden things... I hear they're all a rage around here!"
06 May You Never [4:09] Acoustic
07 Mad Dog Days [7:00]  
08 Fisherman's Dream [4:50]  
09 Dealer/ Outside In [9:57] (3:10/ 6:47) Band introduction

Line-up
Foster Paterson (keyboards)
Danny Cummings (percussion)
Alan Thomson (bass).
Or like John puts it:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present to you on percussion, mister Daniel Cummings. He bangs things all the time, there's no stopping him. On the fretless basso profundo, from Glasgow, mister Alan Thomson. On the basic keyboards of all descriptions banging equally, mister Foster Paterson."

This recording was officially released 1 December 2003 as Live In Concert at the Cambridge Folk Festival.

Credits: 
Introduction: Pete Drummond